Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WIKA F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody pre recording from the Home Bunker, Folks.
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to bring to you UM. I guess
Speaker 1: in the closure of our coverage of Imagine twenty two hundred,
Speaker 1: where we have you have now heard um from three
Speaker 1: different people, First the founder Tory Stevens that we interviewed
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, and now um you will
Speaker 1: hear from next GENA Maguire. I have enjoyed so so
Speaker 1: much these conversations with these amazing, brilliant fiction writers in
Speaker 1: thinking about how they are reimagining our world and our
Speaker 1: climate future. Imagine twenty two hundred Fix Climate Fiction Contest
Speaker 1: recognizes stories that envision the next one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: years of equitable climate progress, imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform,
Speaker 1: and hope. I've really enjoyed reading these stories and interviewing
Speaker 1: the writers who have such a clear understanding of the
Speaker 1: climate crisis that we are in, but the possibilities that
Speaker 1: we have. I think, oftentimes when we are locked in
Speaker 1: to a cycle of grief, of sadness, of rage, anger
Speaker 1: and look all things absolutely rightfully call for those emotions.
Speaker 1: But then I want to present to you all the
Speaker 1: other side of that, the ying to the yang, if
Speaker 1: you will, which is, we cannot imagine a better world,
Speaker 1: a better future, not for ourselves necessarily because we may
Speaker 1: not see it, but for the generations that will come
Speaker 1: behind us. If we are locked into a place of
Speaker 1: rage and grief, that is a scarcity mindset. And in
Speaker 1: order to think bigger and greater and innovate and create,
Speaker 1: we must do so from a place of abundance. And
Speaker 1: the only way that you get there is by rest. Right,
Speaker 1: is by rest, is by relaxation, is by tending to
Speaker 1: ourselves and what it is that we actually can control.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing, friends, if there is nothing else
Speaker 1: that you realize over the last three years of living
Speaker 1: inside of a global health pandemic and the meltdown of
Speaker 1: our democracy, is that everything outside of us we don't
Speaker 1: really have control over. We vote, we march, we give
Speaker 1: money if we can, we volunteer, and we give our times.
Speaker 1: But then after that we must put it down, put
Speaker 1: the weight down right, and do things that are nurturing,
Speaker 1: that are wholesome, that feel good for ourselves and those
Speaker 1: that we love around us. We can't marinate in despair
Speaker 1: and think that through that somehow by being committed to
Speaker 1: grief and misery, that change is going to happen. Rest
Speaker 1: is part of the resistance. Imagination, creativity, love, joy is
Speaker 1: part of the resistance because when you think about what
Speaker 1: the opposition wants, they want cruelty, they want devastation, they
Speaker 1: want oppression. We don't have to give it to them.
Speaker 1: So what I love about this story series and this
Speaker 1: contest was taking something that is so huge of a problem,
Speaker 1: so huge of an obstacle in our lives, which is
Speaker 1: climate change, and not just being focused on our impending doom,
Speaker 1: but imagining what happens when the systems that we believe
Speaker 1: that could never fall do what can come in its place? Right,
Speaker 1: I think about the phoenix rising from the ashes. I
Speaker 1: think about a lotus flower pulling itself through mud. I
Speaker 1: think about you know how sometimes breakdowns make room for
Speaker 1: a breakthrough, and that what is required in this moment
Speaker 1: is a shift in perspective, is a shift and how
Speaker 1: we decide to take information in and what we decide
Speaker 1: to do with it. Because each of us are powerful, right,
Speaker 1: each of us are powerful in in our own ways.
Speaker 1: And the thing that we are able to control is
Speaker 1: how we show up right in all of the moments
Speaker 1: of our lives. I want to give you an example
Speaker 1: and tell you a little anecdote. The other day, one
Speaker 1: of one of my friends received bad news that she
Speaker 1: had seriously broken fractured her foot, broken it and she
Speaker 1: had been walking on it and you know, there had
Speaker 1: been swelling, but she thought it was from a prior
Speaker 1: injury and not that she had had a new one.
