Episode Details
Back to EpisodesWeekly Solarpunk, of 21 April: Radical Reading List, Soil Microbe Power, Food Forest Ecovillage, Nighttime Solar Wood
Description
Weekly Solarpunk for 21 April follows 6 future-facing stories and member reactions, moving through radical reading list, soil microbe power, food forest ecovillage, nighttime solar wood.
1. Radical Reading List
A long anarchist reading list drew attention for pairing theory, history, mutual aid, feminism, borders, police abolition, and resistance in one place. The post also points readers to a video and other channels, but the main point is the book list itself, which leans hard into anti-hierarchy, direct action, and how people might organize beyond the state.
2. Soil Microbe Power
A Northwestern team built a dirt-powered fuel cell that can run underground sensors by harvesting energy from soil microbes. According to the researchers, the paperback-sized device uses a vertical cathode and a horizontal anode to stay powered through wet and dry conditions.
3. Food Forest Ecovillage
This post highlights a video about an ecovillage built around co-housing and a large food forest, presented as something already lived rather than merely imagined. According to Kirsten Dirksen, the project shows a family-style community making a practical version of that future on the ground.
4. Nighttime Solar Wood
Researchers have turned engineered wood into a material that can keep generating power after sunset. According to TechXplore, the idea combines modified wood with light-harvesting and storage behavior, which makes it sound like a possible low-cost building material rather than a lab-only curiosity.
5. Climate Dread Support
A post about climate-crisis dread centers on someone describing suicidal ideation and asking how others keep going when the future feels like a countdown. According to the thread, the replies mostly argue for some mix of local action, therapy or medication, and rebuilding a life around smaller, reachable commitments instead of global outcomes.
6. Age Gate Surveillance
The post shares a Louis Rossmann video arguing that “age verification” is a misleading label for a system that is really about identity checks and access control. According to Rossmann, the issue is not just whether a platform can estimate age, but whether it should be collecting more personal data than is necessary.
That's it for today.