Radio Utopistan

The people of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon are protecting their territory in a very special way. They call it Kawsak Sacha, the living forest. It grows on land under which there is a lot of oil, like in many parts of The Amazon.

Helena Gualinga is one of them. She is 20 years old and her way of fighting consists of photo shoots for lifestyle magazines, of traveling to international climate conferences and of dancing with her friends and family at traditional ceremonies. About 75.000 people watch her doing this on her Instagram channel. I had the honor of talking and dancing with her.

Kawsak Sacha, the living forest, means the forest is considered a living being and humans are just a part of this living organism. But a crucial one. Animals, plants and even spirits live in community with each other. To protect and nourish this community the people of Sarayaku developed a sophisticated system of values, rituals and responsibilities. With medicinal plants, small scale farming, with drones, maps, excel sheets and with a frontier planted out of flower trees.

Helena tells us what challenges she faces when trying to explain this concept to the outer world and what role the women played in a land mark court ruling against the state of Ecuador and an oil company.

Her Utopia: That oil will not be exploited anymore anywhere

What you can do to support it, she says: Tell their stories. We need more people watching. That‘s something that they are scared of: People watching what they are doing.

GUEST
@helenagualinga

CREDITS
Host: @elisabeth_weydt
Executive producers: @_charlotte.horn and @christinafeemoebus
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Studio Sound: @seike_sound

MORE INFORMATION
*On Sarayaku and Kawsak Sacha:
Kawsak Sacha - Selva Viviente - Living Forest
Back to nature: the story of one family’s retreat into the Amazon forest to escape Covid | Environment | The Guardian

*On Nature Rights + Indigenous People
Ecuador Court Gives Indigenous Groups a Boost in Mining and Drilling Disputes - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples’ Sustainability | DISD

*Climate and Biodiversity
IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster | Climate crisis | The Guardian
2021: when the link between the climate and biodiversity crises became clear | Max Benato | The Guardian

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

The problem we tackle in the first episode of our second season is huge and it is everywhere:

CONCRETE

It is the most widely used substance on the planet after water! And it obviously works: The Pantheon in Italy was built out of Roman concrete almost 2000 years ago and still standing.

But it’s destroying nature big times: Eight percent of all carbon dioxide in the world comes from producing concrete. That’s more than double than those from flying or shipping.

To produce it you need a lot of energy and a lot of sand. So much that we are running out of sand on this planet. And the water! And the people driven away form their land to mine cement, and all the ugly buildings and deadly walls and boarders built out of it, and, and, and. BUT we focus on the solutions and Utopias here. And we have indeed found quite some:

*alternative building materials like clay, wood, bamboo
* reusing building materials
* recycling concrete
* producing concrete with a carbon capture and storage method
* alternative housing concepts where people share space, tasks and ressources


CREDITS
Host: @elisabeth_weydt
Executive producers: @_charlotte.horn and @christinafeemoebus
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/

GUEST
https://www.ahinterbrandner.com/
@ahinterbrandner

PEOPLE + GROUPS WORKING ON SOLUTIONS
Recycling Stones:
https://www.stonecycling.com/wastebasedbricks
Circular Construction Lab:
http://ccl.aap.cornell.edu/
Architects for future
https://www.architects4future.de/
Studio Almeria ETH Zürich
https://youtu.be/rhRdVEEL1A4
Copenhagen wants to get climate neutral by 2025, also with alternative building
https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/node/5

MORE INFORMATION
On Clay:
https://www.dw.com/en/could-clay-be-the-key-to-sustainable-architecture/a-58577273
On reusing building materials:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv2n

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

We’ll visit the forensic institute of Guerrero to look for a missing son, we see if Padre Fili can establish a side hustle with a Mezcal brewer for his human rights organization Centro Minerva Bello. We learn about the connection of the violence in Guerrero to drug trafficking in the US and about the connection of illegally exported weapons from Germany to the missing 43. And Padre Fili will reveal his secret: how to talk to Narcos.

Along the way we will talk to Guadeloupe the psychologist and Hegel the human rights lawyer in Fili’s team.

Guadeloupe says: I love working with kids because kids are still shape-able, they are so innocent. All they give to you in their being is pure, no filter. Adults often have their way of living and their world view. They don’t want to change much she says even though they are suffering. With kids it’s easier to help them have a better live.

Hegel says: Of course I cannot solve the problem of the violence here. It’s way to huge. I don’t have the power to do anything close to solving the problem. The only thing I can do is defending human rights for the people I work with. This is better than to stay silent and become complicit. And who knows one day I will become a victim of the violence here or somebody from my family and then I hope somebody is doing the same for me.

