Featuring Adam Met

and as always, I can't wait for your feedback. Okay, Adam, I'm so excited that you're on my podcast because we have a lot to talk about. We're in a very strange time with a pandemic, and you are a huge actus and you're also a huge musician. Um, what has it been like working on your music in this pandemic?

Music has been really weird over the last eight months, and you know, we talk a lot about how we make all our music in our living room, and funny enough, a lot of artists have had to transition and make music the way we've made music our entire career, because now they have to make music in their bedroom, in their living room because they can't really go into big studios, and we've never worked in big studios, so I know a lot it's the pandemic has been really hard for

a lot of people. But professionally it's the process. Well for us, Yeah, we know what we're doing. I mean, I think that's what's so great is you know you first of all, you get to work in your living room. You don't have to work in a stay. Do you have that creative freedom? Um, has have you drawn any more inspiration or has it been hard to find inspiration during this pandemic when creating music, it's been It hasn't been that difficult to find inspiration, but it's a very

different kind of inspiration. So pre pandemic, the way the songwriting happens, Ryan and Jack do most of the songwriting, but they tend to look at the world around them like they are in college or they're going to parties where we're on tour, and the kind of look around them for for inspiration. But now the music we're writing is much more internally focused. We actually have time to explore our own minds and figure out, Okay, what's happening in these shadows over here is it more you know,

nostalgic or is it more self reflective? And it's it's having us create a different kind of music. And you know, our song Bang is about that transition between being a kid and being an adult and you know, actually having to eat keen wa because that's the adult thing to do, and you know, do what your taxes because you're supposed to do that as an adult. But post Bang, like are the last song we released as one called bummer Land,

and the songs are much more self reflective. And I think that's because we are being forced to be more self reflective during quarantine. I mean, how can you not be, especially when you're at home, when you can't keep distracting yourself with the work, you have to really focus on yourself. Do you make any discoveries during quarantine about yourself or any passions that you didn't know you had? Oh, that is a good question, Um, passions that I didn't know

that I had. I've always liked to cook, but I think I've been cooking two and three times as much, uh during quarantine. Um. I really like Asian food, so I've been making a lot of you know, noodle soups and dumplings and things like that. So I think I'm gonna take that with me after quarantine is over and continue to do that. I mean, that's an awesome skill too. I love cooking to have a favorite dessert to make, Oh, dessert.

I'm really bad at dessert. I tried to make um dessert once and it ended up tasting like soap because I used like the wrong I used either baking soda instead of baking powder, or baking power instead of baking soda. Still excuses me. Something that I'm really excited to talk to you about is how focused you are on sustainability and the environment and how we can become more eco friendly UM as a society. So for those who don't know, how would you describe what it is to reduce your

carbon footprint? Yeah, so it's a really interesting concept. The term carbon footprint was actually coined by BP, the oil company, which is really surprising. That's contradictive, Yeah, exactly. UM. BP came up with this term after there was a massive oil spill and wanted to put the burden on individual people instead of them taking the blame themselves for making the environment a better place. So right off the bat,

we have problems in the environmental space. So something that I work on a lot is this idea of individual responsibility versus corporate and government government responsibility. And yes, it would be amazing if everybody you know, switched to paper straws. But even if every single person in the world switched to paper straws, that would do almost nothing to help

protect the environment what we really need to do. And yeah, and I know there have been a lot of campaigns about straws, and you see, you know, turtle swimming in the ocean with straws up their noses and that. Yes, of course it's terrible, But even if we got rid of all the plastic straws, it would be point o o o one per cent of the work we need to do. The best thing we could possibly do is convince the companies where that we buy things from to

actually make changes on their side. There are some amazing companies out there. There's a shoe company called All Birds who is incredible that makes their shoes completely sustainable. And Microsoft just made a huge announcement that actually developed plane fuel that doesn't put any carbon into the atmosphere. So if we can support companies that are making really big sweeping changes, and if we can choose somebody like All

Birds over another shoe company. You know, shoes, if you think about it, Actually the shoes that you're wearing on your feet are made mostly of plastic which are made from petroleum. So essentially people are walking around with big buckets of oil on their feet and they don't even think about it that way. So if your choices can help companies that are doing a really good job with sustainability, that's how we're going to make the biggest change. Okay,

so many questions. First of all, just to break it down for people who including myself, who aren't as aware of sustainability as I should be, because I think this needs to be talked about. More carbon, Yeah, what is it? What is it made of? How does it affect the Earth? Yes, carbon is a molecule, and if you look at the periodic table of elements, if you're in middle or high school, you're probably learning about the periodic table um carbon see um.

