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, acts of kindness in solarpunk stories tend to be transformative, especially for the person or group on the receiving end. They then explore the sacrifices that it takes (and who has to make them) in order to maintain peace, prosperity, and joy in society by two famous solarpunk–adjacent stories set in utopias, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin and “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” by N.K. Jemisin. Christina is not sure if she’s on board for either of these stories, but she agrees with the premise that now is the time not to walk away in disillusionment, but to fight hard for human rights, justice, and fairness in all of our different political systems and societies.

Links:

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

The Ones Who Stay and Fight

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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!

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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 stake, the far right’s deployment of fascist tactics in their fight to destroy public education, and what we ordinary citizens can do to fight back against them, save our schools, and protect our very democracy itself.

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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 after their release. That's a win for us all.

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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? 

Join us for a fascinating conversation about a complex topic - we barely skim the surface! But never fear, Dr Millacci has your back; listen in for some good places to start learning more.

Links:

• Dr Millacci's author profile on positivepsychology.com
• Emotional literacy in the context of applying it to relationships
• Emotional literacy vs emotional maturity

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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 hopepunk novels (and poetry!), ruminations on political hope, the centrality of relationships and radical empathy to these stories, and more. Plus some academic theories informing the formulations of hope, of course. 

Links:

• Tanis MacDonald | Author of Straggle: Adventures in Walking While Female
• Watershed Writers with Tanis MacDonald | Podcast on Spotify
• Hopepunk, explained: the storytelling trend that weaponizes optimism | Vox
• Companion Species Manifesto
• The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
• S2.9 Reframing Narratives With Ecocriticism, With Dr Jenny Kerber

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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 health problems sorted out so it can go a-courtin’ its forever people. Tune in as we discuss this hard, sometimes frightening, occasionally heart-wrenching, but ultimately satisfying work, why there are so many more dogs and cats than homes to put them in, and what we can do to change that situation.

 

You can follow Rena on Instagram at @sockmonkeylove33

To learn more about the animal rescue organizations she has fostered for, visit https://www.yavapaihumanetrappers.org/ and https://yavapaihumane.org/

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This week on Solarpunk Presents, we’re bringing you an interview with Andy Gross, one of the brilliant minds behind Fully Automated! A Solarpunk TableTop RPG (Role-Playing Game). Don’t worry, you don’t need to know game jargon to follow along for this one - solarpunk storytelling comes in a lot of different forms, and this is yet another kind for people to use to imagine a kinder, greener future that strives towards a utopia … of sorts.

RPGs get a reputation for being all about fighting. How does that work if the RPG is solarpunk? Or utopian even? What is an RPG, in the first place? What is the usefulness of a solarpunk RPG? Join us as we discuss these questions and more.

Art used in episode cover is by https://patreon.com/seanbodley and...

Links:

You can find Fully Automated at https://fullyautomatedrpg.com/

The Sogorea Te Land Trust: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/

Solarpunk 2050: http://solarpunk2050.de/ 

Solarpunk Pioneers Fund: http://solarpunk-pioneers.org/ 

Coyote & Crow: https://coyoteandcrow.net/ 

Lunar Echos: https://affinity-games.itch.io/ 

Neon Black: https://notwriting.itch.io/ 

Legacy: Life Among the Ruins: https://ufopress.co.uk/legacy-life-among-the-ruins/ 

Fighting for the Future: https://www.android-press.com/product-page/fighting-for-the-future-ebook 

“Murder in the Tool Library” by AE Marling: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-in-the-tool-library-a-e-marling/1144354144 

“Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto” by Aaron Bastani: https://www.versobooks.com/products/476-fully-automated-luxury-communism 

“Four Futures: Life After Capitalism” by Peter Fraise: https://www.versobooks.com/products/59-four-futures

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This week on Solarpunk Presents Podcast, Ariel chats with Selena Middleton, Publisher and Editor of Stelliform Press, all about publishing eco-fiction. What is eco-horror, and how does it relate to solarpunk fiction? What are the hallmarks of a good solarpunk story, according to Selena? How does history fit into visions of the future, and what does character have to do with it? Join us as we discuss all this and more.

Links: 

Stelliform Press website

Depart! Depart! by Sim Kern

Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

The House of Drought by Dennis Mombauer

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Now streaming: some hot takes from your solarpunk aunties. Ariel and Christina consider why wallowing in negative feelings is just so delicious ... as opposed to wallowing in, you know, acts of kindness and feelings of compassion, which are just a bit more solarpunk. We live in an age of outrage, it seems: cancelling, social media mobbing, cyberbullying ... but also drawing attention to human rights violations, or dodgy political happenings, or just straight-up illegal goings-on! How can we tell whether our outrage is justified or not? How can we avoid emotional manipulation? Can we think of outrage as a solarpunk tool?

Links:

• What is Affect Theory?
• Cultivating Emotional Literacy

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