Harnessing Humor for the Climate with Ethan Brown

Business as UNusual Ep 12 - Season 3 Transcript

Aicila [00:00:00]:

Welcome to Businesses Unusual. This is Aisla, and I'm delighted to be here today with Ethan Brown, founder, and I guess we're gonna say environmental hero who started the sweaty penguin. He's he's given me a look. So thank you for being here today to talk about your work and what you're up to. Appreciate it.

Ethan Brown [00:00:19]:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me honored to have the new title.

Aicila [00:00:25]:

So sorry. I feel like sometimes you just need a title to encapsulate things. How do you think about the work that you do in terms of, like, your role, actually. Like, I know you don't I called you here because I thought it was fun. And I actually think people who are working to help us create better opportunities for our planet to stay our home are sort of those unsung heroes. But how would you sort of see yourself in just a a day to day person, a sweaty penguin? How would you describe that?

Ethan Brown [00:00:58]:

Yeah. I think that my passion and, I guess, as I've gone further into my career has really stemmed from an observation that climate doom, climate denial, and even climate indifference are all sort of rooted in the same feeling of fear, anxiety, distrust. And once you can break that down, you can actually find a lot of common ground among these very extreme groups. So what I've done with the sweaty penguin and with my other writing is to use solutions, to use critical thinking, sometimes to use humor, like in the podcast, to really target that emotion. And when we do, we can bring a lot of new people into the climate conversation. My philosophy is always climate solutions should not be sacrifices. They should be ways to make our life better, and they can be that. And getting that message out has really been what my, career has become and what I hope my role is in the broader climate conversation.

Aicila [00:02:06]:

I'm here for it. I I work with a a few groups. 1 is an indigenous led climate community and global efforts using hemp actually to mitigate climate change. And we do an annual event in around Earth Day, And one of the really important things to us is to celebrate. A lot of environmentalist environmentalism, traditionally, in my experience, is sort of a defeatist and kind of a downer. And, really, we're here to celebrate the Earth and our life here and our opportunity to be, you know, comrades that are cosponsors on this amazing journey and discovery and innovation. So I really appreciate that you're finding ways to help people see beyond that immediate sort of like, oh gosh. Like, I I feel like I heard once people often go from denial to despair.

Aicila [00:02:58]:

It's there's a place in the middle where there's action and engagement, and that part feels, for some reason, like, it does get skipped a lot. Have you seen that, or do you feel like people it some it seems to be like people will be responsive to your approach, but is that am I just being optimistic?

Ethan Brown [00:03:12]:

I find people are responsive to my approach, but I do agree that that is a general sentiment out there that it's why I do what I do to try to reach these exact people. I think that climate change itself is a very overwhelming problem. It's very serious. It's not something we can reverse with the snap of a finger. It takes decades. It does take transitioning a lot of systems that we already have in place into new systems. But at the same time, it's not only something that we can get under control, but it's something that we can get under control while saving money, improving our economy, creating jobs, improving justice, improving health, improving national security. And when you look at it from that lens, that's why I get genuinely excited about what I do and love talking about climate solutions because I just see so much opportunity there.

Ethan Brown [00:04:08]:

But since it is so complex, it definitely can be a lot for people to take in. And certainly, if you get overwhelmed by the first doom and gloom headline, you see you're not gonna do all the digging that I've been able to do and, trying to share.

Aicila [00:04:27]:

Would you be willing to share an example of a solution that meets one of those criteria, like helps us save money or national security. So because I think that is important that people understand that there's a certain amount of marketing that takes us away from the maybe the facts, and I'd love to hear what are those examples so people could get a chance to connect to that.

Ethan Brown [00:04:49]:

Yeah. You can go check out the sweaty penguin because there's a gajillion of them, but I'll Right. I'll I'll give one that's been on my mind recently except written about it a couple times. There's a law in the United States called the Jones Act, which basically regulates marine transportation in the United States. It says, if you are going to have a ship go from 1 US port to another US port, it has to have been built, flagged, and crewed. It built and flagged in the United States and an American crew. And this has been, it was passed in like 1920. It was meant to be both way to protect American ship builders and help national security.

Ethan Brown [00:05:33]:

But what ended up happening, we have allies overseas that can build ships for significantly cheaper to the point where it's it it's just not economically sensible to build ships in the United States, and so it's essentially decimated the idea of marine transportation in the US altogether. I think just like 2% of cargo is shipped via boat in the United States, and there's a whole bunch of ways this ends up affecting things on the climate side. Marine transportation is the most sustainable form of transportation. It has a lot less emissions than flying stuff via plane or driving it in a truck, which is what we do now. But then on the economic side, you have especially, places like Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico who need ships to deliver them goods. They are hit awfully by this. Alaska is one of the lowest ranked states economically. Hawaii, you know, the cost of living there.

Ethan Brown [00:06:38]:

And Puerto Rico, for example, they could have their own agriculture industry, except they need to get fertilizer from the mainland, which they can't afford to do because of this law. So they actually end up shipping their potatoes in via Canada instead of growing it themselves. So there's all these inefficiencies and I could go on for 20 minutes about this, but that's just one example where you can eat, like for people who are not as big about regulations, even you can talk about peeling something back, It helps the climate, and it helps the economy, and it helps economic justice and just makes life better.

Aicila [00:07:19]:

And, you know, definitely check out his website, and I can see a little bit of a sample of some of the different things you can learn about the solutions that exist that genuinely bring us forward. I had another podcast that I'm gonna restart, and I I talk a lot about the the way that the middle of the world, the tension between the extremes extremes is actually where we're gonna find more accuracy. Usually, either extreme is is leaving out some of the complexities of human interaction. So I really appreciate when people could kinda cut through that and and also shortcut it for us because life is kind of chaotic and overwhelming, going a place you can go to get that information and Yeah. So for the last 4 years, the sweaty penguin has

Ethan Brown [00:08:06]:

produced, Yeah. So for the last 4 years, the sweaty penguin has produced a weekly podcast that was kind of our main output where we would cover specific climate issues. We would bring in a expert from a university. We would do a late night comedy style monologue about the issue and bring in the expert interview. We created a library of over 200 episodes, which so beyond proud of, And we ended up licensing the podcast to PBS's climate initiative, peril and promise for a few years. Unfortunately, that initiative ended up losing its funding. And so that kind of folded up and we were in a bit of a, do we try to find new funders? What if we want to do? I ended up making the decision to shift our focus away from the podcast and instead pursue another project that sort of fell in our laps. At the University of Kansas, they created a geography course that replaced their textbook with the sweaty penguin, and it unveiled in 2023.

Ethan Brown [00:09:13]:

And I thought that was the coolest thing to ever happen to me, to be someone's

Aicila [00:09:17]:

homework. Yeah.

Ethan Brown [00:09:22]:

Yeah. So they are in their 2nd run this year and I'm actually gonna get to go visit them in person in a month, which I'm so excited for, but we were inspired by this, and we ended up getting a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network last year to, among other things, create resources that we could share with other professors to help them integrate the sweaty penguin into their classrooms. And we ended up hiring one of the students that helped develop the KU course. And we worked on that for a while, And I really wanna see this get rolled out. So I'm spending my time now focused on putting these resources together and getting them into classrooms. I think our goal all along was to not just create content that led people to engage in the climate conversation, but actually get them engaging with each other. And I didn't know what that would look like for the longest time, but to be able to facilitate that in a college classroom, I think that's just so exciting.

Aicila [00:10:26]:

That is that is really exciting. And, I mean, I think that most big ideas evolve in this way that, you know, you you do what you know, and then you discover and you lean into the places where you can really amplify that information and hopefully spark action, I think, is the you know, engagement is definitely action. And people learning about the depth of things instead of the the sound bites that we get so easily delivered to our front door. Yeah. I think that's really inspiring. Thank you for doing the work and for sharing it. I really appreciate that. So I'm curious why you.

Aicila [00:11:06]:

Like, it's one of the questions I like to ask people because we all live on this Earth. We all have, you know, there's plenty of people, not that you aren't unique, but there's plenty of people who've had similar experiences. And yet for you, that sparked this. Do you know what that was, that moment that sort of made that come alive in you, that this is where you had to lean into? Because I also know things like a podcast are not no effort, and and they're less effort than they were. When I started, it was a whole different story. So do you know what that was, or is there a moment or a story you can share that kinda gives that sense of spark for you?

