How Adam McKay Got Climate Change on the Big Screen

How do you get people to care about climate change? Simple: Make a blockbuster movie about it, packed full of the biggest stars in Hollywood. At least, that was Adam McKay’s approach. The writer and director of ‘Don’t Look Up’ joins the show this week to discuss the film, which parodies society’s tepid response to impending disaster. ‘Don’t Look Up’ shattered Netflix viewership records, earning more than 152 million hours streamed in its first week. In making the film, McKay channeled his climate anxiety into action. We ask McKay about his own climate change journey, how he sold Hollywood on his message, and how the rest of us non-movie stars can still make a difference. Also: What’s the deal with the General charging for free snacks??

Guest: Adam McKay

Calls to Action:

• Show us your Climate Venn Diagrams!
• And just for fun, a list of all the movies we mention in the episode:
• Don’t Look Up
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Waterworld
• Snowpiercer
• The Tomorrow War
• Solarbabies
• The Ice Storm
• Breaking the Waves
• Hoosiers
• The Mighty Ducks

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Rachel Waldholz and Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Anna Ladd, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard Lonnie Ro with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines.

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