Podcasting about the Climate Crisis
Do you want to make a climate change podcast?
There's good reason to!
Climate change podcasts have the potential to be incredibly compelling. They have a way of making complex, often scary and distant issues feel more personal.
And if we want to move towards a more sustainable world, we need more people to feel like they’re part of the conversation, and like they have agency in the issue.
Luckily, in the last couple of years, podcasts about climate change have gone mainstream. They’re available in virtually every format, from investigative podcasts like Drilled, to conversational, comedy podcasts like Sustainababble. They cover all the angles, from technological fixes to climate justice.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you’re considering joining the conversation, but are unsure where to start.
Balancing doom and gloom with solutions
While there's no overstating the climate crisis, overwhelming listeners with too much doom and gloom can backfire. Striking the right balance when communicating about climate change is challenging. Production teams must convey a sense of urgency about what’s at stake, but be careful not to trigger hopelessness — which can cause audiences to switch off.
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, host of Gimlet’s How To Save A Planet, told The Guardian their goal is to motivate people to participate in change by using their unique skill sets, like fundraising or research, rather than shame people and ask them all to do the same things, like change their diets and fly less.
Anna Ladd, a producer on How to Save a Planet adds that another balancing act that frequently comes up in production meetings is individual action versus systems change, and how those two things interact with each other.
““We don’t want to discourage people from doing actions that ground them in their values, or act as an on-ramp to bigger actions, but we also don’t want to give the idea that those actions alone are enough to tackle climate change.””
“So that’s something we listen for and think about a lot when figuring out what angle to talk about these issues from, and when writing the calls to action for each episode.”
Why are we so hesitant to change?
On the The David Suzuki podcast, scientist and filmmaker Ian Mauro explains why we still haven’t seen the level of mobilization needed to fix the climate crisis—despite being hit over the head with climate change facts for decades. He says that according to previous communications theory, there was an “information deficit model” that saw people as empty vessels.
“[It was believed that] “if you fill them up with enough facts, [people] will make the right decisions. But we know that’s not how it actually works.””
We now know that beliefs are actually shaped by the social groups that people consider themselves to be a part of, such as political, or religious groups. And “confirmation bias” makes people look for information that is consistent with what they already think, leading them to dismiss information that will require them to change their minds.
As Adam Grant, author of Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know explained in this episode of Well Said, most of us go into defense mode if the ideas that we believe in are threatened. Unfortunately, climate change facts are often at odds with people’s belief systems.
And word choice matters; research into the psychology of climate change communications has shown that metaphor use can activate emotions in a way that leads to action. For example, “war” as a metaphor can convey a sense of urgency and risk, and has even been used by U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In her proposal for a Green New Deal, she called for “a new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II."
However, some researchers argue that declaring war on climate change may not be the most effective metaphor in the long-run and may lead people to feel disappointed, since there will never be a clear victory over global warming.
But, if facts and framing haven’t been enough to change people’s minds and influence their behaviour in a way that benefits the planet, what will?
The Power of Story
The human brain is hard-wired for story. Narrative is how we make sense of the world around us and helps us cultivate compassion for others’ lived experiences.
Lisa Johnson is a producer on CBC’s award-winning What On Earth podcast. The show has tackled a range of climate change issues, from how the finance industry is adapting to how climate change will impact Canadian winters.
Johnson says that although people may perceive the impacts of climate change to be far away in time and space, sharing personal stories of those affected by climate change helps listeners to empathize and realize that the problem is here and now.
She says that podcasting is especially suited to personal storytelling.
““[Podcasting] has the intimacy of radio, but then you can also do these deep dives into a story. If you have characters facing a problem, it can really draw people into a topic that to some, may feel is repetitive, or too technical, or is a bummer. Even stories that are hard to listen to are still compelling to our brains.””
As a science journalist, she says that another way of finding a human connection is to tell the story of the scientist who’s trying to figure something out. “That's really a hero on a quest in a way,” she says.
Anna Ladd looks at Reddit — on subreddits that have nothing to do with climate change for story ideas that will engage listers.