Speaker 1: So she goes to the doctor. They do an X
Speaker 1: ray and lo and behold, Yes it's broken, and it
Speaker 1: is a bad break. And all that is playing through
Speaker 1: her mind is the fact that she has finally been
Speaker 1: back in a workout plan, back feeling good about moving
Speaker 1: her body and really like excited right and proud of
Speaker 1: herself about, you know, the moves that she's making. And
Speaker 1: as she sat in the doctor's office, she burst into
Speaker 1: tears because all she could think about was that all
Speaker 1: of the progress that she had made and the way
Speaker 1: that she was feeling good was now gone because she
Speaker 1: was going to be a mobile She couldn't even with
Speaker 1: a walking boot. The doctor is like, the break is
Speaker 1: really bad, and we need you to not walk at
Speaker 1: all for the next two weeks and then we can
Speaker 1: assess whether or not you need surgery. So as she's
Speaker 1: relaying this to me, I hear the pain in her voice.
Speaker 1: And if you all remember earlier, you know, at the
Speaker 1: beginning of summer, I broke my toe, shattered it in
Speaker 1: two places. Most people that break a toe we're in
Speaker 1: a boot for four to six weeks. I was in
Speaker 1: one for ten the entirety of the summer, and then
Speaker 1: when I finally did get it off, I would get
Speaker 1: COVID the month later. So it was quite a shit summer.
Speaker 1: So I understood her angst and the pain that she
Speaker 1: was going through, but I offered this. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I recognize how upsetting this is. I know that you
Speaker 1: have been really excited about all the work that you've
Speaker 1: been doing, all the work you've been putting into your fitness,
Speaker 1: and I'm really proud of you. But I want to
Speaker 1: offer something. Maybe you get with your trainer and you
Speaker 1: do some chair workouts. Maybe you know, go on YouTube
Speaker 1: and you see what kind of seated fitness you can
Speaker 1: be doing, seated pilate, seated yoga. You know, I told
Speaker 1: her that when I started to get really like frustrated
Speaker 1: with the fact that this boot was not coming off
Speaker 1: of my own foot, I started to do seated shadow
Speaker 1: boxing because it just made me feel better to just
Speaker 1: work up a little bit of a sweat. So today
Speaker 1: I received a text from my friend that said, my
Speaker 1: trainer and I did a really amazing seated workout today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for reminding me not to quit
Speaker 1: and to just adjust. And that's the thing that that's
Speaker 1: the message, honestly that I'm carrying for the end of
Speaker 1: this year and for the rest of my life. Frankly,
Speaker 1: quitting should never be an option, not quitting on our democracy,
Speaker 1: not quitting on our planet, not quitting on ourselves. We
Speaker 1: just need to adjust. We need to adjust our perspective,
Speaker 1: open up our hearts and adjust, you know, our mindset
Speaker 1: and our ability to expand our thought and our way
Speaker 1: of being. And when we do so, things don't seem
Speaker 1: so bad. You can take them in pieces. And so
Speaker 1: I think that the beauty of this series Imagine twenty
Speaker 1: two hundred offers us real insight through creativity, through fiction,
Speaker 1: the ways in which we can create a better and
Speaker 1: more symbiotic relationship with the planet. With the animals, with
Speaker 1: the air, with the water, with the land, and that
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be a zero sum probability. So
Speaker 1: coming up next, friends, my conversation with Gena McGuire about
Speaker 1: her story By the Skin of Your Teeth amid the
Speaker 1: Sharks and the Waves of Hawaii, Two people discover something
Speaker 1: important about themselves and each other, Folks. I am very
Speaker 1: excited to welcome to wok F Daily. For the very
Speaker 1: first time, we have been in conversation, folks, with some
Speaker 1: of the finalist in the Imagine twenty two hundred uh
Speaker 1: fixes Climate Fiction contest, which recognizes stories that envision the
Speaker 1: next one hundred and eighty years of equitable climate progress,
Speaker 1: imagining intersectional world of abundance, adaptation, reform and hope. And
Speaker 1: today I'm very excited to be with the second place winner,
Speaker 1: Gina McGuire, whose story is entitled By the Skin of
Speaker 1: Your Teeth amid the Sharks and Waves of Hawaii. Two
Speaker 1: people discover something important about themselves and each other. Gina, Welcome,
Speaker 1: joke Fum. You know I want folks who have been
Speaker 1: listening to your other Grist colleagues to get an understanding
Speaker 1: from you first about the themes surrounding your your story
Speaker 1: and congratulations on your second place. When um, this story
Speaker 1: itself will be linked in the episode in the notes
Speaker 1: so that folks can absolutely listen to this interview and
Speaker 1: then go ahead, uh and read or listen to your piece.
