Can Solarpunk Have Visions of Organized Religion?
Episode reflections Christina De La Rocha Episode reflections Christina De La Rocha

Can Solarpunk Have Visions of Organized Religion?

As an atheist scientist myself, I (Christina) assumed all scientists are atheists; my vision of a scientific, solarpunk future did not include faith.And yet, as I eventually realized, there are tons of religious scientists out there (of many faiths and traditions!), many of whom were my colleagues. I have no interest in becoming religious personally, but I wanted to hear for myself how self-identified religious scientists grapple with some of the issues that are deal-breakers for me.Maybe it is solarpunk to explore religion in our visions of a good future. Being so community-oriented, I bet solarpunks could come up with satisfying alternatives to organized religion. But what would that look like?

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My Friend Don
Episode reflections Christina De La Rocha Episode reflections Christina De La Rocha

My Friend Don

When Ariel and I were kicking around ideas for topics to interview people about for Season 2, the role of libraries in their communities came right up. And I knew just the librarian to interview—because Don is not only one of the best human beings ever made, he had literally just retired from his post as a librarian with the Salinas Public Libraries. As you can hear in the interview, Don's got lots of thoughts about libraries serving as the beating hearts and blood vessels of communities. Like any librarian worth their library card, he's super enthusiastic about the subject.

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