Even if we end all of our carbon emissions today, right? You me and everybody else in the world, we go out and we start driving EVs tomorrow, we would still fall short of our climate goal if everyone in America does not change to a predominantly plant based diet, which is so frustrating, because that means that the vegans were right.

You you’re listening to A Climate Change, I’m your host. Matt Matern. I’ve got Rasheda Crockett on the program. She’s a comedian, writer, actor, and works with a climate comedy cohort, and done a ton of work in and around Hollywood regarding climate and I saw her at the Hollywood climate summit where she was great doing the MC for former Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm.

Thank you. Yeah, it was great to see you. Were really funny and engaging. And you know, I think that it’s a wonderful thing to bring some levity to this subject. So thank you for being here.

Happy to be here, happy to be here.

So tell us a little bit about your journey as to how you got involved in climate comedy.

Sure. Well, an idea came to me in the shower like, you know, the all the good ones do about just some independent videos that I could do where I talked about the things might could happen, the things that might could happen if we don’t start caring about it now. So I decided to put out a series of videos where I talk about climate science, the perils of us kind of ignoring the symptoms of the climate crisis. And just like in a tongue in cheek, Joker kind of way, like magnifying how bad it can happen.

Like, what happens, you know, if la often has droughts and we don’t get a lot of rain, and people keep, you know, I don’t know, taking 20 minute showers, and the climate is tearing up, and then there are fires, and what might could happen if everything kind of, just, you know, catches on fire, and now LA is in the drought, and you can’t masturbate in 20 minute showers anymore. I mean, it hasn’t happened yet, but it might, right, so I did that series on YouTube.

Had a blast with it, and I ended up connecting with generation 180 and good laugh. So generation 180 is a climate change nonprofit, and good luck is a social impact nonprofit, where they infuse comedy with social impact. So, long story short, I got involved in this thing called the climate comedy hope cohort. I ended up doing some mic code videos with them.

That series won an anthem award. And or that cohort, excuse me, won an anthem award in 2023 and then I submitted my mike good series, my climate comedy Mike could series for an anthem award in 2024 where it won another award. So that’s sort of how I cut my gums in the quote, unquote, climate comedy space. But overall, I used to, I just really liked the idea of using comedy as a vehicle for social impact.

I used to write for this show called Adam Ruins Everything, where Adam Conover, hilarious Comedian and great person, had a TV show about, you know, where he would just ruin our favorite things by bringing the facts to the table. And we implied this cognitive bias called the humor effect, which is just a really Brainiac way of saying, you take a fact, you put it in a joke, and then people are more inclined to remember the fact. So after learning that writing on Adam Rose everything, I sort of took that and incorporated it into my own comedy.

So that’s how I write my climate jokes. I take a fact, I wrap it in a joke, and then I’ll hold it to people like that.

Well, I certainly think that it’s more engaging, and it’s kind of like you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. It’s you get more people to listen to you, particularly the people that might not be listening to this stuff tuned in already.

Oh, yeah. And the climate crisis is vinegar. It is vinegar. Comedy is the honey. For those who were wondering which was which.

Yeah, right. You know, a lot of people might even be believers in climate change, but they just don’t want to hear it. It’s like, oh, another doom and gloom story. No, thank you.

It doesn’t have to be doom and gloom, right? It can have some bloom, right? But it only has bloom instead of doom and gloom, if we do something, right, if we are aware of it, and then we bloom, we change, and we become the people who change the earth?

Well, I like the bloom instead of the doom and gloom. That’s good. Yeah, and there are a lot of bright spots out there. Is incredible. The more I’ve kind of gotten into this, you’re seeing just 1000s, 10s of 1000s, maybe even millions, of people working on climate issues around the world. And it it’s pretty insane. Inspiring, the amazing stuff that people are doing.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And again, it wasn’t like you it wasn’t until I sort of got in the space that I was like, Oh, wow. People have been doing this for years. Like this isn’t new. People have been warning us about the climate crisis for years in very amazing ways. I mean, beast of the Southern Wild, that was a movie of pretty much about climate change, and in a lot of ways.

I mean, of course, it was a movie about a daughter who lost her mom, and, you know, these people who were moving out of their home because it was about to be flooded, but it got like that because of climate change, and that was a huge, successful movie. So using storytelling, using comedy, to deliver hard truths and painful messages. You know, that’s sort of what those vehicles are for. And I’m glad to kind of use comedy as mine and to lend my voice to the issue.

So what are you working on now? What’s kind of front and center for you?

Oh, goodness. So I just got, I feel nervous talking about it, because it’s still coming up. But, you know, like coming to pass. But I just pitched a show. I was a called no dumping. I was a part of the yes and laughter Lab, which is also another comedy cohort that allows you to come up with an idea, Comedy Based that has a social impact.

And of course, mine was climate change was the social impact topic that I chose. So it’s an animated series about an anthropomorphic whale whose life underwater is over and now he has to live on land as a human. So takes place in the future, 2150 all of Earth’s ice has melted. So this whale who used to live in the Arctic and can’t live there anymore because he’s be he got chased out by Raven, his polar bears, his habitat, all you know is torn up.

And you know, so he decided to lean into his mammal Ness. Have a few well placed stocks, and now he’s a wealthy human who became a lifeguard because he can swim and hold his breath for really long. And so we follow Him and His spirited lifeguard partner, Keisha, as they tackle, you know, just their community, and it’s basically just like two friends, but climate impacted his life to the point where he has to do the work that he does.

That sounds like a fun story. So who is the intended audience for this?

It is pretty much for everyone. If you like colorful humor, if you like shows like The Simpsons, if you like shows like The Boondocks, even if you liked Spongebob, because a lot of the animation, the art concept was based on a SpongeBob. I think it’s for people like that, because animation has this great ability to show things that can’t really happen in real life.

You know what? I mean? I don’t know to just blow snot out of this blow hole onto onto the back of the wall because he sneezed. You know, that’s to run over garbage because in the ocean, because the climate and earth is kind of like decaying. And you know, our characters are like running over sea trash to lasso people in who are choking on straws in the ocean. As you know, those are the kinds of scenarios that our characters and no dumping, get themselves into. So, yeah, it’s for people who kind of just like to laugh.

Yeah, okay, that’s a good group, as you were describing. I was thinking, Oh, this does kind of sound like a SpongeBob SquarePants or, you know, kind of a children’s kind of fun show. But of course, as you said, Hey, The Simpsons and all kinds of other adult comedies have hit pretty hard. What do we have Simpsons going on for 2530 years or something, and still going and still going.

I mean, I do tackle some adult topics, because you can’t really talk about the climate without talking about capitalism, without talking about big corporations. But even on shows like Spongebob, every so often, you kind of get a taste of an adult topic that will go over a kid’s head, but adults get it if they watch it.

Yeah. I mean, I like even Sesame Street or whatever, there’s a whole secondary dialog that’s for the adults who are watching. And then there’s the stuff that kicks.

Yeah. Oh, that’s subtext, you know? What you really trying to say, yeah, yeah.

And I think that saying something kind of over the top sometimes makes the point even better than making it subtle way. Like, okay, this is going to make it in a big way and kind of bang you over the head with it, maybe makes it a little bit clearer than sometimes it’s a one degree change, like, who cares?

One degree that doesn’t affect me or doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal. So how do you think that humor inspires people to take action on climate change? What’s your experience with that?

I do feel like and I believe, and I’ve seen and. It’s been proven scientifically that comedy has using comedy for social impact is affected or even like when I talk about climate change, for instance, I take a joke once, let’s say I take a fact. And here’s a fact for you. This is actually a really good mind worm, that even if we end all of our carbon emissions today, right?

You me and everybody else in the world. We go out and we start driving EVs tomorrow, we would still fall short of our climate goal if everyone in America does not change to a predominantly plant based diet, which is so frustrating, because that means that the vegans were right. And I not that I hate vegans, but they are really self righteous.

You never let your your vegan friend picked the restaurant? No, you pick the restaurant as a meat eater, and then you let them find something vegan on your menu, right? So, but even to just like share that tidbit, no, I do not aspire to be 100% vegan, because I just love lamb chops too much, and that’s who I am. I take it, I own it. But if I were 70% let’s say 70 I aspire to be 70% vegan.

It can save the planet, but you have to have that fact, right? You have to have that information in order to get it. So when someone is able to get, like, an actionable step, something that they know, that they can do a small thing, that they can be conscious of, like choosing more plant based options, then it can inspire change.

Because, I mean, if we’re being honest, the real crime here is that big corporate is tearing up the environment. And it’s not just people individually, right? Big corporate conglomerates, when they begin to do their part, then I think we’ll really start to see a change in the climate crisis, but until then, having individual people being conscious of the small, actionable items that they can do in their day to day life, walking and biking instead of driving.

Not only is it excellent for the environment, it might could get you a date. It might could snatch your body like in a good way, right? It might could get you some abs, and have you out here looking sexy. These are good things. These are these are good things, and they’re good for the environment, but it’s just a matter of using the vehicle of comedy to get those facts out there.

Yeah, well, I was just thinking about taking action. Individuals taking action saying, Hey, we’re not going to buy Teslas or we’re going to sell our Teslas and, you know, put Tesla stock in a tailspin, and now he’s kind of stepping away from his work at Doge and put him back, you know, where he belongs. You know, working outside the government. So that was individual action, that was no governmental action involved change policy.

So, I mean, and that even from, like, a different way, because I think people kind of just got mad. And I get it, I was mad too, damn it. But, like, I think people just got mad and they were just like, no more teslas. And I was like, I get it also, please don’t scratch my boyfriend’s Tesla. He didn’t know. He didn’t know.