Speaker 1: But can you can you talk to us about about
Speaker 1: the themes around your story? Yeah? So, UM, I love
Speaker 1: what Grist is doing about imagining the next one hundred
Speaker 1: you know, eighty years twenty two hundred and UM. For me,
Speaker 1: when I was you know, when you think about climate futures,
Speaker 1: and that's like the basic prompt, right, and um, it's
Speaker 1: often I think fairly bleak futures that we often are envisioning, right.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I'm both Polish and Native Hawaiian.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Hawaii. But when I envisioned the
Speaker 1: future and and I and you know, you don't have
Speaker 1: that very hopeful feeling going into it, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: how do I write something that's not just dark? Um?
Speaker 1: And so when I understand doing it, well, I I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about you know, indigenous people's, about native people's, Native Hawaiian, um,
Speaker 1: a lot of Pacific islanders, and for us climate futures,
Speaker 1: I feel aren't in the future, Like, it's not. It's
Speaker 1: something that we're dealing with right now. And if we
Speaker 1: think about people in Boganville or Cure Boss, even in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: we're seeing it, and we have these histories of adaptation
Speaker 1: and and resilience and strength. And so what I really
Speaker 1: wanted to bring forward into my fiction my future is
Speaker 1: what if we change the narrative from like, from putting
Speaker 1: Native people as like adapting to having some kind of
Speaker 1: sovereignty over their own future. And so in this story
Speaker 1: it's based in Hawaii and oev characters that I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about political sovereignty necessarily, but having the decision and
Speaker 1: the ability to make your own decisions for your own
Speaker 1: aina of land. And see, that was my hope for
Speaker 1: that story. So yeah, that's kind of that was what
Speaker 1: drove it. And then in the midst of all of that,
Speaker 1: I bringing forward grief and unrequited love and angst and
Speaker 1: bringing that all together, So trying to speak across I
Speaker 1: write kind of on behalf of and for Native peoples.
Speaker 1: That's kind of my whole thing, But trying to create
Speaker 1: characters and emotions that are speak to the human condition
Speaker 1: and are kind of I don't want to say universal
Speaker 1: things that regardless of your background, hopefully you can like
Speaker 1: you feel it. So, yeah, that's the story. I thought
Speaker 1: that your story was so beautiful one the imagery that
Speaker 1: it created. And again, folks, the story is by the
Speaker 1: skin of your teeth, the imagery that it created of
Speaker 1: being on this beautiful, vast ocean, of being a protector
Speaker 1: and a guardian of the of the largest mammals. Right,
Speaker 1: there was a symbiotic nature that was being presented that
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I guess my question for you
Speaker 1: is this is that indigenous culture and practice is something
Speaker 1: that colonizers extinguished, right kind of in this way of
Speaker 1: eye alone can fix this. And so your primitive indigenous
Speaker 1: way of thinking primitive, I use in quotation marks, we
Speaker 1: don't need. Yeah, And I think that what we are
Speaker 1: seeing and what we are living in and the reality
Speaker 1: that we're living in, as as as the climate crisis
Speaker 1: is now here, it was impending, you know twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: It is now literally on our shores, in our fields,
Speaker 1: you know, in these fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, in the warming seas.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about this, this symbiotic relationship that you created,
Speaker 1: UM with these guardians, Um and these and these waterways
Speaker 1: and how it is entwined in both the world that
Speaker 1: you were creating but also the world that you that
Speaker 1: you live in as a as a as a native. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now that's a really beautiful question. And um, all different,
Speaker 1: I mean, indigenous culture is all very different. So I'll
Speaker 1: just talk about it from an OIV kind of standpoint. But, um,
Speaker 1: this idea of kinship, and I don't even like I work.
Speaker 1: I'm a PhD student and I also work for the
Speaker 1: Four Service, so I work in environmental science and then create.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be a creative writer. But I love it.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's amazing. Thank you trying to juggle
Speaker 1: these um these different worlds and like you just said,
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't want to call it Western science,
Speaker 1: but often not being able to speak to or understand
Speaker 1: necessarily that the way that the story ends, right is
Speaker 1: the ocean itself. The waves are kind of acknowledging the
Speaker 1: characters and their ask for help, and then we have
Speaker 1: these really kin based relationships and ancestral relationships with sharks
Speaker 1: in the story. So that doesn't translate very easily when
Speaker 1: we're talking about environmental science. Um, but I think we
Speaker 1: need more of it and we need more dialogue between
Speaker 1: the two. Also, just this idea I like the word
Speaker 1: that you use, but this idea of like a symbiotic relationship.
Speaker 1: I want to say win win, But there there has
Speaker 1: to be ways right that people aren't like the bad
Speaker 1: guys an environment quite often, you know, it's like we
Speaker 1: talk about pollution and deforestation over fishing, they're all and
Speaker 1: those are all anthropogenic harmships on the environment. And So
Speaker 1: what I love about fiction and what I love about
Speaker 1: writing as opposed to doing maybe hardcore science, is that
Speaker 1: like we can imagine these futures or kind of be
Speaker 1: a little bit more radical with thinking about care based
Speaker 1: relationships and what it means to have one on one
Speaker 1: relationships with individual places and creatures and things like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I love that question. I don't know how
Speaker 1: we bring more of that into like the real world,
Speaker 1: but that's what I would love to keep writing about
Speaker 1: and see happening, you know. I it's so interesting to
Speaker 1: me because I feel like we always tend to look
Speaker 1: at the problem as being too big to be able
Speaker 1: to imagine possibilities outside of what we can see. And
Speaker 1: I think that the beauty of fiction writing, particularly around futurism,
Speaker 1: is giving a freedom, um to the reality that you
Speaker 1: exist in as a PhD student, Like this is the reality, right,
Speaker 1: and if I had the ability to imagine something different,
Speaker 1: something great, or something beyond fear right, which I think
Speaker 1: is also something that you, um that is talked about
Speaker 1: in in in your story is this you know, what
Speaker 1: is fear? Um? And and how fear how fear is
Speaker 1: translated differently among people. So I want to also like
Speaker 1: ask you, you know, with your main characters and this
Speaker 1: and this, um, what becomes a love story? UM? What
Speaker 1: what was it about? You know? And trying not to
Speaker 1: give too much away, but what is it about the
Speaker 1: conversation around fear and around love that you felt necessary
Speaker 1: for your peace? I love that question. UM. I think
Speaker 1: personally I have me but like um, you know I was,
Speaker 1: I have been going through unrequitted love. So identifying both
Speaker 1: on the other on the um our male character side
Speaker 1: of like you know, I loved this person for like
Speaker 1: forever and you don't know it. And I think that
Speaker 1: is also almost a metaphor for the the the sea
Speaker 1: and the land and like having all of that love
Speaker 1: for us um, and then my female character UM, just
Speaker 1: chalk full of grief and rage and just like I'm
Speaker 1: not I don't given like just like I'm not afraid
Speaker 1: of anything because I've already lost it all. And so
Speaker 1: I think, UM, kind of having these two clashing kind
Speaker 1: of narrative between this hopeful romantic energy UM, and I
Speaker 1: think that reflects some of of my own like hopeful
Speaker 1: romantic energy for our futures and then this awful grief
Speaker 1: and rage UM. And I feel like I've been in
Speaker 1: that state for a while thinking about, you know, our
Speaker 1: environmental futures. And so it's kind of a battle of
