Climate & Culture - Sandra Bargman & Chantal Bilodeau, Artists & Climate Initiative

“For anything to happen on a grand scale, we need to have culture supported… Artists are good at planting these seeds, putting the stories out there and for anybody. The key is repetition. So, if you encounter a certain story, certain type of story in the music you listen to, in the articles that you read, in the billboard that you see or the murals that you see when you walk down the street at some point, it creates a frame that you can start to live in and the changes become something that is natural.” Chantal Bilodeai on Electric Ladies Podcast

How do we reach the “unconverted” – those who do not yet take the threat of climate change seriously? Maybe culture has some answers, because stories, music, art…culture…touches us in ways nothing else does. This is a critical and timely conversation many of us communications leaders had at the Sun Valley Forum recently too.

How do we leverage them to help us talk about the weather differently, as I wrote in Forbes recently? Listen to Sandra Bargman and Chantal Bilodeau, who created, produced and performed the “Earth Intention: A Climate Cabaret,” on Electric Ladies Podcast in this reply of this powerful and inspiring conversation with host Joan Michelson.  

You’ll hear:

• Why culture is vital to massive social, political and economic change.
• How music and the arts move people through “hope.”
• How to communicate climate messages in stories without being preachy or awkward
• About using the arts to reach people who may not naturally “get” the climate message, or who may be overwhelmed.
• Plus, insightful career advice ….

“It's never too late to pivot. I think people who are mid-career, women particularly, we always feel like, ‘oh, my time was then,’ (but) it is never too late to pivot…And the other thing that reflects my career is, don't feel as though you have to pick one lane. You can pick more than one lane and both of those lanes or more can be successful.”

Sandra Bargman on Electric Ladies podcast

Read my articles in Forbes about how we talk about the weather, and about developing a new narrative for the climate effort.

You’ll also want to listen to (some may have been recorded under our previous name, Green Connections Radio):

• Deborah Rutter, President, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – on managing creative people.
• Ann Friedman, Creator and CEO, Planet Word Museum – on her new museum about the magic of language
• Tracy Edwards, Executive Producer of the documentary “Maiden” about her experience developing and Captaining the first all-female crew to run the Whitbread Round the World Yachting Race.
• Dayna Reggero, Executive Producer of The Climate Listening Project, short films about community climate activists around the U.S.
• Kerry Bannigan, CEO of Fashion Impact Fund and Conscious Fashion Campaign – including reaching women in rural areas across the fashion industry supply chain

·       Sandrine Dixson, Co-president of the Club of Rome (global leaders) – on the need for a new economic model that puts people and planet ahead of profit.

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