This Week’s Interview - Devon Zuegel

How quickly can you prototype a new community?

In this conversation, I sit down with Devon Zuegel of the Esmeralda Institute and Edge Esmeralda. We explore how a Solarpunk-inspired pop-up village in Northern California is creating new models for community, experimentation, and urban design.

We talk about what it means to build spaces that are human-scale, how aesthetics shape culture, and why California’s future still holds enormous promise.

Topics include:

• How Edge Esmeralda is shaping the design of a future permanent village

• Lessons learned from hosting 1,300 people in a pop-up city

• The real meaning of “solarpunk” (beyond the sci-fi aesthetics)

• Why California’s ‘resource curse’ demands bold experiments

• Building communities that can evolve, not just endure

If you care about the future of California — or the future of cities anywhere — this is a conversation worth hearing.

The episode is available on Youtube (above) or wherever you get your podcasts.

📍 Learn more about Edge Esmeralda: https://www.edgeesmeralda.com/

📬 Subscribe and you could win a CFS hat!: https://www.californiafuturesociety.com/subscribe

Chapters

00:00 Intro  
08:43 What is Edge Esmeralda?  
11:59 How Do You Prototype Community?  
14:55 Lessons and Highlights from Year 1  
22:46 Solarpunk and the Importance of Aesthetics  
30:35 Come to Edge Esmeralda!  
32:06 The California Identity  
35:40 Escaping Stagnation in California  
40:42 California's Resource Curse  
43:20 Approaching Local Politics  
49:44 Sources of Inspiration in California

Reader Submission - Art from Andrew!

This week one of my first subscribers shared some logo concepts he came up - check a few out below!