Speaker 1: the two UM metaphorically and like big picture UM. And
Speaker 1: so then the coming together at the end and the
Speaker 1: having the ocean and her husband having passed away like
Speaker 1: picking opehe so like him being a part of that
Speaker 1: UM and having the ancestral realm and the spirit realm
Speaker 1: and the ocean realm all kind of acknowledging that union
Speaker 1: of both of those energies. I think big pictures kind
Speaker 1: of telling for what we need both of those things
Speaker 1: going forward, UM, in in our interactions with the environment
Speaker 1: and with each other. So yeah, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I answered that, no, you did, you did in the
Speaker 1: stark reality of what we are being presented with, which
Speaker 1: is catastrophe, right, like that is. I don't think that
Speaker 1: I'm hyperbolic to say that when every hurricane, fire and
Speaker 1: tornado season is more historic than the last, that we
Speaker 1: are in a problematic zone. I don't think that it's
Speaker 1: crazy that at the time of this recording, I woke
Speaker 1: up to seventy two degree temperatures in New York on
Speaker 1: November in November, right, and that is and that is
Speaker 1: that has been the norm. It's my birthday month and
Speaker 1: my birthday week. It has been the norm over the
Speaker 1: last ten years. I don't remember wearing I haven't worn
Speaker 1: a coat or a scar for anything on my birthday
Speaker 1: for the last several years. Wow, Because it has been
Speaker 1: roughly in the high sixties or seventies in November. So
Speaker 1: when I when I say that, to say that, you know,
Speaker 1: we're living at a time of great transformation. And I
Speaker 1: guess I want to get a sense from you where
Speaker 1: you live in a place that, in many people's minds,
Speaker 1: right is the idealic you know, center of beauty and
Speaker 1: of environmentalism and a forestry and waterfalls and rainbows and
Speaker 1: all of these things. Are what are the sentiments, right,
Speaker 1: the lived realities of a place that is both a
Speaker 1: part of and removed from mainland. And so because of
Speaker 1: being removed from mainland and situated in the sea, will
Speaker 1: be the first part, you know, of the United States
Speaker 1: outside of Florida and you know, in the Key and
Speaker 1: the southern coastal regions to be adversely affected. Yeah, by
Speaker 1: this great transformation that we're in. So can you give
Speaker 1: us a perspective or some insight into what those feelings are? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I love your I mean talking about New York being
Speaker 1: seventy two degrees this morning, I'm like, oh my goodness, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's real, and yeah, I think you know, I struggle.
Speaker 1: I go back and forth because we are removed from
Speaker 1: the mainland. We are very We're one of the most
Speaker 1: isolated places in the world. We're surrounded by this amazing ocean,
Speaker 1: which is both kind of a climate stabilizer, but then
Speaker 1: we're also dealing with sea level rise. And then when
Speaker 1: you put that like reality into conversation and combination with
Speaker 1: the legacies of I don't want to say colonialism, but
Speaker 1: the legacies of why Kiki used to be a wetland
Speaker 1: like to be a marsh kind of area, and they
Speaker 1: brought in sand. They continue to bring in sand to
Speaker 1: make this little fairy tale place for tourists, which is
Speaker 1: awesome that it's kind of concentrated in one place, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1: But you know, um, when you do sea level rise
Speaker 1: projections for Waikiki, it's that whole area. Um, you talk
Speaker 1: about parking structures being underwater. And so we've dramatically altered,
Speaker 1: altered these island spaces in ways that are not compatible,
Speaker 1: are rigid and just not not right. And then we
Speaker 1: put it into combination with things like we've got some
Speaker 1: of the nations I think, um, I don't quote me
Speaker 1: on this, but you know, thousands of cesspools which we
Speaker 1: don't have centralized sewage treatment in a lot of places
Speaker 1: in Hawaii. So then we're thinking about our groundwater resources
Speaker 1: and sea level rise an inundation of our ground water. Um.
