Episode 93: Rev Yearwood on telling climate stories to everyone

Molly Wood Voice-Over: Welcome to Everybody in the Pool, the podcast where we dive deep into the innovative solutions and the brilliant minds who are tackling the climate crisis head-on. I'm Molly Wood.  

This week we’re going to keep talking about telling stories and raising the profile of the climate crisis. Because sometimes with all the other noise and news and shenanigans it can feel a little like we’ve lost the plot and while there are MANY things in this world to work on and worry about and advocate for or against and ways to use your voice I choose to stay focused on climate change because it’s the problem that makes EVERY. OTHER. PROBLEM worse. It is a threat to us all every day. 

So I want to highlight another amazing storyteller who’s been doing the work to unite communities create action and change and momentum and be an advocate and an activist for over two decades now. Let’s go. 

Rev 

Yeah, so my legal name is Rev Lennox Yearwood Jr. I go by Rev because it's kind of fun and it's also kind of like a short way to not say junior and also just kind of go by Rev. So it's kind of fun.

Molly Wood 

You don't like the junior part? I have to jump in already.

Rev 

Yeah, no, on that, was either junior or deuce. Those two things didn't go well. So rev, rev I think is kind of cool. It's a different way to give me my own identity, as they would say. But what I do in the climate movement now is I am an activist. I'm a storyteller. I work on films. I run a nonprofit that works on climate. And I am very much affected by the climate crisis. I am from the great state of Louisiana, and in that many, many moons ago, now officially 20 years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit my home state and hit New Orleans. And I think that altered and shifted my life tremendously because I have been working on this issue ever since, I think, on full speed mode since August 29th of 2005. So it's been nonstop doing everything I can to avert the climate crisis. And here I am talking to you.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, amazing. people will have heard some of this in the intro, but we met doing a panel about climate storytelling, which we will get to in a minute. But let's go back to the kind of Katrina moment for you. You had been an activist already, but in politics and voting and community engagement and civil rights, exactly, and peace, was...

Rev 

which is great.

Rev 

Yeah. Yes.

Rev 

or rights.

Molly Wood 

climate on your radar or was Katrina like, I think it was for a lot of people, the climate shock of your life.

Rev 

Yeah, environmental justice was on my radar. Climate, not so much, and not in the way that Katrina happened. Even when Katrina happened, I still looked at it as a human rights issue. It actually didn't become a climate issue for me until really around 2006. Actually, I think when I was getting the Latayia Moffitt Human Rights Award for the work, the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, trying to work to bring people back home from Katrina, I think it was really in that.

I begin to connect the dots. And not in the connect the dots way, we're looking at the actual act of Katrina, but then looking at the culprit. I've been to realize that my beautiful home state of Louisiana also had a 85 miles from different land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that was called Cancer Alley. And in Cancer Alley, lot of the fumes and the industry that was there causing harm to people that we thought about as being causing sickness was also causing the climate crisis.

So when those dots begin to connect, think then how I approached his work was very much different because then I realized that not only is the climate crisis hurting us right now and definitely hurting those in future generations, but it was hurting communities that I had come from. And I wanted to do everything to stop that.

Molly Wood 

Yeah. And you founded the hip hop caucus to deal with this. Tell people about that.

Rev 

Yeah, Hip-Hop Caucus was founded before Katrina. Yeah, it was. Hip-Hop Caucus was founded before Katrina. Hip-Hop Caucus was kind of a modge of other hip-hop organizations that were run by a lot of people and they were doing things specifically around democracy. I think that was the key thing. They working around the elections and getting people to get involved. There were some policy issues like the Rockefeller drug laws that were happening in New York City.

Molly Wood 

it was? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Rev 

primarily around how can we use our cultural expression to shape our political experience and how can we get out the vote? That was kind of the thing that we really, mean, we had been, hip hop has always been political from day one, from the very beginnings of hip hop. It's been talking about politics from the Bronx all the way to Compton to now in Soweto. So it has been political, but it hasn't been doing the kind of politics.

and use in policy. And that's kind of where I think my legacy probably comes in is that I'm probably known for being one of those individuals who has really infused policy into the political discourse of hip hop. And that's exciting because you know, hip hop is a 50 now one year genre. So it's exciting to bring anything to that process. But that's what I would say I'm probably most known for. And in that we had Creel Hip Hop Caucus.

to really begin to move that needle forward. How could we begin to shape policy? Because we believe either you shape policy or policy shapes you. So we had begun to really begin to get engaged. Hip Hop Caucus was born in 2004, literally on September 11th, 2004, during the Congressional Black Caucus. It was born and was moving forward. And yeah, and then Katrina would hit almost a year later.

And that's when those kinds of worlds connected. But I also will say this, I think that because of Katrina, it's the reason why the Hip Hop Caucus has been around for 20 years. It was literally in the aftermath of that disaster. It was in the deaths of those people, of those ancestors now. It was in that spirit of not giving up, not forgetting that I think the Hip Hop Caucus has really remained on that path.

Molly Wood 

Got it.

Rev 

to continue to fight for justice.

Molly Wood 

And you're still active with Hip Hop Caucus and also have this role with Bloomberg. Talk about sort of the breadth of the work that you're doing around environmental justice.

Rev 

Yes, I I think like everything you evolve. And so I think for me, where I was as a young activist before Hip-Hop Caucus, and then when I became the president CEO of Hip-Hop Caucus, trying to run a nonprofit, and then from there, engaging with the community and trying to find solutions. And then I think one of the solutions that came up is that we always didn't have any money. We were always broke.

Molly Wood 

Non-profit turns out.

Rev 

And I would be like, yeah, well, it truly non-profit or they would say no cash, no cause. And we were trying to figure it out. And I was just like, man, I was always just kind of dumbfounded by the fact of the matter that some groups had money and we didn't have any. And so I was just determined. felt at that point in time, listen, I've been a good activist. I've been a good spokesperson. You know what? But let me figure out this.

Molly Wood 

You

Rev

philanthropy thing. mean, need to kind of, because nobody in my world knows about it. Nobody has any money for my community unless we sell some fish. we do it, if we do, people who know that joke from the church, the church fish fries, but we would sell fish and french fries, whatever we got to do. Which ain't the most, whoa, bake sale, yeah. Or, know, bake sale, we still got the bake sale.

Molly Wood 

yeah, of course, huh, yeah. We call it big sale where I grew up, but I see you. Yep.

Rev 

But sometimes that's most healthy thing. We don't have to eat our way to funding. But I really wanted to figure it out. And so we had just become a grantee of Bloomberg Philanthropies. We were helping them with their impact. They had put out a new film in their climate division. And one thing about me, I have always been, I took this when I was in the Air Force. I was also an Air Force officer.

And I really do believe in excellence. And so that has been kind of my drum line. When I get up, I want to do things in excellence. And so I think that carried over. Maybe that maybe gave a little bit of a bright light. Maybe that helped people to see me. But that allowed me to then be kind of seen from the Bloomberg orbit. And they asked me if I would be willing to help with something I had been talking about, which was that we're not funding women, people of color, young people.

people from the queer community, we're not funding these groups who don't have money. So how do we fix that? So they would hear me beat that drum and stand on that kind of pulpit. And they would, they'd be like, well, why don't you come and help that? And that actually led to now this next evolving part of my professional journey, which now I'm the senior advisor to Bloomberg Flight Divis. Trying to help to see how we can get money.

to many groups to do good work.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, that is one of those, sounds like you fell into the classic trap of you're like, we should totally do this. And they were like, you should totally do this. Yep.

Rev 

Yeah, no, it's literally, that was it, which is fine. mean, I'm also very grateful for the opportunity.

Molly Wood 

It sounds amazing. Yeah, of course. So then what do you work on in that regard? know, are you finding donation opportunities? Are you vetting things? Are you beating the drum internally? All of that.

Rev 

Let me start with the problem that I encountered, not with Bloomberg, but just in philanthropy in general, particularly in the climate space. In the climate space, the New School that I study, and which they looked at 12 foundations who gave out approximately $1.3 billion out to do climate work. Out of that $1.3 billion that these 12 foundations were giving out,

only 1.3 % of that went to environmental justice, people of color led, women led, young people led organizations. And so that right there off the top is the problem when almost 99 % of your money is not going to sometimes go on the front line or fence line of the problem itself. And so that was kind of the thing that I wanted to fix. How do we then get those groups either to get up to speed, get better so they can receive money, but also they can actually be

in many cases, get resources that they should get for doing this work. So I think that led into me working with Bloomberg, for instance, to work with many of climate campaigns. So at that time it was Beyond Coal, which actually doesn't exist anymore, it's now Beyond Carbon, but it was the Beyond Coal campaign and we worked with them to see how we can get groups resources to deal with that issue of really how we can reduce our dependency on coal in this country and abroad.

And then from there, it grew to which is now the Beyond Petrochemical campaign and then the Beyond Carbon campaign. Just really working with those campaigns to see how we can, again, get resources to people on the front lines of this movement.

Molly Wood 

Yeah. For people who are not familiar with the Beyond Coal, I highly encourage you all to read Michael Bloomberg's book that he wrote with the co-founder of the Sierra Club because the Beyond Coal, and this leads into the storytelling part, was a phenomenally successful campaign. mean, flat out, closed.

Rev 

Yeah.

Rev

Yes, it might be considered one of the most successful, probably two, and actually happened at the same time. The two, I would say most successful, these are my top five, the two top, and then these are my top five, climate campaigns. Number one is probably the Keystone XL campaign. That probably is number one. That was people who know that was the campaign that was going to build the pipeline from the Tarshans in Canada.

down to the Gulf Coast. That was number one. Number two would be to be on coal campaign. I think that would be number two. Number three would be the creation of the EPA. That would probably be three. Four would be around the environmental justice movement. And then five would be, I guess, the largest ever gathering would be Earth Day, which is now this year.

is the 55th anniversary. Those are about like five things that are pillar moments for the climate movement. But without a doubt, the thing from a philanthropic standpoint, the one that's on that list is going to be to Beyond Coal.

Molly Wood 

Yep. I'm trying not to get derailed by asking about every single one of the things on the list. But I'm definitely going to come back to the birth of the environmental justice movement. think that's really important. But for the moment, let's stay on this kind of topic of campaigns. Because you get nothing, it turns out, in life. And I say this as somebody who briefly abandoned journalism to try to write checks and then was like, nope, turns out, can't get anywhere without a story. Cannot get anywhere. Can't get money moving without moving hearts and minds.

Rev 

Yeah

Rev 

That's right.

Rev 

That's right.

Molly Wood 

And it sounds like that's a big part of what you're doing and have always done, which is engage people to tell these stories.

Rev 

Yeah.

No, it is. I actually, it's clear that we're in a climate crisis. There's no doubt about that. I don't care where you sit, I care what you try to do to explain why we are in the midst of a climate crisis and Mother Nature doesn't need a PR campaign. It's clear from what's happening that we're in a climate crisis. Well, we are also in. This is from a standpoint of talking about the climate crisis. We are in a crisis of imagination.

And I think that crisis of imagination comes from the lack of storytelling. And it comes from a lack of being able to articulate what is the crisis and how it impacts all of us, not just those who are on the West Coast or the East Coast, but those who are in the middle of the country, those who are black, those who are white, those who are farmers and rural, those who are in urban communities. Storytelling that connects the dots about what we need to do.

to avert this climate crisis or unfortunately adapt to it. And so I do think that that is something there at where we are now. It is clearly a conversation that has to be had. And we're in the midst of, unfortunately, people still dealing with the climate crisis from a data and research mentality when it has never come a conversation of culture. And the only way to unlock culture is through storytelling.

And that is why, which you're talking about, and what we need to do is really put a much bigger emphasis on how storytelling can help us to solve this climate crisis.

Molly Wood Voice-Over: Time for a quick break. When we come back, we’ll talk about what climate storytelling has done wrong and how staying on fossil fuels is in Rev’s words literally suicidal. 

Molly Wood Voice-Over: Welcome back to Everybody in the Pool. We’re talking with Rev Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus and now Bloomberg Philanthropies about how to use the power of storytelling to advocate for climate solutions and make everyone understand that this is an EVERYONE problem. 

Molly Wood 

So what would you say have, I hesitate to say what we've done wrong. There are certainly things that many people have done wrong, but also there are things we didn't know or we didn't understand. The environmental justice movement, for example, had to be born because we didn't sort of realize like, the people who contribute the least are gonna get hit the worst. And also sometimes on purpose because we put all the factories in underrepresented neighborhoods.

Rev 

Yeah.

Rev 

and no zip codes, exactly.

Molly Wood 

Exactly. What has gone badly and what could go better? Like, where do you see the opportunity for the kind of storytelling that moves us past, unfortunately, a moment when you and I are like, climate change doesn't care if you believe in climate change. But incredibly, we're still talking about it and whether it's real.

Rev 

Yeah, the climate crisis is kind of like for humans, it resembles, and this is part of storytelling, so people hope you get a kick out of this for what I'm to say. It resembles a marriage that's been around for a while. And so I think that as humans, we've kind of forgotten how beautiful this planet is and what made our hearts sing. We went outside and...

Molly Wood 

Okay

Rev 

We saw, we smelt the air and ran through the woods or just picked the flower. Those things as children that like, man, we didn't even understand it, but this is an amazing planet. And we're so blessed to be able to just live on this planet. And it just is so gorgeous and beautiful. As time goes on, as we, at anything like a marriage, you kind of forget about the beauty of that. And you just kind of just take it for granted. And I think that's kind of what has happened as humans. We've taken for granted.

this amazing planet we have. And unfortunately, we kick it around, we pollute it. And every once in while, the planet kicks back and we're like, okay, we gotta get back to taking care of you. But we're kind of in this moment now, we're in a part where we're heading to a divorce. And the divorce is not pretty. It doesn't really suit humans too well, because we don't have another planet to go to. And so we're kind of facing that moment. And so I think that this moment,

is a place here where clearly we're not treating this planet well. And we're not doing the things to show that we want to treat this planet well. So we may say it, we may even have a few things that act like we want to, but it's clear that we are like a failed marriage. We are doing everything wrong. And we are not showing the love that we first had. So the first thing we gotta do as humans is we gotta really reclaim and remember

how we fell in love with this beautiful planet of ours, why it made our hearts sing and our hearts race when we go outside and we just feel the air and the wind. And we gotta wanna protect it, we gotta wanna love it and hold it. And I think that's where we are now. I'm not sure if that's possible. I'm not sure if enough, unfortunately enough things have been done that have caused that harm that will allow us to repair this relationship that we have. And so that's kind of where we are. So the first step is that I do think

Molly Wood 

Yeah.

Rev 

If humans get serious about their relationship with this planet and for the next generation, it's possible to fix it. In other words, it's not over yet. We haven't signed the papers yet. There's still time, folks, to make this thing work between humans and this amazing planet. We still have time. But that time is running out. The clock is ticking.

And unfortunately, Mother Nature holds all the cards. And so I think that's the step. Step one, the opportunity is to know there's still time to protect our relationship with Mother Nature. Step two is that we have everything to do that. It's not like we can't do the things to make that relationship work. We have everything to make it work.

just the healing process can get started to begin to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, to do all those things. We have it. So that's second thing is to that way. It's not like we're like guessing, but what can make, what can we do? I don't know what can fix this. We actually have everything we need to fix this. And the third thing is we really have no choice. We have no choice. There is no other, there is no, there is no planet B. And so really, we really have to make this work.

Molly Wood 

Mm-hmm.

Molly Wood

Right.

Rev 

And it is actually such a beautiful relationship between us and our planet that in the solar system, there's nothing more beautiful than our relationship as humans than what we have. And so we can make it work, but unfortunately, sometimes we forget and we get siloed and we're not doing the job. So that's what makes us exciting. So I'm excited because there's still possibility, there's still hope. This planet is still beautiful. We are still ingenious in how we can make things happen.

all those things exist. Unfortunately, does the will exist? Does the will, and can we overcome, unfortunately, the thing? We've kind of also fallen over fossil fuels. And that's like laid on the street or the guy on the street or the person on the street. Unfortunately, you know, we keep stepping out on Mother Earth and fossil fuels is something that we don't want to give up.

And so until we give that up and says, you know, you're not good for me and this planet, then we're in a world of trouble.

Molly Wood 

Mm-hmm. I love that metaphor. That's a lot more beautiful than I expected it to be. And maybe that says something about how I think about marriage, but it is in fact lovely. And it now makes me think that we should do a series of like, do you like P. Nicolata's personals ads? And the planet answers.

Rev 

We know, we do. I mean, we need, I mean, unfortunately there's no dating app for planets. So we were kind of, we're kind of stuck and I don't know about Venus or Saturn, but I think we're kind of, we're kind of, I think we, folks want to get to Mars, but I don't think it's going to work in time for what we want to do. So, yeah.

Molly Wood

No.

Molly Wood 

You just have a bunch of bulbas. Yeah, you describe your perfect planet. You already have her.

Rev 

There's no slide left here with planets. There's none of that. But I mean, that's the opportunity. That's the thing that we have. And for future generations who will be here, they're gonna realize that we kept this love alive. And I think that's what we have to do.

Molly Wood 

No.

Yes.

Molly Wood 

Yeah. Okay, so how do we do that? And who do we talk to? And I say this with, you know, it's like, want to, we all have a dream in which we leave politics out of things. But this is a hard conversation. And it feels like it didn't have to be.

Rev 

Yeah, well it does. Let's go back to that same analogy. Unfortunately, we also love fossil fuels too. And unfortunately, that doesn't want us to leave.

Molly Wood

And Fossil Fields Let's Be Real is like our sugar daddy. It's not just that we love it, it's that it gives folks a lot of money to think a certain way.

Rev

No, yeah, it's, yeah, it gives a lot of money. It's, yeah, and it's toxic. Literally. But I think the thing though is that we don't want to leave that. And so we are in a predicament where we had to make a decision. So to your point, what do we got to do? First step, we have to come to the conclusion that staying with

Molly Wood 

Right. Very.

Rev 

and on fossil fuels is literally suicidal. And it is suicidal from the standpoint that it is not good for us as humans. So step one, we have to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. We have to get off of fossil fuels. That's step one. And honestly, that is the thing that we have to do. Step two is that then we have to create a will to do that. And I think that

That's what's happening right now. Climate has become culture. So unfortunately, you know, things are being misconstrued and changed around. So I think we gotta just get back to explaining to why this is the case. And in step three, I think this is why we need to use different tactics. I'm not against the tactics that people use. I mean, I mentioned Earth Day earlier. I'm not against Earth Day. I think Earth Day is wonderful. But I do think that we're in a time where we do need to create

opportunities for us to do things differently, using different technology to communicate to one another, using movies and documentaries and podcasts, using different ways that help us to understand the situation, but also connecting us as well.

((INSERT))

Molly Wood 

You mentioned that the environmental justice movement was born, was created, and it still, think, is like something that's a little bit fuzzy for people. Talk about why it had to be created and why it's such an important part of the climate conversation that is not, it's just real and tangible and true.

Rev 

Yeah, well, let's go back to the beginnings of the environmental movement real quick. I think it is different from the conservation movement. Conservation movement goes back 130, 150 years. I mean, there's probably with that, but let's not focus on that. Environmental movement really kicks in around 1968 to 1972. And during that timeframe, most of our large, what we call big green organizations, the League of Conservation Voters, NRDC, you name it.

they were Aspen Institute, they were all created during the Rainforest Action Network, all created between those four years. What was also going on during those four years was the anti-war movement, was a feminist women's rights movement, was a queer and gay rights movement, and was the Black Power movement. Martin Luther King was obviously assassinated in 1968. So at that time, great things were happening. Bad things were happening. We had the Kyo River on fire.

In Ohio, we had smog in LA, but we were able to create the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as, I mentioned earlier, Earth Day was created. But during that time, the environmental movement became siloed. It didn't really connect the dots. And so later on, right around 1980s, you had this movement that was being created in Warren County, North Carolina, and in Houston, Texas, where black people and brown people and indigenous communities were saying, hey, look.

We're not being heard and they're putting this junk in our communities causing us to have cancer and emphysema and asthma. And so the environmental justice movement was born in the 80s. But what happened is that it wasn't connected, unfortunately. And so many, many years would go on and they really weren't connected. They were kind of like siblings, but not really working together. And really all this kind of comes to a head.

during the Waxman-Markey bill process. And when that bill fails, actually, it really brought the fissures of a movement that had looked upon the environmental justice movement kind of like it was the kiddie table and didn't give it the respect. And unfortunately, it didn't really value those communities on the front line and the fence lines. We weren't really talking about the issues of those who were being harmed by industry. It was about polar bears and ice caps.

Rev 

but it didn't really get to those issues. But when that shifted, particularly around the failure of the Weiss-Marquis bill, then I actually think that was a success that led into not only the Keystone XL, but as I was saying earlier, the Beyond Carving campaign. I think that shift is actually what now has us and got us the Inflation Reduction Act passage. And so I do think that where we are now, it's a very different world, obviously, but that EJ movement.

Molly Wood 

Right.

Rev 

has now become more intertwined with inter-rumpthal movement in the 21st century.

Molly Wood 

And it's so interesting too because it...

It kind of points people more accurately to the real dangers of climate change that they don't and fossil fuel use that they maybe don't think of. Like people tend to think of climate systems and polar bears and weather and oh, in 200 years maybe we won't be able to live on this planet versus I am being poisoned now. The process of oil extraction and production uses up water.

There are sort of, and it's almost like I credit the EJ movement with connecting climate to health and safety.

Rev 

Yes, yes. And that's why I love working with one of the things people should go look at is the Beyond Petrochemical campaign, which is also connected to Petrochemicals, which is also now the back line of where the oil and gas wants to go to. They want to make plastic. I mean, listen, we have enough plastic forever. We don't need more of it. I mean, we need to just reduce our habit on that. But why that's important that we now as humans, as humans, we are now consuming a credit card size with a

plastic every single week through microfibers. It's not being found in our brain. It's being found in our placenta. It's being found in all parts of our body. But most importantly, it's not being found in our babies. Our babies are not being born with plastic in their bodies. And so this is why the EJ movement, which connected that to health, this is why now that was such a critical part and why now those layers are necessary.

to move us forward. And actually, that's one of the things that will help us to get off of our addiction, because it feels like understanding the impacts to our health and to our future lives.

Molly Wood 

Yeah, someone on social media the other day just responded to something I said and said, plastic is lead. Plastic is the new lead. And I was like, how do we tell everybody that's such a good line? Yeah, this is the new lead.

Rev 

Yes, plastic. Yeah, it is. Plastic is the new lead and it is the coal and unfortunately plastic are fossil fuels.

Molly Wood

Yeah. I mean, does that have to get a little cooler? Does it have to get a little cooler or like a lot cooler to talk about? You know, I mean, I think there's a sense that it's just like, I'm getting lectured from this hippie and that's.

Rev 

Huh?

Rev

Yeah. Well, I mean, yes, yes. Yes. Well, I mean, I think there's also sometimes, you know, you're not always, this is a hard one. I want people to understand. think I want everybody to keep, I know you want to talk about it, but sometimes you're not the right messenger, right? If we were talking offline a little earlier about kids and folks I have, I have two kids, two boys, one of them.

who plays hockey and I may not be the right messenger on certain things. It may be somebody else who needs to talk to our kids. And so I think that sometimes in this movement, we all think that we're the best messenger to communities. We have a gift. I'm not bad at speaking. I, you know, you can call on a real year with, but sometimes see some of y'all, you may be, you're good in the lab. You may not be quite good in front of a mic.

