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 conversation about sortition: https://equalitybylot.com/

Sources:
Wikipedia entry on sortition
Aristotle’s Politics
David Graeber – The Democracy Project
Wendy Brown – Undoing the Demos

Further Reading:
Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast episode on sortition
Of By For (an organization working to implement sortition in the U.S.)
Random sample voting (an interesting method of randomly selecting voters)
Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy (using random sampling and democratic deliberation to improve opinion polling)

Support the show

Solarpunk Now! is hosted & produced by Luka Dowell. The solarpunk theme is by Red Keener, with additional music by Gabriel Rivas. You can follow the show on Instagram or Mastodon, and support my work at Buy Me a Coffee. Please join the email list to get notified when a new episode drops. Keep dreaming big, and keep up the good work!

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 solarpunk as a speculative political project.

Sources:
Louis Snyder on the Brothers Grimm and German nationalism
Andrew Dana Hudson – On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk
A Solarpunk Manifesto
Teen Vogue talks Eco-fascism w/ Naomi Klein

Further Reading:
Elvia Wilk – Is Ornamenting Solar Panels a Crime?
Neal Stephenson – Innovation Starvation
David Graeber – On Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit
Appropedia entry on solarpunk

Support the show

Solarpunk Now! is hosted & produced by Luka Dowell. The solarpunk theme is by Red Keener, with additional music by Gabriel Rivas. You can follow the show on Instagram or Mastodon, and support my work at Buy Me a Coffee. Please join the email list to get notified when a new episode drops. Keep dreaming big, and keep up the good work!