One of the greenhouse gases that goes into the atmosphere from driving cars, planes, transportation, anything like that, is something called CEO too, which is one carbon molecule and two oxygen molecules and that goes up into the atmosphere, and what it does is we're increasing the number of those molecules that are going up into the atmosphere and it's warming the planet, which means that the polar ice caps are going to start to melt, sea levels are gonna rise.

It's going to make the areas around the equator harder to live in. Plants are not going to be able to grow as easily, and we are killing off a lot of different species, especially insects. Climate change is very controversial, which I don't understand why because science is science. You can't scientists facts. It's it's not about opinion in that way. Um, what can we do to make it so the world

doesn't keep getting warmer? One, it's voting for people who have really good records on climate change and are saying they're committed to it. Um. Number two, it's getting out into the street and making your boy has heard. And number three it's it's what I call the micro influencer. And they don't have massive social media platforms. They have, you know, a few hundred or a few thousand followers on social media, but the people who are following them

are their friends and their family. Yeah, you're much more likely to listen to advice from your friends and your family then you are from a celebrity. So as a micro influencer, you have a lot more power over your community than somebody who has millions of followers. I was doing a lot of just try and do as much advocating for this past election, and something I kept telling people is that there's always someone that will listen to

you that won't listen to anyone else. For those who don't think, Okay, climate change, it's not going to affect me, What do you say to them? Why should I care about it? Climate change affects every single person. Um, I know you have listeners here in the United States and probably around the world. If you think about what's happening in Detroit and access to water, climate changes affecting you. The indigenous communities around the United States, the Native Americans

very much affected by climate change. Even the heat waves across California that have caused these enormous forest fires are climate change related. New Orleans, Texas, and Florida across the South, the hurricanes, all of these are climate related effects. So you were past the point where we're saying, Oh, it's not affecting me, So then why don't people believe it? People don't believe it because they don't see the connection between the two. You know, you've heard about forest fires

your entire life. Oh, there was a forest fire and we need to put it out. They don't understand that the forest fires that are happening now are so much worse. What we need to do is really have a strong education. And that's something that I care about a lot. I mean, I've stayed in school for a long time and I'm almost done with my doctorate, But I think this kind of information should be being taught at elementary school level, middle stoo level, high school level. I find that so interesting,

and I'm just thinking back. My brother goes to college out in the West Coast and his school actually had to put out an evacuation notice because the air quality got so bad because of the fires, so he had to leave for a few days with his roommate. So that's because of climate change. Um, when did you find this passion? Was it through your through creating music? Was it before? Was it just through school? My passion for

climate and sustainability came through human rights. So we would travel the world as musicians, seeing people in all different types of communities and the thing that brought them together was our show. So we would go to you know, Moscow, Russia, and into Ukraine and all across Europe and Australia and US, Canada,

South America. And the fact that they didn't even speak our language but they would still be singing all our lyrics back to us made me think of the things that make us more that that that that make us more in common then make us different. That's not the right way of saying but more common we have more common ground with people in the division. That is the right way of saying it. Thank you for fixing that

for me. Um So I started thinking about, you know, okay, what are these things that divide us and what can we be doing aside from music to bring people together. And one of my degrees that I'm focusing on is human rights law and what can we do from a legal perspective to make sure everyone is protected? And climate change and sustainability became a key part of that because one of the big things around the world that is actually violating human rights laws are countries that are not

protecting their citizens from the effects of climate change. You've always talked about, you know, the connection between human rights and climate change. Would an example of this be what happened in Flint, michion In with the lead in the water. Absolutely, so, the US government did not protect people's right to water. Period They did not protect people's right to water. And it was a local failure and it was a national failure.