Ethan Brown [00:11:45]:

There's a few things that play into it. One is just a bit of my background. When I was, from ages 10 to 15, I performed a mental math stage show called Mathmagic all over the world. And that was a very unique and fun and interesting experience. And I got to perform at a lot of really cool venues from TEDx conferences to the world science festival, to a conference in Vegas. But what I enjoyed most in doing that was going into schools, usually, like, elementary or middle schools and doing my show, and then going from classroom to classroom teaching the students how to do all the stuff in the show. It was all just different mental math techniques that I learned and practiced and were really something anyone can do if they were just as obsessed with math as I was at that age. So I loved doing that.

Ethan Brown [00:12:45]:

And what I loved is I could take math, which was for many people, the super overwhelming subject in school and turn it into something fun and entertaining. In college, I had a different but similar experience. I was in charge of our school satire publication. And with that, we, again, were taking whatever news was happening on campus that may have been overwhelming, be it our school's fossil fuel investments, or just dry chicken breast in the dining hall, but we would find a way to make it fun and entertaining. And so I having had those experiences coupled with the fact that when I first learned about climate change, I found it so scary and overwhelming and wanted nothing to do with it. I was never an outdoorsy person, and it took until college where I decided to major in film and television. And I felt like as a storyteller, I need a story to tell, and this is such an important story. And I started taking classes and saw, oh, look, there's all these solutions.

Ethan Brown [00:13:49]:

There's so much nuance to this. This is actually really interesting. So taking that new knowledge and coupling it with my knack for making overwhelming things fun and entertaining, that was kinda where where the sweaty penguin came about and why I think I was I hope the right person to do this style of communication.

Aicila [00:14:12]:

But it seems like it. You just accidentally started a college class. I know that there's many people that could say that. So which is a kind of a neat thing. And do you have a a hope or an expectation of other I guess, like, I don't know how to say this exactly. Like, people following in your footsteps or I don't know if that's the right word. Being being sparked to approach this issue from a similar perspective. Have you seen, obviously, with this college class, but have you seen people run with it in a way that you're like, oh, cool.

Aicila [00:14:45]:

Like, I'm, you know, I'm gonna say replicating myself like a virus, but, you know, something like that where, you know

Ethan Brown [00:14:52]:

Yeah. I I have a little bit and it actually took a minute to shift from, oh, they're copying me to wait. No, this is what I wanted to. But I think that first off solutions journalism is by no means my invention. I, I stumbled into it, but I have since learned a lot of the structure of it through the solutions journalism network in particular. And I hope that while lots of journalists won't be using humor in their journalism solutions is something that everybody should be striving to do. There are many studies showing that people prefer consuming news that talks about solutions, and this is not your like fluff piece on whatever website, like, oh, meet the new startup. That's going to save the planet.

Ethan Brown [00:15:48]:

This is really investigative journalism that's looking into what is this solution, how is it alleged to work, Will it work? What are the limitations? And that's really important because while a lot of people talk about how we need to address climate change, we are in the process of doing it. The US has dropped its emissions by, like, 16% since 2,005. Our energy grid is already 40% decarbonized. So we're in this process, and we need to be looking into what are the responses, are they working and how can they be better? So that's where I hope more journalists can take that approach more often. And I'm glad that I've that I stumbled into it and have since learned the importance of it.

Aicila [00:16:38]:

Yeah. Do you have, I guess, at my experience, is it the the day to day inspiration, especially when you you're facing something overwhelming. I mean, you have to start with, we're not solving this today. Like, I I used to do social justice grassroots organizational leadership and just say, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Like, you focus on one thing at a time. So I know that there's that approach, but is there anything else that you think of that you're like, wow, this is the thing that keeps me going, keeps me inspired, or this is how I recharge when I've hit, like, a wall of, of overwhelm myself.

Ethan Brown [00:17:18]:

That's a really good question and something I need to get better at that. But I think in all honesty, it comes from a level of self confidence. And I always feel weird in the sense that I think oftentimes I feel very humble and imposter syndrome, but at the same time, I do believe with a lot of the past experiences that I've had, that I'm very good at what I do. And I think the reason for that too, is the fact that I've managed over the last few years to be able to talk about climate with folks on the left and folks on the right and through very much the same messaging, reach both groups of people. And I've even gotten the opportunity to go on a lot of podcasts and radio shows and television programs with hosts who were a lot further on the right. And we'd have great conversations about climate and they'd tell me they've found it so refreshing to talk to someone reasonable about this. And so that I think gives me a lot of motivation because I know this isn't something a lot of people like to do or have the patience to do or are good at. And since I've found that not only can I do it, but I genuinely enjoy it, I really wanna just do that and try to help how I can?

Aicila [00:18:49]:

I think that is awesome. Now I think that is so important. I feel like the polarization and the weird identity things that I I see in left and right where we get attached to, I am this identity, and that means I oppose this, and I and they've done I don't know if you've ever heard of more in common.com, but they've done a lot of studies on that, qualitative studies, and just shown, actually, we're not that far apart. It's the the messaging about how far we're apart is a lot more extreme than the actual distance between us. And I have close friends and family across the spectrum. And so for me, that's always felt really important that we recognize that we're a human family as well. It's not us and them. It in it's it's we're we're actually all in this together, especially when it comes to the climate.

Aicila [00:19:39]:

So we have to find things that actually work for the group.

Ethan Brown [00:19:42]:

Yeah. Everybody I talk to wants clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment, and whatever background they come from may define through what lens or what policies they would like to achieve that, but that goal has never been something I've felt pushed back on. So I can always start there, find common ground, and then see where we go.

Aicila [00:20:04]:

Yeah. That's really smart and awesome that you're doing. We really need more of that.

Ethan Brown [00:20:10]:

Well, thank you.

Aicila [00:20:11]:

Do you have any oh, yeah. I appreciate it so much. I feel like part of my what gives me research is doing this actually because I feel like a lot of us who really are invested in community connection, amplification, the planet, people as part of profit, We work alone, and we don't really realize that we're not, that there's you know? Or we work in small pods. And, actually, while we don't have any behemoths really, which I think would be counterproductive, I find there are so many more of us that care. Once again, like you said, across the ideological spectrum, it's not a political position to care. Actually, it really is. People do genuinely want, like you said, clean air, clean water, and some basic bodily autonomy. And, you know, we we pretty much all have that feeling.

Aicila [00:20:57]:

And, yes, the lens or the solution or the policy is something we could argue about. But if we step back and connect around those values and goals, we have a possibility of really creating some powerful solutions together. So that's that's where I get my constant recharge when I'm like, what am I seeing again on this? No. This is what's real. There's people out there doing the work every day. Well, do you have advice that you'd use, follow, or that you offer to people that you're like, this is my guiding star or a story that you could share that it keeps you on track? How do you stand do you stay on track, I guess? I have seen based on the things that I read and we're talking about, but maybe you don't get off track. I'm always, of course, correcting.

Ethan Brown [00:21:36]:

I think I long term stay on track, but absolutely have my mental health days or weeks, or I will get super distracted by one project and neglect another project, or as we're doing right now, a complete pivot of the organization. Although this, I believe, is a very good thing. So I think what keeps me on track is just going back to our mission statement, which I think even started before that as just my goal in life to make climate change less overwhelming, less politicized, and more fun. And I believe in doing that, we can have more people engage and the more people are in the conversation, the better the solutions will be. So anytime I'm trying to figure out what's next, what can I be doing? It's less about what job do I want and more about how can I best fulfill that mission of mine? So when I saw that this college course is being so successful, and I could see in the stars that finding new funding for the podcast would be difficult, but this was something that was really working. I was thrilled to pivot over to this. And I think that was how I ended up in journalism altogether. I'd like I said, I majored in film and television.

Ethan Brown [00:23:00]:

I didn't major in journalism. So to have that pivot from I was doing classes, writing screenplays and sitcom pilots and to see maybe, doing journalism will be the better way to get this message across first as a podcast, which sort of combined both, but now I'm doing a lot of regular writing. So I want to keep myself happy, but I also want to carry out that mission. And that's, I think where even as I pivot, I somewhat stay on track.

Aicila [00:23:33]:

Yeah. That's adaptability is important, especially when you're facing, you know, a big big overwhelming issue. And it's I love that you said film and television. I I really feel like the stories we tell matter. And so having that background probably makes you a more skilled messenger because you understand how to communicate the story succinctly. That's an assumption I'm making, but just based on what I've listened to and I think that that training probably behooves you in all of this.

Ethan Brown [00:24:04]:

It does. I I did a dual degree in the end in film and TV and environmental analysis and policy, and also minored in innovation and entrepreneurship. So kinda have used all of them in my career already.

Aicila [00:24:18]:

But That's it. Just 3?

Ethan Brown [00:24:21]:

Yeah. The, the minor really was like junior spring. I was like, wait, I only need one more course to get this minor and I want to do this anyway. So yeah, I think that the film and TV has helped both in just having a lot of technical skills that are necessary as journalism transforms into this digital world. I mean, with creating the podcast, it was very easy for me to not that I did the editing very often, but on the off week where an editor was sick or something, I, there was one week where I literally had to teach myself Adobe Audition and I was able to, because I'd use premiere and after effects. And then I got my first internship at PBS's Climate Initiative. That was how I connected with them and that I was doing a lot of editing and stuff I learned in film and television. So and then also today, I have done a couple jobs through there's a company called Earth Angel that does sustainable production services on film and TV and commercial sets.

Ethan Brown [00:25:33]:

So we help with trash sorting and food donations and plastic free hydration. And so I was, I've been a part time person there for almost a year, but because of the strike, I never got a job until like a few weeks ago, but I've done a few jobs there. And again, having had film and TV, I knew how to go onto a film and TV set and help out. So I definitely think it gave me some experiences that have maybe set me apart in my career, but I also often think back on what would I've learned if I were a journalism major and how would that have shaped my career. So you never know.

Aicila [00:26:16]:

That's true. I love learning, so don't think any of it's ever wasted, and it's true. We never know what the other path would have been. What in doing this, especially, you know, it's just success doesn't look like, you know, tomorrow, everything's fixed. So how do you define success for yourself? You said, you know, making things less overwhelming in organizationally. Like, is it reaching a certain number of people, or is it more that, like, that feeling of replication? Or is there something else that you're like, wow. This I'm gonna feel like I really achieved what I wanted to, that I did actually make it less overwhelming for people because this thing happened.

Ethan Brown [00:26:55]:

For me, success is very much in what I can control because if I make it about how many people consume our content or what award we get, it it's you can fail while doing all the right things. So Mhmm. I think I tried to, at least when we were doing podcast episodes, it was, did we get the episode out on time? How good was it? Did we really dig into this issue the way we wanted to? And then more broadly, I think in a lot of the anecdotal things like this course, how did we reach people? What were they talking about in class? How can we learn from this? Just talking to friends who listen to a podcast or read my work, who are on the left or right. How did they respond? And if they didn't like it, what can I learn from that and do better next time? I think there's no point in which I feel like I did it. I achieved my goal because the mission that I set out is not something that you can just achieve. It's something that you are constantly working at. So really just looking at those baby steps, being proud when I get workout and then getting feedback and learning from it and doing better the next time.

Aicila [00:28:21]:

Yeah. Thank you. I think that's, that's a good advice, so take note, folks. What's the best way for people to, connect with you, get to know your work, participate in some fashion?

Ethan Brown [00:28:37]:

Yeah. Our website is the sweatypenguin.com. If you want to participate, we have a Patreon page, patreon.com/the sweatypenguin. Excuse me. I'll say that again. If you wanna participate, we have our Patreon page, patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. There, you can get bonus content, even get merch, and we're really trying to grow that community now, especially as students from some of these courses are coming in contact with us. So really encourage you to check that out.

Ethan Brown [00:29:14]:

That'll also help support this new project we're doing because we don't have a dedicated under for it. And then Mhmm. You can reach me at Ethan Brown 5151 on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok.

Aicila [00:29:29]:

Lovely. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I really appreciate it. Is there anything else that you wanna say or share about before we say goodbye to everybody?

Ethan Brown [00:29:38]:

I don't think so. Thank you so much for having me. This has been really fun.

Aicila [00:29:42]:

Delightful. Alright, everybody. Talk to you soon.