Storytelling for Today's Climate

She is the founder of the nonprofit Good Energy. She's released a playbook for screenwriting The Age of Climate Change, And we do want to point out Bloomberg Philanthropy is the philanthropy of philanthropy arm of Bloomberg Alpy, which of course is owned by Michael R. Bloomberg, provides support for Good Energy initiatives. And Anna Jane joins us via zoom from Alabama. Anna Jade's so great to have you here

with Tim and myself. Um, how are you and tell us a little bit about what you all are doing. So great to be here. Thank you for having me. Um. Yeah. Good Energy was created to support TV, film writers and other content creators to portray climate in television and film, particularly scripted television and film, and that is because there is almost none, no climate portrayal, very little currently happening,

and we want to dramatically change that. What what is climate portrayal when you look up in terms of mainstream media, when you look up at the screen and you see the way that that stories are being told. What story is missing right there when it comes to the climate. Yeah, well,

first of all, pretty much any story. We worked with us the s Media Impact Project to do an analysis of how often climate is being portrayed in in scripted television and film and it is two point eight percent um between and that includes thirty six adjacent keywords like solar panels and C level right, so it really looks at not only the terms associated with climate change, but

all these adjacent conversations. It could indicate that climate is being portrayed and that is far too low for the fact that we are overwhelmingly experiencing it and feeling it in our real lives, and if characters were alive in our real world would be as well, and that should

be reflected in our stories. But we talked about it really across the spectrum, everything from just casually and kind of authentically coming up in uh conversation for shows that are already on air two more kind of full on in depth films or shows where climate is a major

part of the character driver apply. But in gen I want to understand how how these stories are are, how you'd like to see these stories and these narratives woven into what's existing and what's coming, because I think I think it's fair to say it would be a misconception to think that it would be your hope for these stories to be about climate change. What you're saying is you just need to see representation of the issues in some way or in some accurate portrayal in what's out

there in what's coming. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a story about sea level rise or a story about alternative energy. Right. Absolutely, of course we do want to see more climate focus stories, but really what we're talking about is just an honest reflection of the world

that we're living in on screen. And that one of the screenwriters that has been an advisor to us, and it's one of the few who has actually written climate stories and the Handmads Tale and Scott ze Burns new Apple Plus show Exacolations, which will be coming out next year. Her name is Dorothy fort Berry, and she has this great line that if your story doesn't have climate in it,

its science fiction. And what we're seeing is this very strange divorce between the films and the shows that we love in the worlds of those stories and the world that we actually live in. Um. And you know, all you know of Americans, according to Washington Post, live in accounty that experienced a climate disaster last year. And you know, we're all physically feeling the differences, were emotionally and psychologically feeling the differences, and we need to see those experiences

reflected to us on screen. UM. That's what a lot of historians think that that's why human being started telling stories was to process kind of, uh, the hard, difficult, you know, tragedies and and realities of being alive. And yet we don't have uh, that way of processing emotion but also helping us to envision a better future in our stories. And that's a really big problem, I mean, and it's so important when we you know, we talk

about right this conflict that we are right now. In terms of social media, so many people are getting their news from social media. There's so much misinformation out there. Uh and you know, so we think about all the content that's out there, and while it may be you know, entertainment, it is very influential in terms of shaping the public narrative. Tell me how that kind of has come into your

thinking with all of this? Oh, how different percentage someone I've been working in the climate space since I It's the only thing I've ever done is an adult. Um, I'm coming up on fifteen years and there's you know, of course creatively and as a human, I really want to see more of these stories. I live on the Gulf Coast where you know it's very harrowing and increasingly harry because of climate. So I I want to see more of those stories just because I'm a human being.

It needs to see my experience reflective and on screen. But also from a strategy perspective, you know, we know that stories are way way more effective at moving people emotionally than data and facts. And you know, if science and and and facts we're going to help us win on climate change, that would have happened a long time ago. But what we've really been missing our our stories that can really move us emotionally across a lot of different emotions.

You know what you need stories that help give us courage, stories that help process grief and anxiety, and we really just don't have any right now. We're gonna do a little bit of news, but we'll come back and continue and I want to get We want to kind of pick your brain on like who's doing it well maybe who hasn't in terms of climate change and weaving it into you know, a genre or a storyline. I'm really

really curious about that. And I've thought about this with masks, you know, seeing TV and movies with masks like that has been kind of important. It's weird for me to see them without masks. Like I'm watching you know, new episodes of things and there's no masks there. I'm like, Okay, where is everybody right now? I want to get back to our guest still with us is Anna Jane Joyner. She's found a director of Good Energy, UH, and we've been talking about the playbook for screenwriting in the Age

of Climate Change. She's still with us on zoom from Alabama. We mentioned. Bloomberg Philanthropy is the philanthropic arm of Bloomberg gl P, owned by Michael Bloomberg, provides support for good energy initiatives. So Anna Jane, So you see a lot of content, you work with a lot of provide who's done it really well? Yeah, I would say, um, there's we are actually about to release data this summer that shows, um which which different streamers and cable and networks have

the highest percentages of climate mentions and portrayals. They're all very low, but we'll be able to see through that. But I mean some of the stories that come to mind that I really loved Madam's Secretary UM, which did a whole episode, three episode arc on climate and just had a really beautiful story about a family kind of a father daughter relationship that was very emotional UM and then also a climate migration story that was very powerful.