And you? What do you say? Tell us! We are really curious: [email protected] or @radio_utopistan


CREDITS
Executive producers: @_charlotte.horn and @christinafeemoebus
Host: @elisabeth_weydt
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Illustration: Christine Anas https://cargocollective.com/christineanas

SUPPORT FILI’s ORGANISATION
https://www.dhminervabello.org/
@cdhminervabello

SUPPORT RADIO UTOPISTAN
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37500274
https://radioutopistan.de/

MORE INFORMATION
https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/10/12/what-really-happened-to-the-43-missing-students-from-ayotzinapa/
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/20/mexico-violence-gangs-cartels-criminal-elections
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/jalisco-cartel-mexico-rise-guadalajara
https://www.bpb.de/internationales/weltweit/innerstaatliche-konflikte/54652/mexiko
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/07/1003872834/drug-traffickers-gangs-blamed-for-violence-prior-to-mexicos-elections
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5fvNLTTXbXniQBNlAo6vjW?si=Ag2yd4p5Rh6OV1_r58j2Jg&utm_source=whatsapp&nd=1

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

We are in the field again for this episode: In the drug strongholds of Mexico, the violence is unimaginable and the justice system overwhelmed or even involved. Less than two percent of crimes are solved.

Padre Fili disrupts the system. He spreads peace, joy and vanilla cream cake. In 2014 he set up camp in Ayotzinapa, where the 43 students disappeared. They were on their way to a demonstration, their buses were stopped and shot at by the police. Illegally supplied weapons from Germany were used.

Fili’s mission: to create dialogues between everybody involved: the Narcos, the police, politicians, students and victims. “To talk to the wolves, that’s my job”, he says. He has seen the Netflix series about the Narcos and they made him laugh he says. Spending a week with him in Guerrero made me laugh many times even though all I felt like was crying and hating all humankind. So much cruelty.

Fili’s Utopia: a world without suffering. Especially for the most vulnerable: the children and the poor, the elderly, the sick. That they will always have someone who cares for them, for their lives.

CREDITS
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Illustration: Christine Anas https://cargocollective.com/christineanas
Proofreading: Gavin Steingo @gstarrrrr
Host: www.elisabethweydt.de

SUPPORT FILI’s ORGANISATION
https://www.dhminervabello.org/
@cdhminervabello

SUPPORT RADIO UTOPISTAN
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37500274
https://radioutopistan.de/

MORE INFORMATION
https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-finally-know-how-43-ayotzinapa-students-on-a-bus-vanished-into-thin-air?ref=scroll
https://mexicodailypost.com/2021/10/12/what-really-happened-to-the-43-missing-students-from-ayotzinapa/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

We know there is way too much plastic in our world. And we produce and use more and more every day. It’s destroying ecosystems in the ocean and on land, our basis for life.

In the Mexican Caribbean Antonio and Alberto play Don Quichotte every Sunday morning at 7am to fight against the windmills of plastic on our planet. They pick up the trash that came with the ocean or with careless visitors. On different beaches along the Riviera Maya south of Cancun or in the waves off the coast. They are part of the initiative @snorkeling4trash.

Their Utopia: To create a culture where more and more people use less and less plastic and take care of the rubbish they produce.

In a German laboratory an on research vessels and boats around the world Mark Lenz from Geomar is doing research on plastic and ocean ecosystems. He says, beach cleanups are nice initiatives to make people aware of the problem. The solution he sees on a more structural level: better recycling systems, more taxes on plastic production.

His Utopia: A world that is more balanced between the interests of humans and aspects of ocean conservation, sustainable use of resources and protecting the climate

First half of this episode: Collecting plastic and talking to Antonio und Alberto in Playa del Carmen
Second half (28:30min): Interview with Mark Lenz

CONTACTS
@snorkeling4trash
https://www.geomar.de/mlenz
www.radioutopistan.de

SOURCES
Research Programs Geomar:
GAME: https://www.geomar.de/en/research/fb3/fb3-eoe-b/game/game-about-game
HOTMIC: https://www.oceanblogs.org/hotmic/about/
On Coca Cola:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/resources/apply/global-commitment-progress-report
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainable-business/packaging-sustainability

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

Happy New Year! What is your Utopia? For the very first episode of the new year we asked musicians from around the world to answer us this very question not with words but with music. Because music sometimes is the only language left. It can articulate feelings, complexity and even politics in a way language will never be able to do. We got some musical answers from the Altai mountains, from the capital of DR Congo, from Spanish Berlin and Arabic Berlin. From the green hills of England, the streets of Moscow and the Caribbean.