Molly Wood 

Ha ha!

Rev 

Beaker, yes, Mike, no. So I just want to say that you may have, we had to figure that out. But I do, that's important though, because we do need, we need our best story, which I think is why we have been working at Hibbe and Caucus in Hollywood a lot, and with different entertainment. We're looking to work with the best storytellers. Those who just tell stories naturally, we're looking to work with them to tell this story about what we got to do to avert the climate crisis.

Molly Wood 

Are there any surprising groups or allies where you're finding support? know, is there like a secret? Are there like secretly a bunch of songs about environmental action that I don't know about? I mean, I feel like I would know, but maybe not.

Rev 

No, there's not. There's, if you haven't heard it, I mean, there's a...

No, I mean, right now I would say that this, so first, just keep it real as we would say, the political world also is meant to create fear as well. So that's real. People are trying to get people to be fearful what's going on. But with that being said, I do think that there's a tremendous amount of allies. The one thing, the worst ally in this also comes from the fact of the matter that after a disaster,

That also creates allies. That's tough. So for me, when I was in East Palestine, Ohio, it's predominantly white community, but they became great allies. They were Republicans. They weren't from a different viewpoint, but they were great allies in Asheville, North Carolina, very similar. But unfortunately, after the storm, they were great allies in black communities, in Houston or in Louisiana, Phoenix, Arizona, after the heat waves.

After the wildfires in Altadena or different parts of California, we create allies. So unfortunately, you're right. We're getting allies the worst way through destruction, but we're also getting allies, I think, that can help fix this climate crisis.

Molly Wood 

Right, you don't want reality to have to spread across the globe before everybody realizes reality, but it is.

Rev 

You don't, but it is. It is, unfortunately. That is the one thing that I will say. And it's also the one thing that also gets through the culture and the malarkey. think a lot of people talk, they don't, hear about it, but once they go through and they've lost their home or their child is facing sickness, then I think they kind of get, you get real, you get past the partnership real quick. And you're like, no, I don't really care about that too much. I really just want to make sure my kid is okay.

Molly Wood 

Mm-hmm.

Molly Wood 

Yeah. How can people support the hip hop caucus and what advice do you have to young people, especially people who might be feeling, know, like we try to focus on hope and solutions and it is a hopeful time and we have a chance to create a better world. And also I understand that people are freaking out and scared.

Rev 

Yeah, well thank you for that question. I think that one, people can go to Hip Hop Caucus. It's a great, and I don't mean this because I've been there for 20 years, but it really is a great organization. I'm so proud of Hip Hop Caucus for what they're doing, how they're working on things. I think that they've done it the right way. It's one of the reasons why I think as an organization, they're still around for 20 years and not going on 21 years. So just wanna...

you know, go to their website at [hiphopcogs.org](http://hiphopcogs.org/), you can check them out. And they're doing a lot of great things, and not just around climate, but also climate connected. Also they work on climate, work on all these issues, but they also work on issues from democracy, economic justice, human rights. So these things are connected because they also believe in being intersectional environmentalists, about breaking down the silos, about connecting the dots between issues. So that's why they're exciting to work with. So that's one.

Two, I think that what they're working on now in regards to their Hollywood work, working with communities and companies on sustainability is also very important. I think that's such an exciting thing that they're really working with about how do we create lanes for sustainability with companies, but also their storytelling, they're creating documentaries and they're doing things that are cool, super cool. Matter of fact, you know, that's what they do.

kind of call or they call us cool. So I would just say, yeah, check out Hip Caucus out to work with them.

Rev 

Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Molly Wood Voice-Over:

That's it for this episode of Everybody in the Pool. Thank you so much for listening. 

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