Speaker 1: And if we're talking about you know, rainfall, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are on catchment here. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like decentralized systems that I don't think are prepared
Speaker 1: to to live in that future yet. And so being
Speaker 1: in a way and being remote, I think we have
Speaker 1: awesome opportunity, and like you said, it's kind of this
Speaker 1: ideal place. I think we are one of the people
Speaker 1: who people states in the US that are we have
Speaker 1: a carbon neutrality goal trying to like start on this pathway.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's gonna be rough, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of um legacies and histories that are gonna contribute to
Speaker 1: it being a really rough transition for sure. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's not it's not as maybe ideal as maybe people
Speaker 1: think it is. But yeah, and I think I mean
Speaker 1: but that that you know that that's kind of the point.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that you brought it to the
Speaker 1: forefront because I think that oftentimes we look at these
Speaker 1: areas that mainland people in many countries go to visit, right,
Speaker 1: and and think like, oh, it's a respite for them
Speaker 1: from you know, the inundation of city life, mainland life,
Speaker 1: you know, what have you. But we are not connecting
Speaker 1: the dots when we're talking about climate change where we're
Speaker 1: talking about the climate crisis to actual people, yeah, and
Speaker 1: to how it is affecting actual people and how it
Speaker 1: will ultimately affect all of us. And so I wonder,
Speaker 1: like in your PhD program, um, you know, as and
Speaker 1: your work with UM with the forestry. Like, as you're
Speaker 1: looking at how we are dealing with these issues, do
Speaker 1: you see any optimism? Yes, yeah, yes, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: And I think kind of going back to like the
Speaker 1: creative writing lens, but then also the for street lens.
Speaker 1: I think for me, it's about looking backwards to look forward.
Speaker 1: And so I am optimistic. I think, you know, the
Speaker 1: we've got some really great minds thinking together, and but
Speaker 1: I think the shift that needs to happen that hasn't
Speaker 1: happened yet maybe is I feel like it's easy to
Speaker 1: be like, oh, yeah, it's big corporations. I don't have
Speaker 1: control over it, like it's beyond me, or you know,
Speaker 1: getting political will to make certain things happen, like getting
Speaker 1: the funding for a sewage treatment plant or something like that,
Speaker 1: or stopping before station that all of these issues are
Speaker 1: very can be very abstract and even for like a
Speaker 1: government agency or a nonprofit that's trying to tackle these issues.
Speaker 1: And so thinking more on what is my kuliana, which
Speaker 1: in Hawaiian is just you have a right but also
Speaker 1: you have a privilege to something, but it's dependent on
Speaker 1: hard to translate, but your responsibility and so I think
Speaker 1: for me is kind of each person has a kuliana
Speaker 1: to something right, and so that's hard to do when
Speaker 1: people are working forty hours a week and like they've
Speaker 1: got their kids and bills and jobs, and but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna have to start on a much
Speaker 1: more individual, ancestral and place based kind of arena. And
Speaker 1: then the question for people like me who work in
Speaker 1: environmental science is how do we empower and make that
Speaker 1: possible for other people? But that's where I see the
Speaker 1: optimism inclinment futures. But yeah, Gina, why do you think
Speaker 1: that it is important for contests like Grists, Fixed Labs
Speaker 1: contest around imagining an abundant future? Why do you think
Speaker 1: that that is important, particularly around futurism science fiction, to
Speaker 1: imagine abundance in our future. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: it's really easy to go for the dystopian. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, even in this kind of competition, we we all,
Speaker 1: myself included, kind of have some kind of dystopian future,
Speaker 1: like we're all like it's not it's dark, but something
Speaker 1: like Grist where they're genuinely in the prompt saying we
Speaker 1: need to be hopeful, we need to be creative. Let's
Speaker 1: think about how our futures can be abundant, abundant in
Speaker 1: not just resources or but abundant enjoy in spirit and
Speaker 1: thinking what that looks like. So I think it's super important.
