In Des Moines, Iowa (the traditional, ancestral, unceded land of the Báxoǰe, Sauk, and Meskwaki peoples), along the stretch of highway-turned-metro-transit hub i-235, communities of ecosocialists and ecomodernists are in an ideological struggle to make real their own visions for the future. This is a land of suburban agri-jungles, community-scale 3D printers, and up-to-two-story-tall battery-powered mecha. The federal government has become mostly irrelevant to people's everyday lives, as communities have been largely self-sufficient for decades. This story is created through a handful of independently-produced roleplaying games (Salvage Union, Ecopunk 2044, and others) as a call and response between ecosocialists revolting against a technofeudalist occupation and the civilians dealing with the aftermath of such large-scale violence in a city that is as vital and beloved to them as it is to the show’s co-creators today. 235 bloom also features seven guests to help scaffold the future in which this story takes place in three prologue episodes.
235 bloom is a collaboration between Des Moines & Dragons and The Institute for Manufactured Futures. It is a work of speculative fiction taking place in the year 2089. The locations may be real, but any similarity to actual persons or their descendants is unintentional.
[[coming 2024]]
Producers: Paul Privitera + Jordan Lee Thompson
Story: Paul Privitera + Jordan Lee Thompson + guests
Audio Editing / Sound Engineering: Jordan Lee Thompson
Music: Goatfoam (Javier Lopez)
Additional Music: Isac Lundholm + Tommy Ljungberg
Cover Art: Maddy Fusco
Other Imagery: Jordan Lee Thompson
Special Thanks: Lisa Irey, Dan Umthun, Anniessa Antar, Tony Williams, Jennings Merganthal, Annelise Tarnowski, Tony Tandeski, The Rook Room, Alexander Anderson, Jeff Knopf, Nick Studer, Aydın Yaman, Liping Vong, Courtney Gunderson, Katie Privitera, the Des Moines & Dragons podcast collective, and everyone else whose conversations and stories informed the process behind 235 bloom.