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 lot when they organize together, and when they bring their skills and knowledge outside of the academy to benefit their community. In this episode we’ll hear what it takes to get together, get involved, and make change happen as a scientist.

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For show notes and more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @[email protected]

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This episode is about tenants unions, fighting for the right to secure housing in an increasingly precarious world.

Tenants are uniquely situated between socioeconomic inequality and climate change, so a tenants union fights against a wide variety of challenges: harassment and illegal evictions, gentrification, natural disasters, displacement, racism, and more. In this episode, we’ll hear from two tenants unions who have faced unique regional challenges. We’ll see where their struggles overlap, as well as unique obstacles they face and strategies they’ve developed as a result.

Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast

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Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @[email protected]

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This is a collab episode with fellow podcaster Joey 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 Joey’s current research. We cover neoliberalism, capitalist realism, hauntology and ghosts, and all sorts of issues with temporality and imagining the future.

Support Solarpunk Now!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast

The Fire These Times website: https://thefirethesetimes.com/
You can also follow Joey on Twitter and Mastodon, and support his show on Patreon.

For more info about this episode, click here.
Follow me on Twitter: @solarpunkcast
Mastodon: @[email protected]

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The theories of social ecology and social desire provide a rational basis for solarpunk projects of all kinds. This is the second part of my conversation with Chaia Heller, author of The Ecology of Everyday Life. In this episode we bring her theory of the five aspects of social desire to life, showing how this theory unfolds into practice: direct actions, illustrative opposition, building alternative political structures, and beyond!

Check out the Institute for Social Ecology: https://social-ecology.org/wp/
Read Chaia’s book The Ecology of Everyday Life

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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What if we could meet not just our needs, but also our desires, without harming the environment? What if our society and nature actually worked together to strengthen each other? Chaia Heller, author of The Ecology of Everyday Life, explains social ecology and her work developing a philosophy and politics of social desire. Social ecology, starting with the work of Murray Bookchin, envisions a rational society that values both social justice and the environment. Sounds pretty solarpunk to me!

Check out the Institute for Social Ecology: https://social-ecology.org/wp/
Read Chaia’s book The Ecology of Everyday Life

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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Imagining the future isn’t easy, but artist collective Solarpunk Surf Club is here to help. Nick and Max, two members of the group, designed Solarpunk Futures, a card-based tabletop RPG, to break down barriers to radical imagination and strengthen our imaginative capabilities. It’s well-researched, beautifully executed, and ultimately a powerful and versatile tool for imagining a better future. In this episode, we dig into the design process, artistic philosophy, and utopian vision behind Solarpunk Futures.

Get Your Copy of Solarpunk Futures: https://thefuture.wtf/
More from the Solarpunk Surf Club: https://solarpunksurf.club/
Follow @solarpunkclub on Twitter

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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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.tiktok.com/@hydroponictrash
On Substack: https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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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. We also cover the history of the 60s counterculture, which is surprisingly relevant to technology and utopianism today.

Follow Andre on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HydroponicTrash
On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hydroponictrash
On Substack: https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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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 they deserve.

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

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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.

For more info about this episode, click here.
Support my work: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/solarpunkcast
…and be sure to follow Solarpunk Now on Twitter at @solarpunkcast!

Support the show