When the great science fiction author Octavia Butler wrote her masterpiece, Parable of the Sower, in 1993, she imagined her 15-year-old protagonist, Lauren Olamina, starting the Earthseed Journal on July 20th, 2024.
Though that date has only just passed, reporter Aina Marzia says Butler’s work resonates strongly with readers of Gen Z. In a new article for YES! that explores the source of this familiarity, Marzia argues that Butler’s solutions to late capitalism are inspiring a new generation grappling with the dystopian realities of our time.
Marzia, a journalist from El Paso, Texas, and a freshman at Princeton University, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on “YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali” about Butler’s enduring popularity, especially among young people.
Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021 building on a long and illustrious career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist and the host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated TV and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also a senior correspondent for the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project, where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit Women’s Mission to Afghanistan, which she helped co-found in 2000. She holds a master’s degree in astronomy from the University of Hawaii and a bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My journey from astrophysicist to radio personality” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.
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