Solarpunk Now!

Solarpunk might seem impossible in 2026, but I argue we need it now more than ever. Fill out the survey here to participate in my interview-based solarpunk research project! Join the free Patreon to get email updates when new episodes release. Sources: Andrew Dana Hudson - The Political Dimensions of Solarpunk 10 Years Later S.D. Chrostowska - Utopia in the Age of Survival My research on Solarpunk...

Dr. Wesley Cox, Dr. Dani Haogue, and Zaria Smith all grew up in Altadena, CA. In the wake of the Eaton Fire which destroyed more than half of the city in January 2025, they share their personal stories and how they connect to the wider picture of Black history in Los Angeles, environmental racism, and the struggle for a brighter future. DONATE to Dena Rebuild: https://denarebuild.co/   Mentions/So...

As solarpunks, we have to consider the possibility of collapse. Matthew Azuley–aka EpicTomorrows–introduces us to collapse awareness, a view of the climate crisis which accepts the inevitability of societal collapse on some level. We’ll hear a bit about his forthcoming book, an anthology of global perspectives on collapse, as well as how this view might fit within a solarpunk perspective. Buy the...

In 1995, Dr. Jess Ghannam was one of two psychiatrists for the entire population of the Gaza strip (nearly two million people). The typical Western model of mental health care isn’t equipped to address needs at that scale, especially in a population suffering from multiple generations of ongoing trauma. Jess’s work centers around community mental health, a model that aims to deliver care at scale...

This Earth Month, we’re looking back on the history of environmental radicalism. Brian Tokar is a teacher, activist, and writer who’s been involved in the movements he writes and teaches about since the 70s. We discuss how leftism and environmentalism came together, why ecology matters for the left, and what lessons we can learn from these traditions and put into practice today. References: Brian...

What happens when a solarpunk world is suddenly visited by aliens? Ruthanna Emrys has long been known to the weird fiction community for her reimaginings of H.P. Lovecraft. She writes stories for monsters – stories that challenge the role of the monster as something “other,” something to be feared, something we can’t build social relations with. Her latest novel, A Half Built Garden , begins with...

The editors of Strange Matters Magazine want your reading experience to feel like meeting a grad student friend for coffee. Meaning: they explain the most exciting parts of their research, give you all the hot gossip in their field, skip the jargon and elitism, and still deliver the information in a rigorous manner. Strange Matters is thoughtful yet playful, broad in scope yet deep in its analysis...

To kick off the New Year and a new season of Solarpunk Now, I’m bringing you a conversation with some other creators in the solarpunk space. In June last year, I presented a panel at the Solarpunk Conference alongside Andre of HydroponicTrash, Ariel of the Solarpunk Presents Podcast, and Elia of The Fire These Times podcast. Our panel, From Capitalist Realism to a Solarpunk Reality, discussed the...

AI already poses an immediate danger to our freedom, livelihood, and even our very survival. We don’t need to wait on the singularity for AI to become existential – the resistance starts now. A conversation with Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths Department of Computing). Find Dan on Twitter , Mastodon , or visit his website Sources: Dan’s book – Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelli...

AJ is a fashion designer who focuses on making accessible fashion: clothing for diverse bodies, abilities, and genders. His online store–Pocketbean Crafts–sells magical and accessible fashion. He also has a nonprofit, Queering the Spotlight, which provides accessible fashion opportunities for artists and models. There are a lot of issues with the fashion industry: from labor rights, to a huge carb...

Measure H was a ballot initiative in the 2022 election in Pasadena, CA (a city in Los Angeles County). The measure–now Article 18 of the city charter–established citywide rent control, “just cause” eviction protections, and a rental housing board to implement the law. On average, Pasadena is more economically unequal than California, as well as the United States as a whole. Histories of this inequ...

Bee Rooney is both a scientist and a socialist. She got her PhD in environmental engineering and science at Caltech (Pasadena, CA), and now organizes with the Socialists of Caltech and Pasadena Tenants Union. Bee shares her insights on balancing the demands of research and activism. We also discuss her work in relation to climate, public health, and building a solarpunk future. Scientists can do a...

Last summer, tenant organizers from all over North America came together in Los Angeles for the 2022 Autonomous Tenants Union Network Conference. The conversations in this episode were recorded with permission live at the conference. Tenants are uniquely situated between socioeconomic inequality and climate change, so a tenants union fights against a wide variety of challenges: harassment and ille...

This is a collab episode with fellow podcaster Elia Ayoub of The Fire These Times. We talk in detail about the research I was doing before I started my show, as well as how it connects to Elia’s current research. We cover neoliberalism, capitalist realism, hauntology and ghosts, and all sorts of issues with temporality and imagining the future. Fun fact, The Fire These Times was actually the podca...

When it comes to doing our part to “save the environment”, we’re often limited to making superficial choices as consumers. Choices which don’t do much, if at all, to preserve or improve the health of our planet. What if we had a real choice? What if our ways of life–from basic needs to our deepest desires–were aligned with ecology, rather than in tension with it? In this episode I sit down with Ch...

We need to change our very understanding of nature. Or more specifically, our relationship with nature. We need to see it not as something to exploit, or restrain ourselves from exploiting, but rather as a continuation of ourselves. We desire a world where our choices don’t feel like choosing the lesser of environmental evils–where we can fully enjoy our lives without destroying a river or a rainf...

Imagining the future isn’t easy, especially when we’re constantly told that our demands for freedom, justice, and societal transformation are unrealistic. While theorists have pointed out the importance of developing a radical imagination, it can be hard to know where to start. Solarpunk Surf Club is “an artist collective that creates and curates egalitarian platforms for surfing the waves of stil...

Andre–aka HydroponicTrash–is a hacker, gardener, organizer, and all-around solarpunk. In this episode we discuss technology: as an industry, as a cultural phenomenon, and as a potential method of liberation. This takes us back to the 60s counterculture, which had a big influence on the early development of the internet, and the neoliberal turn of the 70s and beyond, which played its own major role...

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Andre–hacker, gardener, organizer, and all-around solarpunk. In this episode we continue our discussion of historical social movements, then talk about how to build power and organize your community in the 21st century. The secret? A little something called Acid Communism. Follow Andre on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HydroponicTrash On TikTok: https://www.tik...

Sarah is an addiction counselor at a nonprofit agency in California. Her agency offers a wide range of services, both inpatient and outpatient, and they primarily serve low-income clients with publicly funded health insurance. In this episode we discuss: the structural barriers her clients face, encouraging developments in addiction treatment, and a vision for a future where everyone gets the care...

Matthew Gray is a computer science researcher and history buff passionate about sortition, a method of allocating public offices by lot rather than by election. In this episode we explore the potential benefits of sortition, and Matthew explains the computer science that could make it work securely and efficiently at the national level. Matthew’s writings on sortition Matthew’s website Join the co...

Why do certain futurist aesthetics appeal over others? What does art have to say about our political goals, or about the psychological landscape of our world today? Art can be speculative: posing questions and potential answers about how things could be, or should be, in the future. In this inaugurative episode of Solarpunk Now, I show how art and politics intertwine, and make the case for solarpu...