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Radio Utopistan is a podcast and community. We believe in constructive storytelling and a more just future. Therefore we are interconnecting bold ideas and visionary people from around the world.

Radio Utopistan is a think-and-do-tank. A toolbox for political hope and civic engagement.

We are still in the beginning. Our aim is to establish a digital media brand and a social enterprise that will solely focus on catalyzing Utopias. Small ones within families or neighborhoods and big ones within our global society. Via our podcast, via dinner tables, workshops and conferences.

We believe political hope and bold ideas are needed more than ever; in face of climate crisis and social disruptions after the pandemic. Nevertheless, of course, we will be critical with all utopias we promote. Because the utopia of one person can be somebody else’s dystopia. That is why we commit ourselves to the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists.

Utopian ideas drive us as humans, they drive humankind and humanity. And Radio Utopistan wants to find out what drives those visionary people. It was the belief that we could fly, conquer disease or live in permanent peace that gave women and men the courage to take risks, to step out, to try things and also to fail.

So it’s not about blueprints of how to organize our societies – or how to organize your fridge or your wardrobe. It’s about roadmaps, ideas and inspirational people along the way. About building a kaleidoscope, a network of progressive spaces within the system or outside the system.

Many things that we take for granted today, were mere utopias in their day. And the people who fought for them were ridiculed, shamed, harassed and also killed. 200 years ago the end of slavery was still utopia. The fall of the Berlin Wall just 30 years ago. And then the end of Apartheid 20 years ago. Where does that leave us today? What are the utopias of our time? What about gender equality? Basic income? Nature rights? Peace in the Middle East?

Let’s find out! Let’s go treasure hunting together. Via the podcast or in real life. Happy if you come along.

YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR WORK

*by spreading the episodes

*by becoming a regular contributor: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=37500274

*by becoming a member of our association

*by giving a donation to our association at
Radio Utopistan e.V.
IBAN: DE 57430609671092361800

Listen to our most recent episode

Episode #16: Ronja von Wurmb Seibel on constructive storytelling, the media and Afghanistan

to all our episodes

Podcasts

Ronja von Wurmb Seibel on constructive storytelling, the media and Afghanistan

Episode #16 When she had just become a journalist Ronja went to Afghanistan for almost two years. There she did reports about the war, about drug addiction, poverty and other really devastating things. Sometimes all the misery left her hopeless and without perspective. So she started to look for the constructive aspects within her stories: …

Carolyn Ekyarisiima: Why coding is a superpower in Tanzania and anywhere

Episode #15 Carolyn Ekyarisiima wanted to become a doctor to help people. Now she is an IT-Expert training thousands of girls in Tanzania how to use technology to create the world they want to live in. She founded the organization Apps and Girls. They are teaching girls how to code. And how to use IT …

Carlos Zorrilla on how to say NO to mining in the cloud forest of Intag

Episode #14 Since almost 30 years the people of Intag are successfully fighting a huge open pit copper mine in the tropical Andean mountains in northern Ecuador. It´s one of the most biodivers places left on earth, there live more species per hectare than in the Amazon. But underneath it lies copper and some gold, …

Team

Elisabeth Weydt, host and producer

Elisabeth is a freelance reporter and investigative journalist; mostly for German public radio and TV, ARD. Within the ICIJ-network she has regularly worked on investigations about the World Bank. Her topics are natural resources and radicalism. She has been a fellow with Academy Solitude and won some awards for her multimedia projects. She was on research in South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Myanmar, various countries in South America and in Democratic Republic of Congo.

… and so many more. Soon to come with more details