And yes, the fact that the right to water was violated makes it a climate problem because we need to look at how we can take water from the resources around us and bring it into people's homes. Now, I think this is so fascinating to me. And I know you started the nonprofit of Sustainable Partners, and I know you've also uh partnered with the u N, which is huge. How did that come about? Did you approach them? And also I'm always curious and like the behind the scenes,

the business side of things. How do you make that kind of initiative actually happen. Yeah, it's a really good question. I mean I started working with the u N a couple of years ago because they were looking for ale to help especially translate their really complex scientific ideas around sustainability and make them accessible to younger people to understand, Okay, what really is happening with climate change? How can we

fix problems of poverty and education? And that partnership with the u N developed into, you know, a much deeper partnership. We did something with I Heart Radio where we recorded a series of p s a S Public service announcements that ended up reaching over eighty million people, educating them about sustainability. And it's crazy, but that only happened because

of partnerships. And that's one of the reasons why I named my nonprofit Sustainable Partners, because the only way that we're going to amplify this messaging is through developing really strong partnerships. That is so incredible, and I think if we all joined together and become partners, I really think

that we can accomplish some really great things. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, I'm going to talk more about your nonprofit Sustainable Partners, how you and your brothers have figured out a way to minimize your carbon footprint on tour, and how your passion for sustainability has impacted your music career. We'll be right back, and we're back. Something that I also want to talk about is I know, you've found a way to become very sustainable on tour um and I think

that's so awesome. But how do you do that? Because tour you know, you're on buses, a lot, your on planes, you're in hotels, there's a lot of drinks. Like, how how did you manage for that to happen? Yeah, it was a slow and a long process, and at this moment, there is no perfect solution. It's more expensive to tour sustainably than it is to tour not sustainably, and it's just a reality right now, and hopefully within the next five years will come up with more and more solutions.

But one of the main things we do is something called carbon offsets, which essentially you can pay to pull the carbon out of the atmosphere that you put into the atmosphere, and you can pay to do that through planting trees, pulling plastic out of the ocean, and a bunch of different offsetting mechanisms. Yeah. Yeah, So when we fly, we calculate how much carbon we've put into the atmosphere on the course of that flight, and we pull that

amount of carbon out of the atmosphere. It's not a perfect solution because We're still putting the carbon into the atmosphere to begin with, but it is something that can slow down. Yeah, exactly. What It's something that I find really refreshing. Is I am so fascinated by the education system and the importance of it. What do you love so much about learning because you keep going back to school? Yeah,

I keep going back to school. Um, And I have to say, it does get very expensive, and I understand that that is a big barrier for people that the education system in this country, in the US in particular, is too expensive. And I know a lot of the people running for office, you know, I want to forgive college debt and support that. But to actually answer your question, I really love learning new things in ways that are interdisciplinary.

And what I mean by that is I would never try and go get a degree in something like biochemistry, and I know a lot of people would, but that's just not the way my mind works. I am studying the relationship between law and sustainability, and that takes into account everything from law, science, humanities, sociology, anthropology, marketing, communications.

I like looking at things in terms of systems, and that means the way things relate to each other and the connections between things, and that's how our world functions. And of course I don't blame people that are just going into study biochemistry, because yes, that is an incredibly interesting field. But I care about the connections between things, and the academic world has allowed me to explore those

to my heart's content. I'm applying to colleges. Now, what advice do you have about the college experience that you can share, or even advice that you wish someone had told you before undertaking this entire experience. I would say, don't underestimate the value of a year off, either you know, right before you go to college or even after you do a year or two of college, taking a break

in the middle. I really advocate for that. I did my first year of school and then I took a year off to do a little bit of traveling, but also to just take some time and breathe. And I know some people can't afford that opportunity, and I feel very you know, blessed that I was able to do that. But taking time that's just for you as an individual right now, especially in the middle of COVID. I couldn't advocate for them more. I think I think we all need to focus on our mental health. I think that

plays a big part in everything. To go back to the music to tie it all in with all this, UM has this education that you've continue to pursue and your passion for sustainability and law and human rights influence are impacted the way you want to create music, UM or market your music. Yeah, that is a really good question. UM. I struggle every day with how to incorporate the work that I'm doing outside of music with the rest of

my music career. I mean, you you hit the nail on the head, but I think there are elements of it that we've its way into our music. UM. Our song Burned the House Down is a perfect example. We wrote it just because we were observing that our generation around us and the amazing change that they were able to that people were able to create just by marching in the streets. And then the March for Our Lives campaign picked up the song and started using it as

their theme song. UM. Yeah, they are. There are such amazing and amazing group of people who have created real change in the world. And I mean, on on my podcast that I have I interviewed one of the founders and the organizing director for that, and we've become really good friends, and that happened through the music. So anything we can do to allow the music to inspire people to make a change and a difference in their own world, I would say that's one. And then the second thing

