As promised, my friends, I'm back! This is Mama Bear Frey--coming at you "not exactly" live from the Queer Cave. I'm so excited for this week's topic, especially given our friends in Texas could use Mutual Aid and general support more than ever. With that, let's learn more about mutual aid. We'll first chat about the emergent themes of care. Where did care likely emerge from? What is the promiscuity of care? We will cover three fundamentals of mutual consent, then, the three key elements of mutual aid. We describe how mutual aid is participatory in nature and requires collective action tactics. These ground-up tactics are the foundation of our consulting firm, Heliotactics LLC. Finally, we will talk about the difference between mutual aid and help, and how we can learn from communities at the margins to better form resilient teams for our future.

What is it about Care? What is it about the way that we create Mutual Aid, through care? Today's episode is called Systems of Care. And yes, we will connect it to solar energy, light, and some quirky quantum science! We are going to talk about different groupings of care today! In this kick-off to Season 2, we wanted to connect with you with more regularity. So, Season 2 episodes will drop every other Friday, starting today! We will find a way to chill out with all y'all for the rest of the weekend, you know?

Friends, tonight I am sharing an abbreviated (but still punchy!) reading of Ray Bradbury's short story "August 2026: The Will Come Soft Rains" (1950, published first in the May 6 issue of Collier's magazine). This story was later printed in Bradbury's compilation, The Martian Chronicles (Toronto, Bantam Books, 1985, pp 166-172). On August 5, 1945, the United States detonated a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Both creatives share echoes of the wars that generated each work. NOTE: All errors are mine, and I hope Ray and Sara don't both roll over in their graves at this creative telling of a great poem of apocalypse and a horrific tale of post-nuclear bombing horrors. We do NOT need more zombies tonight! HT and hugs to Lars S-B and Ronica S-B for suggesting this creative piece!

Today's session will be stories of integrative design in the 2009 Penn State Solar Decathlon enterprise, and how it changed They Frey forever…might even be responsible for being a podcaster now that we think of it. Join us! Once again centering the stories from the margins, and working to disrupt the assumptions and norms of the energy industry, as solar power enters into its leading place for energy conversion.

Today's stories are going to be built around what we measure and what we value, as practices of worlding (changing the world), and as lived experiences with impact as we pass on. We honor the essential journalistic work of loud and proud, Black trans historian, Monica Roberts, who's sudden passing on October 8th rocked the transgender community. We share a second story of homework (yes!) and how sometimes...you can get the right answer to a question in school or at work, and completely misunderstand the topic material, the concept. Sometimes our own right answer cannot be measured by the people around us. And sometimes we are simply not even measured by social systems that have excluded us from mattering, completely. Show Notes: Monica Roberts: https://theglowup.theroot.com/transgriot-blogger-and-advocate-monica-roberts-a-pione-1845319720 https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/834713240222998/ What is a Griot? https://www.abhmuseum.org/about/what-is-griot/

Today we offer up a short cast between episodes on the Solar TransFusion. Telling you a story of Frey as a young researcher in Paris in the early 2000s, and the importance of lunch with colleagues. We manage to bring diffraction, measure, and value into the stories as well. Also! Stay tuned to the end when They Frey asks for your own shout outs to share on future episodes!!!