Speaker 1: And I think when we need to be radical first
Speaker 1: and then by doing things like this, having that creative
Speaker 1: energy or these ideas, whether they're insane contraptions or different
Speaker 1: kind of conservation programs or companies that are business smart
Speaker 1: art not business smart, climate energy smart. So I think
Speaker 1: once we have that radical, creative like energy out there,
Speaker 1: maybe we can inspire people or there's a spark from
Speaker 1: one of them that can can lead to something tangible
Speaker 1: and concrete action. So I think we need the I
Speaker 1: don't want to say the crazies, but we need the
Speaker 1: visionaries out there to come up with these creative, awesome ideas.
Speaker 1: And I'm so grateful that Grist does this because it's
Speaker 1: so exciting. Like I'm still reading through everybody's stories. I
Speaker 1: haven't gotten through everybody's but like Seven Sisters by m
Speaker 1: Susan K. Quinn, I was like, I'm never going to
Speaker 1: drink a cup of tea the same way like again. Ever,
Speaker 1: it's just like you three stories alter you. And that's
Speaker 1: what good art does. So I think, UM, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: super grateful for Grist for doing it. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that what is really important in times of great
Speaker 1: angst uh and instability is to really dive into art,
Speaker 1: is to really like when the present finds itself UM
Speaker 1: at a place of great friction. It is really important
Speaker 1: to get to a place of imagination UM. Because I
Speaker 1: think that it's I think it's really easy. I say
Speaker 1: this to my listeners all the time. I, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: vacillate between rage consistently and rest. And I think that
Speaker 1: that I do all the time. And and rest is
Speaker 1: where the creativity comes. You can't create in a place
Speaker 1: of rage because it is restricting. It is it is
Speaker 1: moving from a place of scarcity. And I think that
Speaker 1: what I've loved about your story, what I loved about
Speaker 1: the stories of the last few authors that we have
Speaker 1: had on UM is I finish feeling abundant. I finish
Speaker 1: feeling I finished feeling really power. So my last question
Speaker 1: for you is what are you hoping that folks you
Speaker 1: know listening to woke up and deciding that they want
Speaker 1: to delve into all of the amazing Stories a part
Speaker 1: of Imagine twenty two hundred. But what are your hopes
Speaker 1: that people take away from this kind of this kind
Speaker 1: of abundant, radical futurist storytelling. So many things, but I
Speaker 1: hope that people, I hope they do dive into the
Speaker 1: collection and read these stories and then realize that they everybody,
Speaker 1: we each have our own story and our own contribution
Speaker 1: and our own hopes for the future. And so I
Speaker 1: think just acknowledging, like what do you even want to
Speaker 1: see and pick envisioning that because I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of times it's hard to look past this year
Speaker 1: or five years, but when you start pushing that timeline
Speaker 1: to two hundred years, your grandchildren's grandchildren, like, you know, thinking,
Speaker 1: I hope it helps people to think long term, big picture,
Speaker 1: both forward looking and backward looking, thinking about their genealogies,
Speaker 1: who they are, their stories, their kupuna, their ancestors, elder stories,
Speaker 1: because there's value there and then and and thinking about
Speaker 1: their own, yeah, their own narratives as having value and meaning.
Speaker 1: And so I hope that's what this collection empowers um
Speaker 1: and just I hope it gives people hope because I
Speaker 1: feel like it's so easy to lose hope UM. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I hope. I hope other people find some
Speaker 1: kind of some threat or star that they can follow
Speaker 1: and navigate towards something big, big feature UM thinking So yeah, Well, Gina,
Speaker 1: I just I want to thank you for making the
Speaker 1: time to join us on weka APP. I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for this beautiful for this beautiful writing, UM,
Speaker 1: and I hope to read more of your work well
Speaker 1: into the future because it left me uplifted. M folks.
Speaker 1: The story is by the skin of your teeth and
Speaker 1: it is part of Imagine twenty two hundred fixes um
Speaker 1: Futurist Creative Writing Contest, and we will link to to
Speaker 1: the story to Gina's story in the in the notes
Speaker 1: and Gina, thank you so much and I hope that
Speaker 1: you'll come back having me. I appreciate it. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today, dear friends on woke a app
Speaker 1: as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.