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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and welcome to stuff

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Speaker 1: I never told your prediction of I heart radio.

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Speaker 2: And today for Feminist around the World, we are jumping

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Speaker 2: in with a young activist who has been dedicating her

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Speaker 2: life to climate activism for almost her half her life.

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Speaker 2: And I say this as she's like twenty two, so

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Speaker 2: already so full into it, and she's involving a lot

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Speaker 2: of other young activists as well, coming together for the cause.

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Speaker 2: And we are actually talking about Gia Bastida. So. Bastida

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Speaker 2: is a twenty two year old Mexican indigenous woman who

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Speaker 2: was born in San Pedro, Tultepec, Mexico and is a

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Speaker 2: part of the Automi Tutec community. And with her upbringing,

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Speaker 2: it isn't surprising that she has become such a powerful

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Speaker 2: voice in regards to the climate crisis. So her parents

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Speaker 2: have been a part of the environmental activism as well

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Speaker 2: and have taught her all of these values with their

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Speaker 2: own works and obviously in their everyday life. So in

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Speaker 2: an L magazine article, they talk a bit about her parents'

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Speaker 2: future plans, about how a devastating flood helped cultivate Bastida's future.

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Speaker 2: They write her parents' longtime environmental activists had lined up

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Speaker 2: year long appointments at New York City's Center for Earth Ethics,

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Speaker 2: but the day before their flight, rainfall flooded their drought

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Speaker 2: weary town, including spillover from heavily polluted lagoons and rivers.

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Speaker 2: On my last day, I was with my best friend, Bastida, says.

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Speaker 2: We were driving her to meet her mom, but we

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Speaker 2: couldn't get out because all of downtown was flooded. Eventually

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Speaker 2: they escaped, but the experience stayed with her. I remember

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Speaker 2: the pain of leaving without knowing what happened. Is a

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Speaker 2: town of ten thousand people with little to no government assistance, she.

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Speaker 1: Explains, and though the town has since recovered, the incident

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Speaker 1: left a lasting impression, along with her own family's deep

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Speaker 1: love and ties to the environment. In a Levi's campaign,

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Speaker 1: she explains some of her philosophies that were influenced by

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Speaker 1: her family. She says, quote as my grandma told me,

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Speaker 1: leave everything better than you found it, and that's something

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Speaker 1: that could be applied to anything, you know, to a

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Speaker 1: room when you visit someone's house, but that also applies

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Speaker 1: to our world. My dad also taught me that when

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Speaker 1: we think about our actions. We have to think about

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Speaker 1: the past seven generations to learn from their wisdom, and

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Speaker 1: the future seven generations to think about their stability. Along

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Speaker 1: with that, I am always reminded about a very important

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Speaker 1: Indigenous saying, which is we don't inherit the land from

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Speaker 1: our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

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Speaker 2: Right with that, she has also grown to understand as

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Speaker 2: much as it is environmental protection, but this type of

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Speaker 2: work is also about gender equity and protection. In an

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Speaker 2: interview with the podcast Time and Sensitive, she says, well,

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Speaker 2: for me, some of the statistics say, for example, in

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Speaker 2: countries where there's drought, women are at higher risk for

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Speaker 2: being violated because they have to walk further to get water.

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Speaker 2: That's the main example. We always get, how unsafe the

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Speaker 2: conditions get with the climate crisis exacerbating basically access to savitation,

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Speaker 2: access to safe drinking water. But for me, it goes

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Speaker 2: deeper than that, because when you are exploiting mother Earth,

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Speaker 2: it's exploiting femininity, it's exploiting women. Women are threatened and

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Speaker 2: attacked just for being women. There's no other reason, and

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Speaker 2: it's just because they're women. That is what's happening to

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Speaker 2: Mother Earth. The body that gives us everything that we

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Speaker 2: need to survive and thrive and take care of us.

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Speaker 2: We're not taking care back the state.

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Speaker 1: It continues. I come from culturally, from an indigenous community,

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Speaker 1: from the Ottomitotec peoples, and we practice this reciprocity. If

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Speaker 1: I take, I must give back. It's what moms do,

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Speaker 1: it's what women do. What has happened to our international

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Speaker 1: relations is that our framework for how to have negotiations

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Speaker 1: among countries is emotions have to be taken out of

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Speaker 1: negotiations because they don't work. That's realism, which is older.

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Speaker 1: We don't really use it anymore, but that's the fact

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Speaker 1: of our world. There's feminist critiques to this worldview, and

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Speaker 1: the critique says, we are emotional as humans. If you

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Speaker 1: take emotion out of decision making, you're creating a world

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Speaker 1: where you are giving path to violence. So for me,

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Speaker 1: when you realize that we have to protect women's rights,

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Speaker 1: it has to come together with the fact that we

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Speaker 1: have to protect mother earth because women are more closely

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Speaker 1: tied with that instinct of protection. So whatever policy you

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Speaker 1: put forward, you're going to do it in both fronts. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a more interconnected way of looking at.

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Speaker 2: It, So it's obvious that she has been using her

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Speaker 2: knowledge and passion to fight for justice without slowing down

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Speaker 2: at all, and she's been doing it again for most

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Speaker 2: of her life. From OnEarth dot org. Besthela's leadership skills

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Speaker 2: took flight at fifteen after she moved to New York

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Speaker 2: City and joined a high school environmental club. She helped

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Speaker 2: steer club activities from watching movies about recycling plastic to

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Speaker 2: writing politicians. Jia started speaking publicly about climate justice and

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Speaker 2: indigenous rights and mobilize six hundreds to it Is from

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Speaker 2: her school to participate in the first climate strike in

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Speaker 2: March of twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: And here's what she told Elle magazine about that climate

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Speaker 1: strike quote, I still cannot believe that Friday's for Future

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Speaker 1: New York City was able to organize three hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: people in twenty nineteen to come out to the streets.

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Speaker 1: That has been the most amazing thing I've ever been

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Speaker 1: part of. I hope the movement grows to a point

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Speaker 1: where we are able to work on different fronts, striking

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Speaker 1: for public pressure but then also mobilizing from the inside.

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Speaker 1: When I started organizing, I was fifteen, but I'm twenty now.

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Speaker 1: We're all growing up and entering the workplace and getting

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Speaker 1: jobs in policy, the agriculture sector, the energy sector, and

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Speaker 1: we're going to start changing all of these industries. I

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Speaker 1: think we have to keep that same mindset of organization,

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Speaker 1: but within industries and institutions.

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Speaker 2: And she's not only a part of these types of movements,

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Speaker 2: but she's been facilitating and leading many of them. Again

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Speaker 2: from one Earth dot org, but Stila is one of

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Speaker 2: the lead organizers of Friday's for Future Youth Climate Strike movement,

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Speaker 2: organizes climate strikes and speaks about climate justice issues in

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Speaker 2: town halls. She sits on an administration committee of the

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Speaker 2: People's Climate Movement, where she brings the voice of her

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Speaker 2: generation that understands the climate crisis is getting worse every day,

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Speaker 2: but chooses hope and action over despair. But Cilia is

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Speaker 2: stubbornly optimistic that we will all find a way to

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Speaker 2: come together to protect the Earth's resources for the mutual

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Speaker 2: benefit of all.

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Speaker 1: And that term stubbornly optimistic is something she ascribes to

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Speaker 1: in her activism. Here's some more from that podcast interview

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Speaker 1: from Time Sensitive quote. Stubborn optimism was a term coined

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Speaker 1: by Christiana Figueres, who is one of the architects of

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Speaker 1: the Paris Agreement, meaning that she basically convinced all of

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Speaker 1: the countries to sign the Paris Agreement, which I don't

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Speaker 1: know how she did that, but it's that passion that

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Speaker 1: she has to make this planet a better place. And

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Speaker 1: stubborn optimism really means to not give up. I can

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Speaker 1: tell you that I will never give up because there's

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Speaker 1: always something to fight for. Optimism It's not like for

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Speaker 1: me some people say optimism is binding you to what

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Speaker 1: realism are like the reality of things. It's not that

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Speaker 1: I don't know the reality of things. It's because I

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Speaker 1: know the reality of things that I know how urgent

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Speaker 1: change is. That is what I hope more people embrace

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Speaker 1: the fact that our reality is telling us that naiveness

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Speaker 1: is actually not doing anything, that naiveness is actually ignoring it.

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Speaker 1: Naiveness is thinking that the problem will go away without

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Speaker 1: doing anything about it. Optimism is about believing in ourselves

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Speaker 1: and knowing that the things that we do all matter

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Speaker 1: to build this better world.

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Speaker 2: Right, And in that interview, she goes to speak of

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Speaker 2: having hope that things can change and wanting to move

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Speaker 2: forward with that type of attitude instead of an attitude

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Speaker 2: of saying, imagine what the world can look like if

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Speaker 2: a lot of hopeful, optimistic, open minded people are building it,

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Speaker 2: You see, it's a different world. So that's why I

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Speaker 2: have this principle, because I want this good energy to

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Speaker 2: be reflected out there. And if you all have time,

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Speaker 2: you should go listen to it. I think it's like

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Speaker 2: an hour a little over an hour long interview. They

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Speaker 2: have an amazing conversation, the host and she about what

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Speaker 2: they see for the future and what she really really

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Speaker 2: wants throughout her activism and through her advocacy, as well

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Speaker 2: as the fact that I didn't also want to mention

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Speaker 2: that when that climate strike happened her own school, she

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Speaker 2: was able to get six hundred people, but then they

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Speaker 2: a all came together with other schools and it grew

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Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And in her Elle interview she spoke about

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Speaker 1: what continues to inspire her quote, somebody said this to

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Speaker 1: me once, and it's so obvious, but it really did

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Speaker 1: fill me with so much purpose. If we want to

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Speaker 1: see the future, we just have to look at the

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Speaker 1: decisions we make today. It's simple cause and effect, but

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Speaker 1: it showed me that every single thing I do is

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Speaker 1: going to impact what the future is going to look like.

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Speaker 1: Everything we do collectively is a little window into the future.

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Speaker 1: So what inspires me is seeing that future looking at

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Speaker 1: that window.

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Speaker 2: And of course she spoke on what she hopes her

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Speaker 2: biggest impact will be in that interview, and she said, quote,

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Speaker 2: I want to be a role model for young women

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Speaker 2: and girls who want to change the world. If my

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Speaker 2: parents hadn't told me they supported me in doing anything

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Speaker 2: I wanted to do with my life, I don't think

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Speaker 2: I would be in the position where I am today.

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Speaker 2: If we want to inspire people, we need to tell

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Speaker 2: them that we believe in them. That does not happen

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Speaker 2: nearly enough with young girls. And I want to be

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Speaker 2: an example that it's possible to choose a path in

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Speaker 2: life that is for the betterment of the world. I

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Speaker 2: also want to make the climate space focus more on

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Speaker 2: intersectionality and justice. In the past, the climate movement focused

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Speaker 2: on protecting parks or areas that cage nature. We can't

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Speaker 2: keep separating ourselves from nature. We need to protect frontline

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Speaker 2: communities from pollution. Yeah, so, of course she has already

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Speaker 2: gotten a lot of recognition for her work, including being

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Speaker 2: named in Time Magazines Time one hundred and twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 2: awarded the Spirit of the u Win Award in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 2: and has Alfie also been featured in two different documentaries

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Speaker 2: that we may need to put on our list, and

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Speaker 2: I have no doubt we will be seeing and hearing

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Speaker 2: from her and her work in the future.

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Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, well as always listeners. If you have any

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Speaker 1: thoughts about this, any suggestions for people we should highlight,

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Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Stephanie

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Speaker 1: your Mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find

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Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Mom'ster podcast, or on Instagram and

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Speaker 1: TikTok at stuff I Never told You. We have a

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Speaker 1: cheep of lick store. We're on YouTube. We have a

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Speaker 1: book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks

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Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,

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Speaker 1: and our contributer Joey. Thank you and thanks to you

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Speaker 1: for listening. Stuff on Her Told You is perfectly by

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you

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Speaker 1: can check out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Speaker 2: Y