is using our platform. I mean we if you look at our website right now, our website doesn't look like a normal artist's website. It gives you information about how to advocate for those in your community that need the most, how to find UM elected officials that are doing the most to fight inequality, UM and to fight for climate. So we want to use our platform absolutely as much as possible to help. I think that's so awesome. Where

do you see yourself continuing this? Is it to keep pursuing education, is it to get into legislation, Is it to incorporate it more in your music? Or is it all of the above. It is all of the above. I mean, I'll be done with my PhD. Knock on wood. You know, if I pass my dissertation, UM, I should be handing it in April or May, and then I'll be done with that. UM. But I see myself continuing to be in school. I'd love to write more in a way that's accessible because you know, when you're in school,

you write for a very particular audience. But I'd love to write more op eds and articles for you know, different outlets and magazines to help make sustainability something that is more accessible to people, because you're you're right, it's very complicated and it's very difficult for people to understand. Okay, what can I do about this? I want to be the person who can help make clear what we can

do to make this change. Have your brothers also found have the same passion or is this something that you just kind of carry on and translate? Um, they do a lot of other things outside of music. Um, this passion for activism is not as much part of their life, but they support it tremendously. But they do a lot

of other things. They write for a lot of other artists. UM. There in the middle of doing a pitching a TV show, UM that they wrote the first season four, And they are also in the middle of working on a Broadway show that a producer approached them to write. That's great. I think that's so cool that you can all you're not all doing the same things, and you can you know, enjoy these different parts of life of bringing all together

and how is that? How has that been working with your family for what has it been like fifteen years? How how how is that has it made her relationship stronger? Has it been tough at some points because it can be hard to work with your family. It is definitely made our relationships stronger. We grew up in a tiny apartment in New York City. The three of us shared the same room until I left for college, which was

pretty crazy. We had triple bunk beds um but working together has been was like a little bit of a struggle in the beginning, and then the three of us found our lanes, Like Ryan is so good at producing the music and Jack is really good at coming up with those catching melodies, and I kind of fell into this space that's more focused on the business and marketing side, and I found that I've excelled there, you know, figuring out how to take the music and work that they

do and presented to the public, whether it's the kind of content that we're posting on social media. The strategies for rolling out our albums are radio campaigns and working with my heart. Um. That is where where I've found that I excel in the fact that we each respect each other's expertisees has allowed us to grow to the size that we are. I think it's so incredible and it's really refreshing to still do what you love but also have other things on the side and not have

it rely on one specific thing. Um, if you could collaborate with any artists, not for a song or single, but with this, with sustainability, who would it be? And why? Oh that is such a good question and a question that I've never been asked anything like before. See Okay, I'm sorry. That's for someone You guys get interviewed a lot. That's like it, that's like, that's like my goals, has questions that you've never gotten. That makes me happy. Awesome. Um,

let me think. So there are a few people, Now these aren't necessarily music artists. These are you know, celebrities and other forms. But Leonardo DiCaprio has done an unbelievable job in making bio diversity something that's really really important and it's not just oh, I'm going to do some sort of vanity campaign because I know that the world is in danger. He has done his homework, He has

educated himself. He really understands the problems that are going on in the world, and he has a platform and if you look at his Instagram, I don't know cent about of it at awareness. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty amazing. And to be able to use his platform and collaborate on something, I would say, Leo DiCaprio, Okay, let's let's manifest it. I feel like I could see that you Thenard DiCaprio, the U N we have to take one

more quick break. But when we come back, I want to talk about how we can all make an impact and get involved to help our world. We'll be right back, and we're back for people of all ages, because I know for a while I was struggling to not know how to become an activist and how to make the change, because you know, sometimes it's when you're young, you're not taking as seriously. How can anyone get started? How can anyone get started? Look at Greta on Burke. She's awesome,

She's amazing. She went on strike from school for I don't know, almost a hundred weeks, just her outside sitting with a sign saying that she was striking for the climate, and she would do it every single Friday. And first it was just her for weeks and weeks and weeks, and then there were three students, then there were a hundred, then there were ten thousand, and then when we were touring.

I've spoken at climate strikes all around the world. I marched in one in Austria, I spoke in one in Omaha, did one in Chicago, in Australia, all these different places. She created a movement. And there are two organizations. One is called Friday's for Future, which is the one that she works with, which is amazing and anybody of any age can get involved in very simple ways. The other one is a great one that's based in the US.

It's called Sunrise, the Sunrise Movement. They are amazing and they helped to get a lot of people elected, and they helped to write Joe Biden's climate policy. And I know that sounds really crazy, like yeah, it's people who are from ten fourteen years old all the way through adults working on this together. That makes me happy. I feel like we should all come together more and I hope that will happen in that we have more unity as a society and we all take climate change more seriously.

For just to give people a sense if we don't address climate change, what will happen to the earth? Oh, that is a very sad thought. So there are islands around the world that will no longer exist. There will there are islands in the southeast that will just completely be covered in water. If you think about Florida and Texas, which are you know, the southernmost places in the continental United States, they will become uninhabitable. It will be too

hot for people to live in those places. Um the smoke that you see in California because of the wildfires that will exist across the world. And then finally, there are many other things, but finally, access to water is going to become incredibly difficult. You you've seen videos, you know of people in the middle of Africa who don't have running water, who actually have to walk to a well to get water. Water is going to start to be rationed. It's one of our most valuable resources right now.

Even the biggest investors in the world are starting to invest in water because they know that that's something that is going to become really scarce if we don't fix climate change. WHOA and I think you know, I've been trying to educate myself more in these issues. And I believe it was in France that they're really making water clean, water more accessible. How do we make those kind of initiatives happen in the US, because I feel like a lot of other countries are more advanced in that and

in sustainability. Yeah, it's true, and a lot of it is going to come from political will, meaning what politicians are doing. And politicians are only going to know what to do if we tell them what to do. You know, politicians work for us. We get to fire them four years, like we just did. You know we we fired somebody just now. Um, So we need to make it very clear what we're looking for from the people that that

work for us. It's our tax sellars that literally pay their salaries and give them the budgets to do what we want to do. So, like we were talking about before, this idea of the micro influencer sharing these ideas. I mean, you you learned about France and the access to water and that they can filter water in the systems that they have built throughout the entire city. It's amazing what

they're doing in Paris. If we can just spread education about that and as we're going out and marching with these organizations like I mentioned, if we're looking for specific, concrete change, that's how we're gonna make it happen. It all comes down to education, honestly, it does. It absolutely does. And education doesn't just mean going to school. Education means taking the time that you're you know, scrolling through social media. There are millions of accounts that are amazing and teach

you about things. And it doesn't just have to be you know, Dam's challenges, as great as those are, um, there are TikTok accounts that teach us about sustainability. There Instagram accounts that teach about it. It's a great way to kind of sprinkle in your vegetables along with your dessert. It totally does. Honestly, during this past election, I was I started following different accounts that fact check the news and all that, and it gave me the one minute

recap of everything I need to know an interesting way. So, but make sure make sure it's reliable whatever source you do. I think that's something that I realized. You always have to fact check absolutely, and fact checking doesn't really take that long. People say, oh you have to fact check, you have to fact check. Yes, if you find a source that you've gone through a few of their different articles or videos and you double check the information, you

can rely on that source. You don't need to fact check every single thing that they post. You know, you know that they're reliable and you can go to them as your go to source. One that I really recommend is now This Now This is an amazing account. Follow them on YouTube awesome. Yep. They do videos, they're really short, easy to understand, and they have a great focus on sustainability.

So every season, I've been trying to highlight different charities and nonprofits to bring awareness to things because I've been feeling really helpless this year like so many people. So I want to shout out your nonprofit, Sustainable Partners, because what you're doing is so important. So please tell people how they can donate, get involved because what you're doing with this organization is incredible. Definitely, we do so many

different things. We work with businesses, we work with individuals, we work with I Heart, and we work with the u n UM. You can go to our website which is Sustainable Partners, Inc. Dot org and we have a donate page. But one of the really cool things you can do if you don't have money to donate is listen to our podcast. It's called Planet Reimagined, and for every person that subscribes to the podcast, we plant a treat.

So even just hitting that subscribe button, you are helping us to be more sustainable and the world to be more sustainable. I love that. That's awesome. Okay, that's incredible, And Adam, I just want to thank you for coming on my podcast. What you're doing is so inspiring and it makes me want to take more action in the world. Again. If you haven't already, go check out Sustainable Partners. Thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you for having me.

I hope you guys like this week's episode of the Let's Be Real podcast. If you have not already, don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment and share this podcast with so many love. As always, don't forget to follow me on Instagram at It's Sammy J. That's I T S S A M M Y J A y E. I hope you guys have a great rest of your day and I'll see you next time. Bye, guys.