How To Tell Better Climate Stories
How To Tell Better Climate Stories is now live on the Hope. Act. Thrive podcast with our special guest, Matt Scott.
Why you’ll want to listen to this episode.
“We all really have power, but we also have the power to pass the mic and to bring other people into the conversation. Kids, adults, whoever it might be. Everyone has something they could contribute to help the world reach, draw down and to help solve this climate crisis,” says Matt Scott, climate storyteller with Project Drawdown.
In this conversation we’ll talk about climate solutions storytelling, hearing the unheard in the climate space, and climate storytelling with kids.
This episode is supported by Unlikely Genius, which creates learning and content design for environment and sustainability.
Why we were thrilled to chat with Matt.
Matt Scott leads storytelling at the nonprofit climate solutions resource Project Drawdown. His work focuses on “passing the mic” to underrepresented changemakers. Recently, he launched Drawdown’s Neighborhood, a climate solutions short documentary inviting communities to discover solutions and take action.
From 2016 to 2020, Matt helped engage more than 100,000 people from 150+ countries in the world’s largest global hackathon, NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, serving as the global community lead and storyteller.
In addition, Matt is the founder of Let’s Care, where he’s released the film 20s & Change: San Francisco and interviewed 100+ changemakers to-date.
Throughout his career, Matt has reached more than half a billion people in the digital space.
Words from Matt you won’t want to miss.
“I encourage people to connect with their why first and foremost in telling better climate stories, because it really helps you connect with people more deeply.”
“If you're able to really tap into those reasons why you care and to share those which might be deep and emotional and sometimes dark, but also hopeful and all of these really human things, you're able to connect with other people.”
“I’m someone who really believes in the power of starting with a question. . . How do you relate to climate? Why does climate matter to you? Does climate matter to you? What do you think about XYZ news story about climate that you saw the other day? These are good entry points because one, it really puts the conversation in the other person's hand and kind of lets them lead. But it also really gives you the opportunity to again understand where they are starting and where they are.”
“A good starting point for adults is to educate yourself and do what you can to learn about the more full story when it comes to climate. Realize that there is hope and opportunity and possibility with the story. It's not just a sad story, but a story that allows kids to be superheroes. And I would also say kids love the idea and the concept of superheroes. So empowering them with that idea that they can be heroes and doing something about climate is one a great way of kind of sparking social action.”
“The thing that gives me hope is that people have all of these different skills and diverse real-world superpowers, as I like to say, that they could bring to the table.”
“We all really have power, but we also have the power to pass the mic and to bring other people into the conversation. Kids, adults, whoever it might be. Everyone has something they could contribute to help the world reach, drawdown and to help solve this climate crisis.”
How can you listen?
Listen to this conversation on Apple, Google, or Spotify.
And if you just can’t get enough of us, do come hang out with us on on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. We share real tips for real parents, and help you to turn eco-anxiety and gloom into fun and playful action. Plus you’ll regularly see us make fools of ourselves on Instagram reels.
