Nowtopia - Interviews and Reviews

June, 2024 A discussion of When Shells Crumble that connects it to Nowtopia on a one-hour long podcast at “Speaking Out of Place”

July, 2021 “Degrowth & Environmental Justice Summer School 2021,” Can Decreix, France, Retrospective analysis of Nowtopia and how it connects to the Degrowth concept.

August, 2018 “Nowtopia” Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark (via Skype)

October, 2013 “Giftival” Conference, Istanbul, Turkey

February, 2012 “Massa Critica e a Utopia do Agora” Fundaçao Getulio Vargas, Salão Nobre, Sao Paulo, Brazil. (teaser)

February, 2012 “Nowtopia: A Utopia do Agora” after Critical Mass in Rendençao Park, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

November, 2010 TEDx Amazonia, Manaus, Brazil

September, 2010 Konflikt.tv, video at Kafe 44 in Stockholm, Sweden

August, 2010 Interview on Rabble.ca

August, 2010 viva-la-bici, viva-la-bici in Spanish

July, 2010 P2P Foundation

June 2010, video at Car-Free Vancouver Day

June, 2010 Experimental Arts Examiner

March, 2010 Giaim Life

January, 2010 The Commoner

November 29, 2009, Ventura County Star

Winter 2010, Earth Island Journal

Sept. 18, 2009 Yes! Magazine

August 6, 2009 Beyondchron.org

Watch Nowtopia in Activism & Non-Profit

May 31, 09 WorkingUSA

Feb. 28, 09 News from Now-Where

April 28, 09 (recorded Feb. 5 09) Google Author Talks (youtube)

March 15, 2009: Austin on Two Wheels

Feb. 8, 09: Something is Happening Right Now

Feb 7, 09: California Writer: Inventing the Future

Jan. 31, 09: at the World Social Forum, Belem Brazil

Jan. 20, 09: skype video interview with DecrescitaFeliz in Italy.

Three Monkeys Online: December edition

Oct. 27, 2008: Indypendent

Fall 2008: Momentum #36

Oct. 16: Now Magazine, Toronto “Attitude Adjuster”

Oct. 10: CBC Radio “The Current” with David Suzuki

Sept. 20: National Post, Canada “Today Bikes, Tomorrow Utopia”

Sept. 13: Allderblob

Sept. 9: ThatRadio.com, Toronto

Sept. 7: Toronto Star, “An Icon Shifts His Gaze to Everyday Life”

Sept. 5: CFRB-AM, John Moore Show, Toronto

Sept. 5: PROUD-FM, Shaun Proulx Show, Toronto

Sept. 5: CIUT-FM The Green Majority, University of Toronto

Sept. 5: CFRU-FM Wake Up!, University of Guelph, Ontario Canada

Sept. 6: Common Dreams “Building an Anti-Economy”

Sept. 4 (recorded in June 08) Steppin’ Out of Babylon

Sept.-October 2008 Orion MagazineBuilding an Anti-Economy” (excerpt from Nowtopia)

August 28: “Beyond Voting” in Counterpunch

August 26: “Beyond Voting” in TowardFreedom.com

August 26: Rocco Pendola’s A Distorted Reality

August 8 and 16 Pedal Driven, CKDU-FM, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Part 1 (mp3), Part 2 (mp3)

June 22 Mind Over Matters, KEXP-FM, Seattle, WA
Youtube version

June 22 Speakers Forum, Elliott Bay Books, KUOW-FM, Seattle, WA

June 21 from In Brief, newsletter of Earthjustice, Summer 2008:

Chris Carlsson has written a lively book.  In Nowtopia, Carlsson, a San Francisco cultural innovator and creative force behind the Critical Mass bike-ins that are now fixtures in over 300 cities worldwide, takes us on a tour of happenings at the edges of society that are redefining ways of thinking, working, and living.  Along the way, Carlsson deftly dissects and critiques what I would call our “Youtopian” society, in which individuals, largely isolated from one another, work for the privilege to consume.  Though Carlsson’s multifaceted cultural analysis is often riveting, the true power of Nowtopia is its practicality.  the ideas in this book are actionable.  Given that we’re undoubtedly at a turning point in history, Nowtopia just might serve as an essential guide book for how to move forward.  —Sam Edmondson,

June 10, Philly IMC: James Generic

June 4, Feminist Review

June 4, Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (mp3)

May 23, A Reading Odyssey

May 7, Columbia University Teachers College Symposium podcast

May 4, BillBlogx

April 28, GIY Guide

April 23, 2008 Against The Grain interview (1 hour) podcast

article on Nowtopia and future San Francisco in SF Bay Guardian
+ online Q&A with Erick Lyle

Release Party Reading (scroll down to April 9, 2008)

“This book explains clearly and colorfully just how ordinary revolution is, how millions of people live, not only within capitalism, but are creating through their activity the bases of what could be a different world. Amidst destruction and war, it is important to see our own strength and creativity. This is an exciting and lovely book.”

—John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power

“The revolution is underway, quietly and noisily, in a million ways, and Chris Carlsson—writer, instigator, bicyclist, boulevardier, urbanist, insurrectionist—has added to it in dozens of ways. This book is one of his finest, which is a lot to say of the main founder of the Critical Mass bicycle rides that spread from San Francisco around the world. It’s cheerful, hopeful, subversive, full of fun facts to know and share and very useful in carrying out your own revolution of everyday life and recognizing it all around you already: a standing—or walking, or pedaling or dancing—invitation to join in full enjoyment of our freedoms and potentials.”

—Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark, River of Shadows, and
A Field Guide to Getting Lost

“Chris Carlsson is one of our most original and compelling voices for radical social change in America. Nowtopia opens a window onto today’s vibrant subcultures of technical experimentation and cooperative work, in everything from biofuels to bicycling, gardening to the webworld. More than tinkerers and bohemians, these renegade innovators are pioneers of new ways of living beyond the market and ordinary jobs. Carlsson moves effortlessly from tales of personal liberation to a trenchant analysis of the reconfiguration of class. Nowtopia is a ringing appeal for the liberation of human creativity from the noose of wage-work—before it’s too late.”

—Richard Walker, Professor of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, author of The Capitalist Imperative, The Conquest of Bread, and The Country in the City

“How can today’s manifold projects for a new commons help realize the old dream of a world without bosses? Chris Carlsson’s thought-provoking book is a must-read for everyone grappling with that question.”

—Steve Wright, author of Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism