Imaginary Solarpunk Worlds

Solarpunk’s impact on a leading sci-fi podcast and its listeners

Imaginary Worlds is a show about science fiction, fantasy and other genres of speculative fiction hosted by Eric Molinsky. They have covered everything from the meteoric rise of Romantasy through to the beautiful craft behind Blue Eyed Samurai.

In 2020 they did an episode about our genre featuring two of our solarpunk sisters Sarena Ulibarri and Keisha Howard. That led to solarpunk featuring prominently as one of the highlights of the past decade by Eric in a recent Tenth Anniversary double episode for the podcast.

As part of that he shared how one listener contacted him to let her know how the episode had affected her. Morag McDonald was feeling pretty hopeless about climate change and generally down in her life. Hearing about solarpunk, about ‘a future that was hopeful and possible with real people acting to make it happen’ lifted her spirits.

As she researched more about solarpunk it helped motivate her to get involved with a group where she was based in Berlin. They monitored the health of trees in her area to help them survive. She then joined a local food-growing project and met people through her wider community as a result, reducing her sense of loneliness and isolation.

[The Berlin Morag might help create IMAGE: Alex Rommel]

Stories like Morag’s are a massive inspiration for us and a huge part of why we do SolarPunk Stories. We want visions of deliciously sustainable futures to catalyse people to take action to build them today, like Morag has been doing. You can listen to everything she said from about 32 minutes into this podcast.

Imaginary Worlds has done some other episodes that are related to solarpunk or that might be of interest to you.

Episode 248: African Sci-Fi Looks to a Future Climate

[A Lagos to be? IMAGE: Olalekan Jeyifous]

This explores African Futurism, a genre not to be confused with Afrofuturism. According to Imaginary Worlds its stories are a type of speculative fiction that come out of and are largely set in Africa.

In contrast Afrofuturism tends to be more fantastical and come more from the African diaspora and it descendants especially in the U.S.

Episode 65: New York 2140

An interview with Kim Stanley Robinson about the book that we consider to be the first solarpunk novel, even if he didn’t describe it that way at the time. This episode explores the legendary scifi author’s thinking behind New York 2140 and elements of how he built the future world it’s set in.

All in all we heartily recommend Imaginary Worlds to all of you who are interested in solarpunk as well as science fiction and fantasy more generally.

How about you?

We were thrilled by how solarpunk helped lift Morag out of her slump and inspired her to take action for a deliciously sustainable world.

• Has solarpunk helped cheer you up? Or inspired you to take action, no matter how small?

• Do you have any podcasts you really enjoy that you think are worth sharing with our community?

• Are you already a fan of Imaginary Worlds? Do you recommend any other episodes?

Let us know in  the comments below.

Build solarpunk

[Crown Heights Brooklyn Solarpunked IMAGE: Olalekan Jeyifous]

The main way this substack grows is people like you sharing it. Help bring a deliciously sustainable future a little closer by passing this on to anyone you think might enjoy a dose of inspiration.

See you in the sunshine,

Alex Holland

Founder, SolarPunk Stories