Breakthrough Dialogues

Jacquelyn Gill, paleoecologist and biogeographer, did a lot of theater growing up. She loved watching Spalding Gray’s monologues, where he would sit on stage and tell a deeply personal narrative about himself. Everything he did was constructed, of course, but you felt like you knew him. As Jacquelyn describes it, he created “bridges of empathy,” and it’s what inspired her to start Warm Regards – one of the first climate podcasts. It allows her to seek and present authenticity in ways restricted by essays or tweets. The climate conversation, she argues, has been largely restricted to the facts, which creates a sense of embattlement: wars around scientific credibility and accuracy that leave little space for breathing room or building long, slow, deep solutions. There’s an underappreciated value in talking to another human like they’re a human, as she’s able to do with radio. Jacquelyn has inspired us in our own work on the Breakthrough Dialogues, and we’re excited to share this episode with you.