Check them out and tell us which ones resonate mostly with you? And why?

Those are the musicians and their songs. We’ll have more about them within the next days. The order was picked by the wisdom fairy:

1. Alisa Ten: Pudelko // @alisa_ten_singer
2. Jenni Grossmann: Hindsight //
3. Jamila and the other Heros: Farashat // @jamilaandtheotherheros
4. Doug Morris: Smile //
5. Evgeniy Shteinmiller: Nochenka - The night //
6. Mergen Teldenov: Maktap Ayttan Törölim Bar // @mergenteldenov
7. Viktor Garagulya: First Picture of African Dancers // @garagulyamusic
8. Mauretta Heinzelmann & friends: Utopia Sound // fb: Mauretta Heinzelmann
9. Kollektiv Elongo: Afrika // @kollektivelongo
10. Aáron Castrillo // @aacastrillo
11. Volki & Wilfried: Reggae for Utopistan //

CREDITS
Radio Utopistan Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Radio Utopistan: https://radioutopistan.de/
Host: www.elisabethweydt.de

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

Exit Part I is about stories, Exit Part II about facts and strategies.

Fabian Wichmann grew up with Nazis in his schoolyard. Today he is working for Exit, an organization that helps people get out of extremist circles. His Utopia: To see that people can change. That is the biggest narrative in a democracy, he says. People can come back into society.

Fabian gives some hands on strategies of what to do about extremism and racism within your neighborhood or family. He is telling the story of the first involuntary charity march where Nazis marched against Nazis. It went viral and was copied in Sweden and the US for example.

We talk about what media could do and why there are so many stories about the perpetrators and just really few stories about the victims of terror attacks.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

Part one is about stories, part two about facts and strategies. We’ll meet a Nazi-whisperer, an ex-Nazi, and a Nazi-target.

Tülüfülükülümülü is a writer and actor, son of a guest working cleaning lady and a guest working taxi driver. He grew up in Bavaria and learned the hard way. His Utopia is that people don’t try the easy way in life. You can’t find easy answers to really difficult questions, he says. Who are you in a room for 24 hours without internet?, for example.

Fabian grew up with Nazis in his schoolyard. Today he is working for Exit, an organization that helps people get out of extremist circles. His Utopia: To see that people can change. That is the biggest narrative in a democracy. People can come back to society.

The Ex-Nazi didn’t give his name, but you can hear his words of how he got into this and why he left extremism. Curious what you think of them.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

Kübra (32) is an author and activist in Hamburg, Germany. She just published her first book, “Language and Being”. On the interdependence of language, perception and the way we treat each other. A broad and ancient topic, but Kübra found a way to talk about it that resonates with many. It’s a bestseller allready, maybe because she speaks and lives in three languages: German, Turkish and English.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kübra’s Utopia: It’s still under construction, for her next book. We get a sneak peek. It’s about political discourse.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We talk about conflicting truths, about stones with souls, mushrooms and Muslim women. And about public attention and relevance.

CREDITS
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Illustration: Christine Anas https://cargocollective.com/christineanas
Proofreading: Cecilia Marshall @cece0126
Host: www.elisabethweydt.de

KÜBRA GÜMÜSAY
@kuebra
https://kubragumusay.com/
@eedenhamburg

SUPPORT RADIO UTOPISTAN
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37500274

MORE INFORMATION

Kübra’s TED Talk about the intellectual cleaning lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXgp6E53TIE

Story on Quecha fighting patriarchy and climate crisis in the Peruvian Andes:
http://english.ackerbunt.de/

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe

Melinda (58) is a lawyer and environmental activist in Guyana, South America. The poor country wants to get very very rich – with oil. One of the largest oil discoveries in recent years was made off the coast of Guyana. Melinda says, we are rich already. We are a carbon sink, look at all the nature. So she is fighting with her government, with the World Bank and with one of the biggest oil companies in the world.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Melinda’s Utopia: the oil shall not be taken out. She sued her government.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We talk about money, frogs and what to do when everything seems to be going to the gutter.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
SUPPORT RADIO UTOPISTAN
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37500274
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
CREDITS
Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/
Illustration: Christine Anas https://cargocollective.com/christineanas
Proofreading: Fanny Facsar @fanny.facsar
Voice: Julian Greis https://www.thalia-theater.de/ueber-uns/ensemble/darsteller/julian-greis
Host: www.elisabethweydt.de

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit radioutopistan.substack.com/subscribe