Bright Green Futures Podcast

Hello Friends! This episode, we’re going to talk about how to exercise our imaginations to envision better futures, whether we’re writers or not, and how that’s a vital tool in our climate solutions toolkit. LINKS Ep. 13: Envisioning the Future: Exercising Our Imagination Seven Sisters by Susan Kaye Quinn Climate Imaginarium , Governor’s Island NYC Fascism and the Failure of Imagination video by Z...

Hello friends! In this episode, I chat with Grist Editor Tory Stephens about Imagine 2200, Grist’s hopeful climate fiction contest, and how envisioning the future is an important climate solution. LINKS Ep. 12: Building Movement Through Hopeful Climate Fiction with Editor Tory Stephens * Grist (Climate. Justice. Solutions), a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories o...

Hello Friends! This episode, we’re going to dive into solarpunk. I often use solarpunk and hopeful climate fiction interchangeably, but solarpunk is also an in-real-life movement and lifestyle. Today we’ll talk about both and how imagining a different world is key to all of it. LINKS Ep. 11: All About Solarpunk: Literature and Movement * Dear Alice , Chobani solarpunk yogurt commercial * Tech Won’...

Hello friends! In this episode, I chat with writer Ana Sun about her stories that examine adaptation in the climate crisis. LINKS Ep. 10: Adaptation in Climate Fiction with Writer Ana Sun * Soul Noodles by Ana Sun ( The Bright Mirror: Global Solarpunk by Women anthology) * Night Fowls by Ana Sun ( Solarpunk Creatures anthology) * Dandelion Brew by Ana Sun (DreamForge) * Write the Future You Want T...

Hello Friends! Today we’re going to talk about how non-fiction and fiction work together to help us envision a better world. LINKS Ep. 9: How to Build a Good Anthropocene * Ministry for the Future , Kim Stanley Robinson * The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh * Seeds of a Good Anthropocene website * Taryn O’Neill, producer of Scirens * Youtube trailer: “The Assignment” * The Climate Action Almanac...

Hello friends! In this episode, I chat with writer and activist Jamie Liu about her award-winning climate-fiction story about loneliness, connection, and resilience. LINKS Ep. 8: Loneliness, Connection, and Resilience, In Conversation with Writer and Activist Jamie Liu * To Labor for the Hive by Jamie Liu ( 2024 winner, Grist Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors) * GRIST Looking Forw...

Hello Friends! Today we’re going to dig into climate fiction’s place in the larger climate struggle and how understanding activism and movement building can help us to portray in fiction how change really works. LINKS Ep. 7: Climate Fiction in the Larger Climate Movement Sustainability Salon page, hosted by Maren Cooke Sustainability Salon: Hope is a Plant You Can Care For or Kill (Aug 2023) (Susa...

Hello friends! In this episode, I chat with Renan Bernardo about how grief weaves through many of his stories, but that, for him, writing solarpunk means bringing readers from those dark depths to a brighter place. LINKS Ep. 6: Exploring Grief in Climate Ficiton with Author Renan Bernardo * Virtual Author Panel on Hopepunk (Susan Kaye Quinn, T.K. Rex, Renan Bernardo, Brianna Castognozzi, Watertown...

Hello Friends! Today we’re going to talk about the connection between the structure of stories and how we think about the climate. LINKS Ep. 5: Structure in Climate Storytelling * The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh * Ministry for the Future , Kim Stanley Robinson * Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger * Nothing is Promised series by Susan Kaye Quinn * Halfway to Better by Susan Kaye Quinn * Eddie...

Hello Friends! In this episode, I chat with Danielle Arostegui about her policy work for the Environmental Defense Fund, working at a Congressional thinktank to help pass the Inflation Reduction Act, and then deciding that writing climate fiction was where she wanted to take the fight next. LINKS Ep. 4: From Scientist to Author, In Conversation with Danielle Arostegui Solarpunk Drabble by Danielle...

Hello Friends! Today we’re going to talk about the connection between climate fiction and climate action in the real world. LINKS Ep. 3: Climate Fiction to Climate Action The two stories I discuss in this pod are part of a collection called Halfway to Better, which is available for preorder and releases on Earth Day, April 22nd. The individual stories are free to read—I hope you’ll download them a...

Hello Friends! In this episode, I chat with author T.K. Rex about her solarpunk stories, including one where we’re talking to dolphins! We discuss how communicating with the non-human can open up our perspective about the changing climate and how the interface between ourselves and nature (and technology) needs to change.  LINKS Ep. 2: Chatting with Dolphins (and author T.K. Rex) * A Lot Full of W...

Hello Friends! Bright Green Futures lifts up stories about a more sustainable and just world and to talk about the struggle to get there. In the first episode, I talk about why we even need a podcast/newsletter like this. Why new stories are key to building a better world. LINKS Ep. 1: Stories to Build a Better World * Seven Sisters by Susan Kaye Quinn (also in German ) * Holdout in the Northern C...