Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, our next
Speaker 1: guest is a climate activist a communication strategist and combines
Speaker 1: the two to work with the content industry when it
Speaker 1: comes to climate change and how it's portrayed on the
Speaker 1: big screen, on the little screen, really on streaming, everywhere
Speaker 1: there is content. So delighted to bring in Anna Jane Joyner.
Speaker 1: She is the founder of the nonprofit Good Energy. She's
Speaker 1: released a playbook for screenwriting The Age of Climate Change,
Speaker 1: And we do want to point out Bloomberg Philanthropy is
Speaker 1: the philanthropy of philanthropy arm of Bloomberg Alpy, which of
Speaker 1: course is owned by Michael R. Bloomberg, provides support for
Speaker 1: Good Energy initiatives. And Anna Jane joins us via zoom
Speaker 1: from Alabama. Anna Jade's so great to have you here
Speaker 1: with Tim and myself. Um, how are you and tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about what you all are doing.
Speaker 1: So great to be here. Thank you for having me. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good Energy was created to support TV, film writers and
Speaker 1: other content creators to portray climate in television and film,
Speaker 1: particularly scripted television and film, and that is because there
Speaker 1: is almost none, no climate portrayal, very little currently happening,
Speaker 1: and we want to dramatically change that. What what is
Speaker 1: climate portrayal when you look up in terms of mainstream media,
Speaker 1: when you look up at the screen and you see
Speaker 1: the way that that stories are being told. What story
Speaker 1: is missing right there when it comes to the climate. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, pretty much any story. We worked with
Speaker 1: us the s Media Impact Project to do an analysis
Speaker 1: of how often climate is being portrayed in in scripted
Speaker 1: television and film and it is two point eight percent
Speaker 1: um between and that includes thirty six adjacent keywords like
Speaker 1: solar panels and C level right, so it really looks
Speaker 1: at not only the terms associated with climate change, but
Speaker 1: all these adjacent conversations. It could indicate that climate is
Speaker 1: being portrayed and that is far too low for the
Speaker 1: fact that we are overwhelmingly experiencing it and feeling it
Speaker 1: in our real lives, and if characters were alive in
Speaker 1: our real world would be as well, and that should
Speaker 1: be reflected in our stories. But we talked about it
Speaker 1: really across the spectrum, everything from just casually and kind
Speaker 1: of authentically coming up in uh conversation for shows that
Speaker 1: are already on air two more kind of full on
Speaker 1: in depth films or shows where climate is a major
Speaker 1: part of the character driver apply. But in gen I
Speaker 1: want to understand how how these stories are are, how
Speaker 1: you'd like to see these stories and these narratives woven
Speaker 1: into what's existing and what's coming, because I think I
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say it would be a misconception
Speaker 1: to think that it would be your hope for these
Speaker 1: stories to be about climate change. What you're saying is
Speaker 1: you just need to see representation of the issues in
Speaker 1: some way or in some accurate portrayal in what's out
Speaker 1: there in what's coming. So it doesn't necessarily have to
Speaker 1: be a story about sea level rise or a story
Speaker 1: about alternative energy. Right. Absolutely, of course we do want
Speaker 1: to see more climate focus stories, but really what we're
Speaker 1: talking about is just an honest reflection of the world
Speaker 1: that we're living in on screen. And that one of
Speaker 1: the screenwriters that has been an advisor to us, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the few who has actually written climate
Speaker 1: stories and the Handmads Tale and Scott ze Burns new
Speaker 1: Apple Plus show Exacolations, which will be coming out next year.
Speaker 1: Her name is Dorothy fort Berry, and she has this
Speaker 1: great line that if your story doesn't have climate in it,
Speaker 1: its science fiction. And what we're seeing is this very
Speaker 1: strange divorce between the films and the shows that we
Speaker 1: love in the worlds of those stories and the world
Speaker 1: that we actually live in. Um. And you know, all
Speaker 1: you know of Americans, according to Washington Post, live in
Speaker 1: accounty that experienced a climate disaster last year. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're all physically feeling the differences, were emotionally and psychologically
Speaker 1: feeling the differences, and we need to see those experiences
Speaker 1: reflected to us on screen. UM. That's what a lot
Speaker 1: of historians think that that's why human being started telling
Speaker 1: stories was to process kind of, uh, the hard, difficult,
Speaker 1: you know, tragedies and and realities of being alive. And
Speaker 1: yet we don't have uh, that way of processing emotion
Speaker 1: but also helping us to envision a better future in
Speaker 1: our stories. And that's a really big problem, I mean,
Speaker 1: and it's so important when we you know, we talk
Speaker 1: about right this conflict that we are right now. In
Speaker 1: terms of social media, so many people are getting their
Speaker 1: news from social media. There's so much misinformation out there.
Speaker 1: Uh and you know, so we think about all the
Speaker 1: content that's out there, and while it may be you know, entertainment,
Speaker 1: it is very influential in terms of shaping the public narrative.
Speaker 1: Tell me how that kind of has come into your
Speaker 1: thinking with all of this? Oh, how different percentage someone
Speaker 1: I've been working in the climate space since I It's
Speaker 1: the only thing I've ever done is an adult. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm coming up on fifteen years and there's you know,
Speaker 1: of course creatively and as a human, I really want
Speaker 1: to see more of these stories. I live on the
Speaker 1: Gulf Coast where you know it's very harrowing and increasingly
Speaker 1: harry because of climate. So I I want to see
Speaker 1: more of those stories just because I'm a human being.
Speaker 1: It needs to see my experience reflective and on screen.
Speaker 1: But also from a strategy perspective, you know, we know
Speaker 1: that stories are way way more effective at moving people
Speaker 1: emotionally than data and facts. And you know, if science
Speaker 1: and and and facts we're going to help us win
Speaker 1: on climate change, that would have happened a long time ago.
Speaker 1: But what we've really been missing our our stories that
Speaker 1: can really move us emotionally across a lot of different emotions.
Speaker 1: You know what you need stories that help give us courage,
Speaker 1: stories that help process grief and anxiety, and we really
Speaker 1: just don't have any right now. We're gonna do a
Speaker 1: little bit of news, but we'll come back and continue
Speaker 1: and I want to get We want to kind of
Speaker 1: pick your brain on like who's doing it well maybe
Speaker 1: who hasn't in terms of climate change and weaving it
Speaker 1: into you know, a genre or a storyline. I'm really
Speaker 1: really curious about that. And I've thought about this with masks,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing TV and movies with masks like that
Speaker 1: has been kind of important. It's weird for me to
Speaker 1: see them without masks. Like I'm watching you know, new
Speaker 1: episodes of things and there's no masks there. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: where is everybody right now? I want to get back
Speaker 1: to our guest still with us is Anna Jane Joyner.
Speaker 1: She's found a director of Good Energy, UH, and we've
Speaker 1: been talking about the playbook for screenwriting in the Age
Speaker 1: of Climate Change. She's still with us on zoom from Alabama.
Speaker 1: We mentioned. Bloomberg Philanthropy is the philanthropic arm of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: gl P, owned by Michael Bloomberg, provides support for good
Speaker 1: energy initiatives. So Anna Jane, So you see a lot
Speaker 1: of content, you work with a lot of provide who's
Speaker 1: done it really well? Yeah, I would say, um, there's
Speaker 1: we are actually about to release data this summer that shows,
Speaker 1: um which which different streamers and cable and networks have
Speaker 1: the highest percentages of climate mentions and portrayals. They're all
Speaker 1: very low, but we'll be able to see through that.
Speaker 1: But I mean some of the stories that come to
Speaker 1: mind that I really loved Madam's Secretary UM, which did
Speaker 1: a whole episode, three episode arc on climate and just
Speaker 1: had a really beautiful story about a family kind of
Speaker 1: a father daughter relationship that was very emotional UM and
Speaker 1: then also a climate migration story that was very powerful.
Speaker 1: So they I think they did an exceptionally good job
Speaker 1: on that show. And then probably one of my other
Speaker 1: favorites UM, where it was a more in depth storyline,
Speaker 1: is Big Lotalized did a kind of a b story
Speaker 1: on climate anxiety um A the We're All Hats suffers
Speaker 1: from climate anxiety, and it was just done in a
Speaker 1: way that was one funny, like it took, you know,
Speaker 1: a comedic approach, but also I was following the Twitter
Speaker 1: conversation when that was happening, and so many people were
Speaker 1: responding like, oh my god, I didn't know that that
Speaker 1: other people were experiencing this anxiety. You know, this little
Speaker 1: girl represents how I'm feeling, and that is like the
Speaker 1: great power of film is it validates our emotions and
Speaker 1: that allows us to be h have more agency and
Speaker 1: courage and knowing that we're not alone. Um. And then
Speaker 1: I love it when it just kind of comes up
Speaker 1: in passing conversation and we know from working with climate psychologists, UM,
Speaker 1: that that's really important to validating the audiences. All Right,
Speaker 1: So talk to me about don't look up like, uh,
Speaker 1: did they do it well? How did you think that?
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of dark, to say the least. Um,
Speaker 1: I feel like it was just an interesting take on it. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a movie actually I like, but it was disturbing.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about that? I? I mean I
Speaker 1: personally loved the movie. I think that one. It's just
Speaker 1: so well written. I think did you work with them?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I helped support a little bit here, but
Speaker 1: not not in depth with that movie. No. Um. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say I thought it did I
Speaker 1: thought just from a writing perspective, it clearly showed that
Speaker 1: you can do this in a way that it's very
Speaker 1: entertaining and comedic, and that's a big hurdle. We spoke
Speaker 1: to over a hundred TV and film writers to inform
Speaker 1: the playbook, and that was one of the big hurdles
Speaker 1: is feeling like you can't write about it in a
Speaker 1: way that isn't preachy and didactic. Um, So I'm really
Speaker 1: glad that they opened that door. It also proved that
Speaker 1: you can make a lot of money off of climate
Speaker 1: and focused stories, which helps open the doors to other
Speaker 1: to more content. And then, of course, like we need,
Speaker 1: another big hurdle we encountered in our research is that
Speaker 1: writers were associating climate stories with apocalypse stories, so in
Speaker 1: their mind there wasn't a difference. And that's the major
Speaker 1: purpose of the playbook is to really open up the
Speaker 1: menu of possibilities. And of course, Don't Look Up is
Speaker 1: an apocly up story, and we want we want a
Speaker 1: poplyp stories in this since they show us where we
Speaker 1: don't want to go, but that can't be the only
Speaker 1: story we're seeing on screen. We also need stories of
Speaker 1: where we do want to go and how we're experiencing
Speaker 1: it now and a much bigger variety of the kinds
Speaker 1: of stories. It's interesting that you that you talk about
Speaker 1: it with that framing, uh Anna Jane, because Carol and
Speaker 1: I were talking to the break and I mentioned to her,
Speaker 1: you know, I think with with entertainment, we want to escape.
Speaker 1: And you know, one challenge I see with presenting storylines
Speaker 1: like this is this is a very depressing thing for
Speaker 1: a lot of people to talk about, and it does,
Speaker 1: I think, evoke a lot of anxiety and people. So
Speaker 1: how do you do this in a way that doesn't
Speaker 1: leave people thinking to themselves, Well, this wasn't escapism for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there are lots of ways. That's
Speaker 1: another hurdle we definitely came up against. I think, for one,
Speaker 1: that's not true for all audiences. Like we've saw, we
Speaker 1: see from Handmad's tale from Squid Game that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of really content that does really, really well that
Speaker 1: it isn't just you know, kind of positive comedic escapism. Um,
Speaker 1: so we pushed back against the idea that that's the
Speaker 1: only kind of entertainment that does well. But on the
Speaker 1: flip side, you can we've climate into stories that are
Speaker 1: that are super you know, kind of fun and escapesm
Speaker 1: you know, it's happening. It's happening in our real lives.
Speaker 1: And there's still comedy and drama and absurdity and romance
Speaker 1: um in in our actual lives. And so I think
Speaker 1: that any storied, regardless of whether or not it's a
Speaker 1: comedy or a dramedy or a horror show or um
Speaker 1: any number of genres, should be able to weave this
Speaker 1: into the fabric of the story that reflects our our
Speaker 1: actual world and our actual experience. And there are lots
Speaker 1: of ways to do that commedically and kind of more lighthearted.
Speaker 1: Um it's always Donny in Philadelphia did a hilarious episode
Speaker 1: on climate change. The Politician on Netflix had a whole
Speaker 1: season where climent it was a major driver, and it
Speaker 1: was super funny and very well received by audiences. So
Speaker 1: there's good examples. There's not enough of them, but there
Speaker 1: there are some good examples of it coming up in
Speaker 1: a more lighthearted way in addition to the more kind
Speaker 1: of serious and somber, sort of psychologically driven ways. And
Speaker 1: I'm curious to how busy are you? How often are
Speaker 1: people reaching out to to say, like you know, here's
Speaker 1: what we're thinking of doing, Like, how can you advise us?
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious about that because I just kind
Speaker 1: of speaks to the uptick and people saying, wait, we've
Speaker 1: got to incorporate this and somehow. Yeah, it's We've had
Speaker 1: a really positive reception for sure. We started piloting this
Speaker 1: project in two thousand nineteen, which unfortunately was the year
Speaker 1: where the fires were really really bad. A lot of people,
Speaker 1: a lot of the writers that we we've spoken to
Speaker 1: and work with, have had to evacuate their experience in climate.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of anxiety about climates. So I
Speaker 1: think that there's a much bigger appetite and openness in
Speaker 1: the industry itself, which is, you know, not great for climate,
Speaker 1: but it's good for telling more stories about it. And um, yeah,
Speaker 1: we are very busy. There's a lot of and you know,
Speaker 1: this isn't like a kind of other big social issues
Speaker 1: like war or you know, like women's rights, so that
Speaker 1: have you have you know, hundreds of different films or
Speaker 1: shows that have tackled those issues. So there's some precedent
Speaker 1: and there's some something to go, you know, to inspire,
Speaker 1: give you guidance and telling your own stories. And because
Speaker 1: climate is just so new and there's so little of it,
Speaker 1: there is a lot of an interest in support on
Speaker 1: how our hope is that we work ourselves out of
Speaker 1: business and people this takes off and then there's no
Speaker 1: need for distracudens, but right now there is. Well, we
Speaker 1: came back from milking and everybody's talking a S G
Speaker 1: and you know, certainly talking about the environment. Uh, and
Speaker 1: just didn't rain at all because it never rains. It
Speaker 1: never rains in California. Anna, Jane, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Really Uh, enlightening to talk with you. And Jane Joyner
Speaker 1: found of the nonprofit Good Energy, a playboo for screenwriting
Speaker 1: in the age of climate change. Bloomberg Philanthropy is the
Speaker 1: philanthropic arm of Bloomberg ALP. He does provide support for
Speaker 1: good energies initiatives.