Solarpunk Presents

Hi! This is the summary of days 41 to 50 where we discuss not wanting to worship nature, natural remedies and skepticism, self promo or pride? Speaking life through stories, being the Avatar, Freudian Slips, ants trying to keep me from cheating on the strike, Instinct Trust, trying my hand at programming, textiles having memory and traumatic experiences, the illusion of choice and the need for a C...

Hi! This is the summary of days 31 to 40 where we discuss the right to land, access to food and water, fair wages, self-censorship and cancel culture, billionaire bosses, my swollen lymph node, reputation economies, alternative currencies and bubbles, rights to life, solar generators, blood, National Housing Trust, Permaculture’s slave problem, weird rituals, and 1.5 to Stay Alive. I’m Aleya, and...

This is the summary of days 21 to 30 of my Carbon Neutral Strike where we discuss eco porn, socialist mental healthcare, becoming someone who can go to work everyday (ish), Climate Sins, and Parseltongue. I’m Aleya, and I founded Fastfrwrd.info. I have been carrying out a Carbon Neutral Strike where I avoid oil, gas and plastic as much as I can. I have been posting daily updates since Earth Day, A...

This is the summary of days 11 to 20 where we discuss Elon Musk’s obscene wealth, scams and the lack of access to payment portals in Jamaica, Direct Democracy possibilities, welfare and leisure, LPG gas in Jamaica and a salad recipe at the end. I’m Aleya, and I founded Fastfrwrd.info. I have been carrying out a Carbon Neutral Strike where I avoid oil, gas and plastic as much as I can. I have been...

Hey Solarpunk Presents listeners, my name is Aleya Jobson. While your regular listening material is on hiatus, I thought I would pop in and provide some material of my own that have accumulated since April 22, 2025. Starting Earth Day 2025 I commenced or recommenced, rather, my Carbon Neutral Strike and Challenge, where at least one choice per day avoids needless oil, gas or plastic. During the pr...

We’re back! (Kind of…) In this episode, Ariel interviews Aleya Jobson about gamifying climate action with the Fastfrwrd website, where people can be rewarded for positive climate actions in their own lives. They also discuss Aleya’s Carbon Neutral Strike: how Aleya started it, how it’s going, and its pros and cons. Starting next week, Aleya will be taking over the feed with reflections on her Carb...

In today’s episode, Ariel chats with Joseph Brannan about sustainability workshop series at the Kitchener Public Library, unionizing library workers, and bringing solarpunk into the sustainability conversation. Links: Everyday Permaculture by Anna Matilda Waterloo Region Nature Building for people : designing livable, affordable, low-carbon communities by Michael Eliason Low Tech Magazine article...

We like to think that a rising tide lifts all boats. But, according to Stanford University historian Dr. Walter Scheidel, wealth and income inequality have almost always only grown drastically toward the maximum level a society can sustain in times of peace and prosperity. Instead, as he outlined in his book The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty...

Cory Doctorow’s 2017 novel Walkaway has a reputation in solarpunk circles as a great example of a solarpunk lifestyle, and a must-read book for everyone from the individual who lives and breathes solarpunk to the solarpunk-curious to general science fiction fans. But what is it about Walkaway that gives it solarpunk cred? Ariel and Christina ponder this, discussing features of the novel that could...

In this episode, Ariel talks with BrightFlame: witch, workshop leader, co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Design at Columbia University, and author of solarpunk witchcraft short stories and now a new novel, called The Working . They discuss what solarpunk witchcraft looks like and how, though witchcraft’s manipulation of energy on the astral plane is extremely important, magic is only one ha...

In this episode, Christina talks to Dr Gabriel Filippelli - one of the first scientists to have a running project canceled by the Trump administration. This fascinating interview reveals just how important internationally and domestically these American grants can be, and Dr Filippelli passionately describes this unprecedented attack on science and education and what we all lose when the work that...

Today Christina talks to Ariel about what it's been like to live as a solarpunk with a visible - and then in visible - disability. Science fiction has spent decades dreaming of how future tech will make disabled people able to function as if they were fully abled. Now solarpunk has arrived on the scene to ask why should disabled bodies have to always be the ones to adapt? It can be uncomfortable,...