“Like, you can see what people who are into Animal Crossing, or former Jehovah’s Witnesses, or 90 Day Fiancé fans are thinking about climate, and where it overlaps with their little niche,” she says. “And seeing how climate touches everything in that way informs a lot of my thinking, especially in trying to tell stories that feel more human.”
The Narrative Deficit in the Climate Movement
David Suzuki Foundation co-founder Tara Cullis says that there has been a deficit of arts, narrative, and storytelling in the climate conversation; an overemphasis of left over right brain thinking. In broad strokes, the left hemisphere of the brain controls linear, logical thought, while the right hemisphere is the holistic, emotional, artistic side.
““We need to balance the left and the right brain... this great rise in the power of scientific, or “left brain” thinking, has led to terrific scientific advances, but it also simultaneously devastated our ecosystems.””
“[Left brain thinking] has driven out a lot of holistic thinking from much of industry, business, and government. We’ve learned to value the world quantitatively in terms of numbers, and finances, and devalue the whole diverse world of emotion, and systems, and meaning. We’ve learned to look at the world as a set of resources and to forget that it is home,” she says.
We need stories that help us envision different ways of relating to nature
So what kind of narratives do we need more of? In an article for TIME, climate reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis writes about how movies like Black Panther could help us save the planet. “The stories that we tell about ourselves and our place in the world are the raw materials from which we build our existence.”
The stories we’re currently telling ourselves are hurting us.
She describes the many dystopian narratives we have in the Western world that pit human beings against nature, and fixate on technological solutions to climate change. People also seem to resonate more with the stories of space colonization than those about reducing greenhouse gas emissions on Earth.
She points to Black Panther’s vision of Wakanda as an example of the kind of story that lets us imagine humans living in equilibrium with the planet. It “tells a story in which humans have become technologically sophisticated while maintaining a flourishing relationship with their surrounding environment,” she says.
We need the wisdom of societies who have a track record of living sustainably with their natural environment for thousands of years, like Indigenous peoples have. More on this from Siila Watt-Cloutier on No Little Plans.
We also need more stories that speak to our imaginations and creative possibilities for a better future. These stories have the power to challenge the Western narrative that nature is to be dominated and exploited, and that technology alone will save us.
We need stories to help process our Ecological Grief
Author and broadcaster Britt Wray has been exploring the emotional toll of climate change. In her newsletter, Gen Dread, she writes that we need to cultivate more emotional intelligence to deal with the climate crisis, which brings on difficult emotions like anxiety, grief, shame, and fear.
“When it comes to healing from environmental violence and injustice, emotional intelligence can help us find compassion, common ground, acceptance, and the ability to offer reparations, from which forgiveness and partnership can be achieved,” she writes.
She calls for a need to create better stories that can teach us to say goodbye to the old systems that are killing us and the planet. “I’m talking about ways to say goodbye, to let go, to offer reparations, and to mourn what is often an uncomfortable passage.”
Stories can also help us come to terms with our own mortality and thus start thinking about intergenerational justice and whether we’re being good ancestors.
Climate Change is a Justice Issue
BIPOC, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and other marginalized folks will bear the worst effects of climate change. Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate writer and co-host of Hot Takes, says that using an intersectional lens when discussing climate change can allow us to explore root causes of the crisis, and see the ways it is inextricably linked with institutional racism, slavery, and the legacy of colonialism.
On Temperature Check, Dr. Chelsea Frazier, a Black feminist ecocritic, talks about how we should center the voices, stories, and ideas of marginalized people to advance environmental progress. In doing so, she says, we produce a different set of knowledges, perspectives, and solutions that mainstream environmentalism obscures.
Why all this matters
Amy Westervelt, environmental journalist and founder of Critical Frequency podcast network points out that fossil fuel companies have invested heavily on their propaganda, while the environmental movement has been “trying to combat that with fucking charts! It doesn’t work!” she says.
While climate change communication tools have a role to play, it’s non-didactic, artful storytelling that will be the most compelling to listeners. Stories that illuminate what’s at stake, what’s possible, and how we might get there.
