In this episode, Ariel talks with BrightFlame: witch, workshop leader, co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Design at Columbia University, and author of solarpunk witchcraft short stories and now a new novel, called The Working. They discuss what solarpunk witchcraft looks like and how, though witchcraft’s manipulation of energy on the astral plane is extremely important, magic is only one half of the equation: the other is activism - actually getting out there and doing the thing, whether it’s attending a protest, contributing to a potluck to strengthen community bonds, or making something with a specific intent in mind.

BrightFlame (she/they) writes, teaches, and makes magic towards a just, regenerative world. In her debut novel, The Working, a modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright futures we need. She's a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and SFWA, and her solarpunk stories are featured in Bright Green Futures, Solarpunk Creatures, Bioluminescent, and Solarpunk Magazine. She’s known for her teaching in the worldwide pagan community and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction. She lives on Lenape territory (Turtle Island/U.S.) with a human, a forest, a labyrinth, the Fae, bees, turtles, fungi, and many other nonhumans. Visit brightflame.com for musings, doodles, workshops, and more.

Links:

• https://brightflame.com
• https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/working/
• https://starhawk.substack.com/
• https://starhawk.org

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In this episode, Christina talks to Dr Gabriel Filippelli - one of the first scientists to have a running project canceled by the Trump administration. This fascinating interview reveals just how important internationally and domestically these American grants can be, and Dr Filippelli passionately describes this unprecedented attack on science and education and what we all lose when the work that scientists do grinds to a halt or is extremely politically curtailed. It's important, he tells us, to support the institutions that you care about and are vital to the continued knowledge of how to survive our climate-changed future.

Dr Filippelli is the Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences at Indiana University Indianapolis and the Executive Director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. He works at the junction between biogeochemical cycles, climate change, and human health.

Dr Filippelli has also written the book Climate Change and Life: The Complex Co-evolution of Climate and Life on Earth, and Beyond, which explores Earth's ecological resilience to the great changes in climate that have occurred over the history of the Earth. He was also part of the driving force behind Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond, which details local efforts to reduce the risks and lessen the harmful impacts of climate change, as well as prepare for the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

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Today Christina talks to Ariel about what it's been like to live as a solarpunk with a visible - and then invisible - disability. Science fiction has spent decades dreaming of how future tech will make disabled people able to function as if they were fully abled. Now solarpunk has arrived on the scene to ask why should disabled bodies have to always be the ones to adapt? It can be uncomfortable, intrusive - not to mention expensive. Solarpunk wonders why can't cities, society, workplaces, and the like be the ones to use the tech to make themselves more accessible to and inclusive of disabled people?

Tune in as Ariel and Christina discuss the portrayal of disability in science fiction and solarpunk and how having to suddenly live with a disability opens your eyes to many of the ways cities fail people with disabilities.

Links:

• The Spoon Theory: https://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/
• The Place of Disability in a Solarpunk Future: https://sammylincroft.medium.com/the-place-of-disability-in-a-solarpunk-future-1db5e40ddb55
• r/solarpunk plea for solarpunk not to exclude the disabled: https://www.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/oxpj34/please_dont_exclude_disabled_folks_from_a/
• Disability Justice page by Sins Invalid: https://sinsinvalid.org/10-principles-of-disability-justice/
• "Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction" Uncanny Magazine: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-disabled-people-destroy-science-fiction-manifesto/

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