Recap: Climate Strides LA
A morning hiking panel at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook during the Hollywood Climate Summit - we needed it more than we knew.
We’re fresh off another Climate Strides today, and what a morning it was. It’s a beautiful thing to bring together locals showing us their own backyard with visitors from far and wide.
(Recap reel HERE)
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Right in the middle of the Hollywood Climate Summit, we invited attendees of the Summit to come hike with us as we heard from a slate of speakers across the climate space (with an admitted focus on climate storytelling, to go with the theme of the Summit).
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The idea of the event structure, as you might have read about in other posts, is to “break the panel” - taking the traditional panel format (a row of speakers in chairs on a stage), and flipping that to include both movement in between speaker moments (today was hiking, other times it’s been running/walking), as well as prompts for discussion amongst participants during that movement. This not only leads to more connections between participants and speakers alike, but also deepens the sense of absorbing the material - many folks have told me that they feel they retain more after having gotten their heart rate up.
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It also nicely aligns with the goal of Where The Climate Things Are - to build on people’s love of nature and recreating in the outdoors to heighten climate action and care for the environment. To galvanize an inclusive climate movement in the outdoor recreation community.
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Today, our fantastic speakers included:
Matt Scott, Director of Storytelling and Engagement at Project Drawdown, as well as a podcast host and producer, who has used his gift for storytelling to create Drawdown’s Neighborhood series, passing the mic to climate heroes that often go unheard.
Dr. Brianna Pagán, technical lead in geospatial engineering, former Deputy Manager at NASA, professor and ultrarunner (what can’t this woman do!), who also happens to be a co-mentor from Footprints Running this past year.
Kristy Drutman, founder of Brown Girl Green and co-founder of the Green Jobs Board, who is using her experience in climate communications and storytelling to help folks find climate jobs.
Faith Briggs Rose, filmmaker, director, producer, podcast host (with me on my other podcast, The Trail Ahead!) who focuses on representation and centering untold stories and narratives to shed light on climate solutions.
Lauren Bash, climate optimist, activist, digital educator and storyteller, who uses her platform to meet a wide variety of audiences with humor, candor, facts and education around behavior change in order to bring more people into the climate movement.
Rachel Bouton, Senior Manager of Network and Events for Grist as well as a comedian and improv actor, who uses her role at the climate publication to promote the power of live events and cultivating joy in the climate movement.
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And of course, it needs to be said - every participant that attended could have been a speaker. With signups ranging from actors to producers to writers to scientists and beyond, we had an all-star group of panel attendees join us for some time on the trails. And isn’t that the point of it all? Everyone has immense gifts to share in their own unique way, and as we realized quickly through the non-stop discussion, that’s what elevated our panel to the next level.
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This was a fun format for testing Climate Strides in a new environment - the third event we’ve hosted, and arguably the most “outdoorsy” one yet. While I love being able to offer running and walking options for participants, hiking trails together was a new way to connect and keep the group together as a whole.
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We already have plans for more events - TrailCon in Tahoe, possibly Aspen Ideas Festival (tbd) and NYC Climate Week. The more we host, the more I am realizing that a shared love of spending time outside and moving our bodies is exactly the kind of unexpected bridge that may continue to deepen connections around climate action. Turns out, it’s not just about interviewing outdoor recreators on the WTCTA podcast, it’s also about bringing outdoor recreators together in person so they can connect with one another.
Last night at the Hollywood Climate Summit,
said that “the most important thing an individual can do today is be a little less of an individual — to join together with others.” I feel like with Climate Strides, we’re on the right track.
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