Sci_Burst – Details, episodes & analysis

Loved the Superman (2025) movie and looking for more #punk hope? 👩‍🎤 You've come to the right place! Listen to this episode to learn all about the punk of #solarpunk, where it came from, and how it differs (in a very good way!) from other -punk genres like #cyberpunk and #steampunk 😎🤙 Kindness and optimism, with a dash of #sustainability, are officially IN!☀️🫶💛

Episode Time Stamps:

0:00 Episode intro1:36 What even is 'punk'? Definitions

14:52 Punk in Solarpunk vs punk adjacent genres

35:00 Towards a punk-i-fied future

41:14 Good news segment

Want More? Here are some of the things we spoke about in this episode that we recommend:

- Punk Identities, Punk Utopias: Global Punk and Media edited by Matt Grimes

- “Solarpunk” & the Pedagogical Value of Utopia" by Isaijah Johnson (https://www.susted.com/wordpress/content/solarpunk-the-pedagogical-value-of-utopia_2020_05/)

- Where is the Punk in Solarpunk? Questioning Tradition and Innovation in an Eco-optimist Digital Aesthetic? by Théo Maligeay (https://hal.science/hal-04295131v2/document)

- Global cyberpunk: Reclaiming utopia in Japanese cyberpunk film by Sasha Myerson (https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/sfftv.2020.21)

- Planting Seeds of Hope: A Survey of Solarpunk Futures by Dilan Guner

- Solarpunk: Notes toward a manifesto by Adam Flynn (https://hieroglyph.asu.edu/2014/09/solarpunk-notes-toward-a-manifesto/)

Good News Stories:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/04/17/clean-energy-from-rain-scientists-generate-electricity-from-falling-droplets

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/infant-rare-incurable-disease-first-successfully-receive-personalized-gene-therapy-treatment

#scicomm #popculture #radicaloptimism #kindness

What are solarpunk systems and can they help us toward a more positive future?

Join Ella and Isabel in the first episode of this Solarpunk season of Sci_Burst!

This episode is for you if:

- you're new to Solarpunk

- you like Solarpunk and want to explore it more

- you're interested in positive stories

- you want to imagine a sustainable and attainable future

- you see wider connections in the world around you

- you LOVE fiction (particularly sci-fi and speculative fiction)

Episode Time Stamps:

0:00 Episode Intro

1:57 Solarpunk Recap

6:22 What are Solarpunk systems?

8:03 Fictional Solarpunk systems

29:58 Current Solarpunk systems

56:54 Future Solarpunk systems

1:11:31 Good News segment!

Want More? Here are some of the things we spoke about in this episode that we recommend reading/listening/watching/loving :

- Solar Power (discless music box) by Lorde

- Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach

- Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers

- Rewilding the Urban Soul by Claire Dunn

- Feral by George Monbiot

- Economics of rewilding by Emmanuel Faure et al.

- An Exploration of Environmental Values in Outer Space by Michael Aaron Lindquist

- Mad Max by George Miller

- Furiosa by George Miller

- Strange World by Don Hall

- Wikipedia by YOU (seriously we love contributing to wikipedia and thank all the amazing contributors)

Did someone say episode 3?! Join us and our special guest Professor Chris Danta from the ANU School of Cybernetics for a deep dive on fables and science, literary anthropology, animals and machines in literature, and even fridge music! 🐷🦊📚🤖 Add to the conversation! Let us know your thoughts on our socials @sci_burst or via our gmail sciburstpodcast@gmail.com ✨ Stay nerdy and we'll see you in the next episode.

Don't PANIC ! 😎✨It's Sci_Burst time

Join us and our very special guest Adrian Schmidt in this episode as we explore Artificial Intelligence (AI). Together we dive into AI's recent surge in popularity, its appearances in popular culture, and its use in art installations across the globe.

Add to the conversation! Let us know your thoughts on our socials @sci_burst or via our gmail sciburstpodcast@gmail.com ✨ Stay nerdy and we’ll see you in the next episode of Season 2!

Welcome to Sci_Burst Season 2! We're kicking off this season by talking all things popular culture, science, and how the two combine in weird, wacky and wonderful ways!

Our very first guest Dr Anna-Sophie Jurgens from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science joins us to talk about circus, clowns, and even science tattoos...

We hope you come away from this episode with curiosity for the unexpected places that science appears inside and outside academia.

Add to the conversation! Let us know your thoughts on our socials @sci_burst or via our gmail sciburstpodcast@gmail.com ✨ Stay nerdy and we’ll see you in the next episode of Season 2!

For our final episode of Season 1, we’re ending on an uplifting note with a sustainable and optimistic vision of the future 💖 This one’s a little intro to the emerging sci-fi subgenre, aesthetic, and movement that is ☀️ Solarpunk ☀️ Join us in exploring solarpunk worlds in pop culture, where we might see them in the near future, and what a harmonious relationship between nature, community, and technology can look like. As always, let us know your thoughts on our socials @sci_burst or via our gmail sciburstpodcast@gmail.com ✨ And while we are taking a break from releasing episodes for a little bit, we will be very contactable and active online. Stay nerdy and we’ll see you in Season 2!

Our penultimate episode of season 1 is now here! Listen to learn all about the (science and technology) formulas that make superheroes and supervillains in popular comic universes 🦸‍♀️🦹‍♀️ This episode is being released as part of the National Film and Sound Archives’ science and film night on the 1997 adaptation “Batman & Robin” — an event featuring yours truly!

The elements - a scientific concept that emerged from natural philosophy and alchemy - permeate pop culture to the nth degree. In this episode, we discuss chemistry's roots, science and magic, and the colourful portrayals of the 'classical' elements in contemporary pop culture💧🔥🌬️🪨 Join us in exploring the wonderful metaphors that come with these representations and what they say about our understanding of science - from Pixar's "Elemental" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender" to "Potion Permit" and Pokémon"!

Happy Science Week 2023! And happy episode 13! Bring your ears along for a discussion on humanity's current Mars endeavours and space colonisation themes... in board games 🚀🪐🎲

Our exciting Uncharted Territory episode on science and street art has officially dropped! Listen to explore the mathematical, technological and environmental (solarpunk may make an appearance 👀) genres found in science-themed street art. Using examples from Australia and around the globe, we discuss street art's potential as a highly accessible avenue for science communication.