Solarpunk Presents

In these dark times of (American) political backsliding/the general rise of fascism in the Global North, Ariel and Christina consider four things that we'd made great progress on, to the point of taking those achievements for granted. Let's take the time to acknowledge them and the danger we are in of losing them. Because how can we fight for what we don't recognize as being incredible yet fragile?

Links:

• "From White Guilt to Race Traitors": https://illwill.com/talk-amongst-yourselves-from-white-guilt-to-race-traitors 
• "What Does it Really Mean to be a White Ally?": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-really-mean-white-ally-cecily-rodriguez/.
• Exploring Actor -> Ally -> Accomplice: https://www.whiteaccomplices.org/ 

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In this episode, Ariel interviews Doug Jones from Waterloo Region Community Garden Network, and he discusses about how the Network was started, what it does, and the benefits of gardening for the health and wellbeing not only for you but for your entire community. We discuss gleaning, food insecurity, access to land, and much more; this is an episode you’re going to want to listen to, especially if rising cost of food and food security are concerns for you these days.

I (Ariel) have included some links to the local organizations he mentions, as well as some that expand on some of the topics we discussed.

*Carol Popovich was the public health nurse who worked with Doug to create the original Waterloo Region Community Garden Council.

Links:

• Waterloo Region Community Garden Network official site: https://wrcgardennetwork.ca/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WRCGN/
• “Cost of a Healthy Diet: A Population-Representative Comparison of 3 Diet Cost Methods in Canada” - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39270849/
• “Every hour children spend on screens raises chance of myopia, study finds” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/21/every-hour-children-spend-on-screens-raises-chance-of-myopia-study-finds
• “Cura Annonae” aka grain dole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_annonae
• “Addressing vitamin D deficiency in Canada: a public health innovation whose time has come” - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20413135/
• Iodine Deficiency on the rise in Canada- https://blog.mdpi.com/2022/08/19/iodine-deficiency-canada/
• The Raw Carrot: https://therawcarrot.com/
• Eat With Afia: https://www.instagram.com/eatwithafia/

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If you meet a Japanese American, depending on their age, it’s a pretty good bet that they, their parents, and/or their grandparents (or great-grandparents) were imprisoned by the US government in so-called internment camps for several years during World War II. Most families lost everything they had built up: farms, homes, businesses, jobs, possessions, and whatever wealth they had accrued. 

If you meet a Japanese American, it’s also a pretty good bet, they probably won’t spontaneously start talking about what they or their family went through, how they feel about it, and how they or their family recovered from the ordeal. I (Christina) wanted to rectify that by sitting down with my old friend Chie Furuya, whose parents (as tiny children), grandparents, and other family members were “sent to camp”, to ask her about it. The answers and stories she had for me were both fascinating and unexpectedly heartening. Her people are a resilient, cheerful people and I feel like there are life lessons for all of us here, in terms of withstanding and recovering from severe injustice (and coming out on top).

Ariel’s addition to this episode description is to point out that Japanese internment occurred in Canada in the early 20th century as well. We (by which she means Canada, or perhaps so-called Canada, as she likes to call it) aren't some bastion of anti-racism and tolerant plurality (if we ever were). Here are a few links for further edification if you are interested or want to know more about the Canadian side of the story:

• -"Where is Japantown?" a Secret Life of Canada podcast that describes this history in detail: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/203-the-secret-life-of-canada/episode/15776151-s3-where-is-japantown
• -Obasan by Joy Kogawa is an incredibly famous work of Canadian Literature - or at least, it was, back in the day, as it came out in 1981. But IYKYK. It describes the fallout of the Japanese internment camps through the eyes of a young girl growing up in Alberta and it galvanized the nisei community to stand up to the Canadian government and demand accountability and reparations for the atrocities of the internment camps. Link here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9723.Obasan
• -Here is a link to the Japanese-Canadian centre in Toronto, the only Japanese cultural centre that I know of in central/eastern Canada: https://jccc.on.ca/ and the Nikkei Museum in BC: https://centre.nikkeiplace.org/

Download the transcript for free here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/125524354?collection=1380839

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In this episode, Ariel and Christina try to get to the bottom of why our fictional visions of utopia are so negative. They often involve mindless acquiescence to an authoritarian nanny state, the oppression and labor of an underclass, or both. It’s as if we can’t imagine a situation in which we all voluntarily treat each other (reasonably) decently and life can be good for everyone. We discuss the literary origins of utopia, how it has evolved (or not) as a concept, and Ariel gives a few examples of sci-fi futures that are about as close to her style of solarpunk utopia as can be. Ultimately, the topic of utopia raises more questions than answers!

Links:

• Original blog on the concept of a protopia: https://kk.org/thetechnium/protopia/
• Audio dramatization of "Kitaskinaw 2350": https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1020-this-place/episode/15862270-kitaskinaw-2350
• "This Place" publisher's page: https://www.portageandmainpress.com/Books/T/This-Place
• Episode 6.10: the Dilemma of Utopian Joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saBnIh3jZq4

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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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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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