Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. Look, with everything going on in the world and the economy, we all need something to smile about. Now, as you know, I personally love sci-fi, and I recently stumbled upon a subgenre called solarpunk, and it's been making me smile as I've been learning more about it.
Chapter 2: What is solarpunk and how does it differ from dystopian narratives?
it so i hope you want to learn more about it too here to make us smart about this is phoebe wagner she's a writer academic and editor of three solar punk anthologies including sun vault stories of solar punk and eco speculation dr wagner welcome to the show thanks so much for having me kimberly i'm excited to be here so let's start with the basics what is solar punk like how do you usually describe it to people
The way that I approach it is that solarpunk is sort of this genre that spans literature and media, video games, and that it imagines new futures in the midst of an opposition to environmental collapse and importantly then works to create those futures.
And solarpunk stories also recognize that the climate crisis and environmental collapse are all entangled and that we can't have environmental justice without social justice, which is what starts to separate it from environmental literature or climate fiction. And then importantly, there's this technological aspect of solar punk I think a lot of people really enjoy.
And it's fun to play around with. And this idea that humanity needs to find sort of a balance with technology. But it's really about the right technological tool and the right moment.
Why do we need a label like solar punk?
I think it's helpful to sort of place it within the punk genre. So when we think about cyberpunk, which is this more dystopian sort of concern about technology, and then we got to steampunk, which was thinking about the Industrial Revolution, and then we get to solarpunk, which is thinking about environment, technology, and also social justice, right?
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Chapter 3: Why is the punk aspect important in solarpunk storytelling?
And so even though subgenres sometimes become unnecessary to have so many different names, I think this was important because of the punk aspect. There is a punk part of solar punk that separates it from climate fiction, which doesn't necessarily have to have some of those more punk like DIY community focused aspects.
So give us the history. Where did the solar punk genre come from? Like, when did it get going?
So it's relatively recent. So in 2008 is when the word first appeared. And then it became popular on Tumblr and other social media websites from like, you know, 2014, 2015. And then we get the first anthology in 2012, which actually came out of Brazil and is written in Portuguese and has since been translated and it's just called Solar Punk.
And then my anthology Sun Vault shows up on the scene in 2017.
Chapter 4: What is the historical context of the solarpunk genre?
as sort of the first general English anthology to include art and poetry and short fiction.
And what drew you to solarpunk in the first place?
So right around the 2010s, we were seeing a lot of dystopian storytelling. You know, we had Hunger Games, we had Mad Max Fury Road, which I love. I think that's a great movie.
Chapter 5: How does solarpunk relate to the green energy transition?
But as a first-year graduate student in an environmental creative writing program, I was growing concerned that if we were primarily imagining these negative dystopian futures, that then what were we going to be inspired to build towards? That we had to be imagining something positive alongside these also important dystopian works.
And so that's when I found Solarpunk online, and I felt like it was a great intervention into this sort of dystopian mindset.
You know, it's so funny. Well, I guess it's not funny. It's kind of sad that you hear so many people today talking about how we're living the dystopian sci-fi predictions of the past.
And what kind of captured my imagination when I stumbled upon Solar Punk was this idea that if we can imagine these kind of awful technology-fueled futures that then become reality, what happens if we imagine better technology-fueled futures?
Exactly. Right.
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Chapter 6: What economic issues are addressed in solarpunk stories?
I mean, I think we're seeing that play out so much with how with AI. Right. And how some of it is being compared to like iRobot, which is a sort of bizarre comparison in my mind because of the dystopian nature of that film. And so, yeah, I think we've definitely seen science fiction impact our thinking around technology and sometimes in negative ways.
We also have the positive example of Star Trek. Right. I always like to point that out. And the communicator being the inspiration for the cell phone. But certainly it's had an impact, which is what I think is the power of solar punk and this type of storytelling. We know there can be that impact.
Chapter 7: Where can we see solarpunk influences in contemporary media?
All right. We are going to take a quick break, but we will be right back. All right, we are back to talk more about solar punk with Phoebe Wagner. And can you tell us a little bit about the genre's relationship, particularly to the green energy transition?
Yeah, there's always been this technological focus, right? I mean, I think a lot of people see it right in the name, solar punk, and people start to think about solar panels, right? And so one of the things that solar punk does is I think it makes sort of green energy and sustainable technology feel much more accessible, right?
So it feels like something that like an average community member can have and can imagine how it could impact their community rather than it being something that feels sort of out of reach. I know certainly right now in my life, it doesn't feel like I have the ability to get like solar panels for my house, things like that.
But Solarpunk has this sort of DIY aspect to it where we think about, OK, how can we take this technology and give it to the people?
Chapter 8: What real-life examples reflect the solarpunk ethos?
And so it helps folks imagine what does it look like to be living with sustainable technology? How might that be implemented into my community, into my everyday life, into a disaster scenario, a climate disaster scenario? What does that actually look like?
How do Solarpunk stories deal with economic issues?
So solar punk at its heart as part of that sort of punk ethos is anti-capitalist, right? So you'll oftentimes see depictions that are sort of pushing back against our current economic system, whether that's communities that are on bartering systems, communities that run entirely on mutual aid, or sometimes friction between communities, right?
This isn't meant to be a utopian style of storytelling. There are still problems here. So how do two characters or two communities that have different economic systems come together and solve problems?
Once I started seeing, you know, this description of solarpunk, I realized that it shows up quite a bit in anime, which anybody who listens to the show knows I watch a lot of anime. I mean, where are we seeing solarpunk influences in media and art and other aspects that people might recognize?
Oh yeah, I was just talking with my students about Solarpunk and they were asking me about different animes. So yeah, we've certainly seen this already come up. Studio Ghibli I think has a great example with some of Miyazaki's work as sort of proto-Solarpunk things that people are feeling inspired by. And then, yeah, certainly it's coming up in other animes as well and other animation generally.
There's a Chobani yogurt ad that is available on YouTube called Dear Alice that is, I think, a great example of Solar Punk, short of the fact that it's a Chobani yogurt ad, which I think is fascinating as well. But in terms of other places we're seeing it show up, you know, I see it a lot on social media. I see it on TikTok. There's some really great video essays on YouTube that are coming out.
I particularly like Andrewism's video essays on Solarpunk. So we're really seeing it spread to different mediums, not just sort of short story anthologies where it initially started after being popular on social media.
And people are also talking about it as like an aesthetic as well.
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