So they I think they did an exceptionally good job

on that show. And then probably one of my other favorites UM, where it was a more in depth storyline, is Big Lotalized did a kind of a b story on climate anxiety um A the We're All Hats suffers from climate anxiety, and it was just done in a way that was one funny, like it took, you know, a comedic approach, but also I was following the Twitter conversation when that was happening, and so many people were responding like, oh my god, I didn't know that that

other people were experiencing this anxiety. You know, this little girl represents how I'm feeling, and that is like the great power of film is it validates our emotions and that allows us to be h have more agency and courage and knowing that we're not alone. Um. And then I love it when it just kind of comes up in passing conversation and we know from working with climate psychologists, UM,

that that's really important to validating the audiences. All Right, So talk to me about don't look up like, uh, did they do it well? How did you think that? I mean, it was kind of dark, to say the least. Um, I feel like it was just an interesting take on it. Um, it's a movie actually I like, but it was disturbing. How did you feel about that? I? I mean I personally loved the movie. I think that one. It's just so well written. I think did you work with them?

I didn't. I helped support a little bit here, but not not in depth with that movie. No. Um. Oh, I was just gonna say I thought it did I thought just from a writing perspective, it clearly showed that you can do this in a way that it's very entertaining and comedic, and that's a big hurdle. We spoke to over a hundred TV and film writers to inform the playbook, and that was one of the big hurdles is feeling like you can't write about it in a way that isn't preachy and didactic. Um, So I'm really

glad that they opened that door. It also proved that you can make a lot of money off of climate and focused stories, which helps open the doors to other to more content. And then, of course, like we need, another big hurdle we encountered in our research is that writers were associating climate stories with apocalypse stories, so in their mind there wasn't a difference. And that's the major purpose of the playbook is to really open up the

menu of possibilities. And of course, Don't Look Up is an apocly up story, and we want we want a poplyp stories in this since they show us where we don't want to go, but that can't be the only story we're seeing on screen. We also need stories of where we do want to go and how we're experiencing it now and a much bigger variety of the kinds

of stories. It's interesting that you that you talk about it with that framing, uh Anna Jane, because Carol and I were talking to the break and I mentioned to her, you know, I think with with entertainment, we want to escape. And you know, one challenge I see with presenting storylines like this is this is a very depressing thing for a lot of people to talk about, and it does, I think, evoke a lot of anxiety and people. So how do you do this in a way that doesn't

leave people thinking to themselves, Well, this wasn't escapism for me. Yeah, I mean, I think there are lots of ways. That's another hurdle we definitely came up against. I think, for one, that's not true for all audiences. Like we've saw, we see from Handmad's tale from Squid Game that there's a lot of really content that does really, really well that it isn't just you know, kind of positive comedic escapism. Um, so we pushed back against the idea that that's the

only kind of entertainment that does well. But on the flip side, you can we've climate into stories that are that are super you know, kind of fun and escapesm you know, it's happening. It's happening in our real lives. And there's still comedy and drama and absurdity and romance

um in in our actual lives. And so I think that any storied, regardless of whether or not it's a comedy or a dramedy or a horror show or um any number of genres, should be able to weave this into the fabric of the story that reflects our our actual world and our actual experience. And there are lots of ways to do that commedically and kind of more lighthearted. Um it's always Donny in Philadelphia did a hilarious episode

on climate change. The Politician on Netflix had a whole season where climent it was a major driver, and it was super funny and very well received by audiences. So there's good examples. There's not enough of them, but there there are some good examples of it coming up in a more lighthearted way in addition to the more kind of serious and somber, sort of psychologically driven ways. And

I'm curious to how busy are you? How often are people reaching out to to say, like you know, here's what we're thinking of doing, Like, how can you advise us? And I'm just curious about that because I just kind of speaks to the uptick and people saying, wait, we've got to incorporate this and somehow. Yeah, it's We've had a really positive reception for sure. We started piloting this project in two thousand nineteen, which unfortunately was the year

where the fires were really really bad. A lot of people, a lot of the writers that we we've spoken to and work with, have had to evacuate their experience in climate. They have a lot of anxiety about climates. So I think that there's a much bigger appetite and openness in the industry itself, which is, you know, not great for climate, but it's good for telling more stories about it. And um, yeah,

we are very busy. There's a lot of and you know, this isn't like a kind of other big social issues like war or you know, like women's rights, so that have you have you know, hundreds of different films or shows that have tackled those issues. So there's some precedent and there's some something to go, you know, to inspire,

give you guidance and telling your own stories. And because climate is just so new and there's so little of it, there is a lot of an interest in support on how our hope is that we work ourselves out of business and people this takes off and then there's no need for distracudens, but right now there is. Well, we came back from milking and everybody's talking a S G and you know, certainly talking about the environment. Uh, and just didn't rain at all because it never rains. It

never rains in California. Anna, Jane, thank you so much. Really Uh, enlightening to talk with you. And Jane Joyner found of the nonprofit Good Energy, a playboo for screenwriting in the age of climate change. Bloomberg Philanthropy is the philanthropic arm of Bloomberg ALP. He does provide support for good energies initiatives.