This episode, Ariel speaks to Sam Nabi about One Million Neighbours, a project bringing together the voices of local non-profits that envisions the future of Waterloo Region once the population has reached one million. Sam discusses the impetus for the project, providing a voice for the voiceless, the issue with grant applications, funding the future, being proactive instead of reactive to harsh p...

In these dark times of (American) political backsliding/the general rise of fascism in the Global North, Ariel and Christina consider four things that we'd made great progress on, to the point of taking those achievements for granted. Let's take the time to acknowledge them and the danger we are in of losing them. Because how can we fight for what we don't recognize as being incredible yet fragile...

In this episode, Ariel interviews Doug Jones from Waterloo Region Community Garden Network, and he discusses about how the Network was started, what it does, and the benefits of gardening for the health and wellbeing not only for you but for your entire community. We discuss gleaning, food insecurity, access to land, and much more; this is an episode you’re going to want to listen to, especia...

If you meet a Japanese American, depending on their age, it’s a pretty good bet that they, their parents, and/or their grandparents (or great-grandparents) were imprisoned by the US government in so-called internment camps for several years during World War II. Most families lost everything they had built up: farms, homes, businesses, jobs, possessions, and whatever wealth they had accrued. ...

In this episode, Ariel and Christina try to get to the bottom of why our fictional visions of utopia are so negative. They often involve mindless acquiescence to an authoritarian nanny state, the oppression and labor of an underclass, or both. It’s as if we can’t imagine a situation in which we all voluntarily treat each other (reasonably) decently and life can be good for everyone. We discuss the...

Back in summer of 2024, in a bonus chat , Ariel & Christina tackled the question of whether or not hydrogen is a sustainable fuel. In this Season 7 opener, Ariel & Christina tackle the next obvious question: are biofuels any better? Join us while we shatter any dreams you might have had of biofuels being a sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel. As we discovered when we started digging, they do...

S6E10: The Dilemma of Utopian Joy While solarpunks often choose to stand in direct opposition to selfishness, greed, and systemic problems, the choice to be kind and to prioritize joy, sympathy, and understanding is also central to solarpunk in fiction and in real life. As Christina and Ariel discuss, while acts of kindness occur in all sorts of fictions, even cyberpunk and dystopian fictions, act...

Due to personal issues, Christina couldn't take part in the original interview with Andy Gross about the solarpunk role playing game Fully Automated! that made up S6E2. But she had questions. In this episode, she had a chance to ask them. Before you grab your dice and download the game (for free!) at https://fullyautomatedrpg.com/  have a listen! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

Across the USA, the far right candidates have been getting themselves elected to local and county school boards. Their goals include financially choking public schools by diverting government funds toward charter schools, often religious in orientation. Tune in to hear what Dr Sam Myovich, retired history teacher turned school board candidate campaign field coordinator, has to say about what’s at...

Join us for a conversation with Rev. Nora Jacob on a better way to dispense justice than to subject offenders to a strictly brutal prison experience. A way that, by recognizing that hurt people hurt people, aims to empower, not just victims, but also offenders, to heal. This isn’t just showing mercy to incarcerated people, it significantly lowers the chances that they’ll end up back in prison afte...

In this week’s episode, Ariel quizzes guest Dr Tiffany Millacci about emotional literacy. What is this relatively new phrase? How can being emotionally literate help us to navigate difficult conversations, awkward interactions, or even generally just having relationships in the first place? Isn’t all this talk of emotions just a different way for the self-help industry to get us to buy stuff?...

On this episode of the podcast, Ariel chats with Dr Tanis MacDonald about her upcoming course in winter 2025 on hopepunk. What exactly is so punk about this kind of hope? Can hopepunk even be said to be a genre in its own right, or is it an aesthetic or lens that we can use to think through just why the characters are deciding to have hope in bleak situations?  Tune in for recommendations of...

If you’re a no-kill animal shelter or an animal rescue group and you’ve got more rescue animals than kennels to keep them in, or you’ve got dogs or cats with health or behavioral problems that need sorting out to make the beasts adoptable, what are you going to do? You’re going to call an animal fosterer like Rena Curtis to take that animal in, de-traumatize it, teach it some manners, and get its...