Faith, Fern and Compass Pro: (Protected Content)

In Episode 210 Pro – Steampunk Magic, we look at the spiritual dimension of steampunk: a genre and aesthetic inspired by Victorian-era technology and social struggles. Steampunk’s rivets, boilers, clockwork, dirigibles, and gleaming brass-and-mahogany automatons inspire us to look again at our relationship with technology, while its deliberate subversion of Victorian attitudes towards women and empire provoke us to turn a critical eye on our own modern prejudices. We also discuss steampunk’s dangerous flirtation with cultural appropriation, even as it works to redress the legacy of European colonialism in a healthy and respectful way. Then Jeff leads us on his own journey into a steampunk-inspired inner landscape using the Steampunk Tarot by Moore and Fell, in which he works to deal with the stresses and conflicts arising from moving across the country to work on technologies that are breaking down the barriers between mind and machine.

This Weekend Pro episode is only available for our Pro Members. To learn more about becoming a Pro Member, click here.

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Links:

• The Steampunk Tarot, by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell
• “The Gears of Chance,” by Alison Leigh Lilly
• “Steampunk Shamanism & Cultural Appropriation,” by Alison Leigh Lilly
• I, Robot
• Microscopic wasps might have “clockwork” brains

Music Credits:

• Opening and closing theme: “Dragonfly” by Brian Boyko
• “Ambush in Rattlesnake Gulch,” by Brian Boyko

Art Credits:

• “Gear Wheels,” by Ian Britton