The "other now" described by Varoufakis could exist somewhere in a fissure of the time-space continuum. In this dimension, capitalism (as we know it) is dead, but a liberal and democratic society is thriving. Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, politician and a former Minister of Finance of Greece, member of the Greek Parliament, co-founder of the Eu…

In this final episode, Giuseppe Porcaro, Alberto Cottica, and the Architect of Witness, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, talk about to the history of Witness, and wrap up the whole season. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fiction Economics Lab as they had an incredible idea. Instead of writing academic papers, they de…

We explore the fictional academic discipline of aethnography - the study of the behavior of humans engaged in mutual interaction - which has a solid tradition in the universe of Witness. Giuseppe and Alberto are joined by Amelia Hassoun, senior researcher and lead ethnographer at Edgeryders. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders …

In this episode, Giuseppe and Alberto, together with guest Hugi Ásgeirsson, sail through a sector of the fictional world Witness known as Avantgrid. Hugi is one of the co-directors of Edgeryders and director of blivande - a participatory culture hub in Stockholm. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fiction Eco…

The Covenant is religious institution Distrikt of Witness, tracing its history back to the grand powers of Roman Catholicism. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fiction Economics Lab as they had an incredible idea. Instead of writing academic papers, they decided to channel out-of-the box economic research by…

Hygge is the first Distrikt of Witness. It was initially meant to be the " nervous system of Witness." The political history of Hygge begins with the founding of Witness itself. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fiction Economics Lab as they had an incredible idea. Instead of writing academic papers, they de…

In this episode, we sail to the Witness - an open-source fictional world exploring the future of economy. Giuseppe Porcaro and Alberto Cottica, your guides for the season, along with Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, a science fiction author and Architect of Witness, take you there. For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fic…

For this season, Europarama joins forces with Edgeryders and their Science Fiction Economics Lab by building the world of Witness - a fictional city floating in a post-climate change Planet Earth. On Witness, people are organised by districts, each experimenting a different social contract and economic model. Witness is an open-source fictional wor…

In this episode we explore, with Julijonas Urbonas, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, the so-called Karman Line, at 100 Km above us. What new politics, culture, and art can be conceived when the law of physics as we know them get completely subverted? This episode was originally foreseen to be recorded live, in the frame of t…

Why should it be unscientific to think about the future? Why shouldn’t we be allowed to take a critical scientific stance in thinking about the future? There is no contradiction in being scientific and turning towards the future—towards what is not yet known. Wouldn’t it be scientific, in the best sense of the word, if researchers examined utopias …

Pandemics have been a running theme throughout science fiction and many cross-genre movies, from zombies to aliens. But what happens when Europe (and the world) has become a huge set of a pandemic, and it is not a science fiction, even if it closely looks like it? Giuseppe Porcaro is in conversation with Anthony Straeger, the director of the Berlin…

Discover how the last King of the Belgians becomes the first Emperor of Europe. Giuseppe Porcaro meets film director Jessica Woodworth to discuss her latest movie, The Barefoot Emperor. After suffering a gunshot wound to the ear during an unfortunate incident in Sarajevo, the King of the Belgians wakes up on a Croatian island, once Tito’s famed sum…

In this special episode Giuseppe Porcaro, Alberto Cottica and Nadia EN discuss the Science Fiction Economics Lab on November 11th from 14:30 to 19:00 (with after party) in Brussels, Belgium. Be among the first 4 people to share this episode from the Europarama Facebook page and win a free ticket for the keynote of Cory Doctorow. ___________________…

In this season finale, Giuseppe Porcaro looks back at the experiment of Europarama together with a stellar line-up of contributors that join in to explore the value of science fiction as a method to dive into Europe's futures. Cory Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boi…

We are around the time when we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing. And it is not a coincidence that for this latest space time exploration of europarama we would like to take you all in an interplanetary journey. And imagine a Europe that expands towards the outer space. After all, the science fiction dreams of going to the other sk…

Where politics and democracy are heading into the future? It is a theme that has run throughout the history of science fiction. Something that already in 1921, Yevgeny Zamyatin tried to imagine in his novel “We”, for example, and later developed in different directions by Orwell, Huxley and the likes. The following quote from “We” recalls the tone …

This episode of Europarama has been recorded at the University of Roskilde in Denmark, during the workshop fEUtures: science fiction and the future of Europe on 4th June 2019. During the workshop academics and science fiction authors discussed science fiction as a methodological tool in European Studies. Giuseppe Porcaro had the chance to have a lo…

Jacque Fresco was an American futurist and self-described social engineerb he directed the Venus Project and advocated global implementation of a socioeconomic system which he referred to as a "resource-based economy". The Venus Project proposes an alternative vision of what the future can be if we apply what we already know in order to achieve a s…

Uchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds. A concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined, mainly placed in some distant or unspecified point in time, sometimes reminiscent of a constructed world. In this…

People who do a lot of gardening probably know what “rhizome” is in botanical terms. It is a kind of plant that pops out of the ground over an expanding area, giving the impression that many separate plants are emerging in close proximity to one another, but in fact these ostensibly individual “plants” are parts of one big plant, and are interconne…

In the era of political bots, fake news, and digital propaganda, what would happen if a Tinder-like app replaced elections? Is it possible to automate democracy or would policies become sellable outcomes? In this episode we dwelve into DISCO SOUR, a novel by Giuseppe Porcaro where a dating app addicted politician embarks on an existential odyssey t…

For the time-space exploration of today, We reflect on the fact a lot of science fiction worldbuilding results in scenarios that are both dystopian and utopian, depending on the viewpoint. Margaret Atwoods said: "Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse, for some." Somehow, this reminds the latest novel of the guest author of t…

A growing number of science fiction authors are talking about global warming overtly, imagining futures full of flooded cities, droughts, melting icecaps, and other disasters. There is even a new label used for this, climate fiction or "cli-fi". Shelley Streeby, a professor from the University of California recently published an extensive analysis …

The Fractured Europe series is inspired by Cold War spy fiction: bleak, powerful stories which often rely on national borders for political and narrative tension. Once the Iron Curtain fell, Dave says, the spy genre lost its way. He realised that writing the thriller that he really wanted would mean reintroducing borders. But where would the barrie…

Science fiction cityscapes have awed audiences since Metropolis debuted in Germany in 1927. Steve Graham, a professor of cities and society in the Global Urban Research Unit at Newcastle University has highlighted such reciprocal relationship between science fiction and reality. Think, for example, that the future Los Angeles of Blade Runner implie…

*Europarama is a podcast series about science fiction and the future of Europe brought to you by the Are We Europe podcasting family. * In “The Principle of Hope” Ernst Bloch lays out the many ways in which hope and the human desire for liberation and fulfillment appear in our everyday lives. Amidst Europe’s post-war reconstruction, in 1954, Bloch …

In 1964, Isaac Asimov wrote a piece for the New York Times, after visiting the World’s Fair in New York. In his piece, he wondered what life would be like in 2014. He got a lot of stuff right--from the development of computers, to transportation, and even demographics. So in the shadow of Asimov, Giuseppe Porcaro and Loranne Vella imagine a fiction…