But even Yes, I think anger can spark change, and it has historically, and I think it’s a good driver. We know some people just say enough is enough, and then also information, just getting information, you know, the more you know it’s a saying, because it’s true.

Yeah, well, I think there was a lot of comedy related to musk, you know, in this whole Doge thing. I mean, he, he’s such a comic foil. Any Musk jokes for us?

You know what? I tried not to touch that guy. I like to call him Elon muskie. I tried not to touch that guy. I almost feel a little bad for him, just because he’s so pasty, and I know like the sun is horrible for him, and with the climate being what it is, he might want to be the first to all to do something about the climate disaster. He can’t stand to be outside in the summer for more than 15 minutes.

He will die if he does that. Well, yeah, but God bless him. God bless him. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to anybody? I just want to see the world get better.

Yeah, well, kind of the irony I I saw that he sponsored part of the X Prize for companies that come up or individuals that come up with ideas to capture carbon stuff. So he must have, he did this before he hooked up to with Trump. And so they announced the other day who won the X Prize for capturing the most carbon. And it was surprising that he was the sponsor of this thing.

So interesting. Did he win? Because I wouldn’t be shocked if he sponsored it just so he could win.

No, he did not win. It was some guys who who were shaving, you know, rocks and putting them into soil, and the soil was somehow capturing more carbon because of this. So the amazing scientific work being done out there to help us out.

So yeah, and I mean, to be clear, I don’t think any comedian out there is actually like a climate scientist. We just have a handful of climate facts in our back pocket, or, you know, and we just care. We’re taking these facts and infusing them with humor, because there are some real like climate scientists out there who are genuinely doing the work.

And if you guys, okay, climate scientists, if you’re listening to me, not only do I love what you do, give me more facts. And if you give me facts, like a vitamin and applesauce, I will put it in a joke and share it with the world.

Well, you know, I was, I was saying to Esteban, who had on the program a while back, you know, it’d be, I could see that having a climate scientist and a comedian together on the show would be fun, because kind of riff off each other a little bit and and help the climate scientists get their message across and be more palatable. Because, you know, just having a lecture about these facts sometimes is, I would imagine have has people kind of glaze over sometimes.

Yeah, and, I mean, I’m sure that scientists have very invigorating personalities, but maybe some note, maybe some make you tired when you listen to them. So for what it’s worth, and I’ve done some work with some client science, climate scientists, and they’ve all been incredible. It helps us to get the facts from them. And if, even if it’s just like one or two, one or two, maybe three, good mind worms and yeah, that’s how you do the work.

So is this kind of a burgeoning area of comedy to be talking about climate and social justice type issues?

Social justice? No, I think all stand ups and comedians talk about social justice, at least the ones that I tend to love and care about climate I don’t know. I don’t know. I got into the climate comedy space thinking this is something that can that I’m going to be able to talk about for a while. This is something that’s going to be happening for a little bit. I would not only do I care and I want to see a change happen, but I also understand and respect that it isn’t going to happen overnight.

So giving my voice to the climate crisis as a comedian is I know that that’s work that I will be able to do for a long time. So I know that there is a future in it, and if there are any comedians or artists out there at all who use storytelling as a vehicle to get messages across, I highly recommend, you know, you kind of see what’s going on on the planet right now, there’s so many social impact issues to talk about, whether it be housing or education or or healthcare.

But you know this podcast is about climate, so I know that there are comedians and storytellers talking about that, and we’re here talking about this, and, you know, there’s enough room for everybody.

Yeah, certainly it’s a genius opportunity to put this out there and to get people’s attention with comedy and climate, because it is, in my mind, the most important thing affecting humanity, because, like, if we screw up the planet there are, there’s no planet B here.

So, you know what I really think, you know what I think, Matt, I think they think, like, they’re gonna go to Mars and it’s gonna be okay, like, I boo, I honestly think that they’re just going to suck the resources of the natural planet dry and just say, Okay, we’re going to colonize Mars now. And I’m like, Oh, Dad, y’all are taking colonization to a whole nother level.

And that’s not even an Elon Musk joke. I’m just afraid, like, y’all really trying to colonize even Mars after you, because their natural resources for a reason. Like, they don’t just regenerate. Like, you can pop a piece a chicken leg in a microwave. Like, it takes years. The Earth has been around for a really long time. What are we doing that we are sucking all of the natural resources on Earth dry?

Like, that’s a lot of I mean, that that’s like, I don’t know, taking four hours to cook dinner, and then you just watch somebody eat the whole thing in one bite. It’s like, Dad, you didn’t want to say, but it’s a little bit. That’s what we’re doing to the earth right now.

Well, I feel like, you know, I want to live on earth. I don’t want to ever go to Mars. I mean, I’ve seen the pictures of Mars, and I think LA is better than Mars. And I think I’d rather stay here, or a million other places around the planet that are beautiful and amazing.

Like, the weather in LA is great. I mean, you know, give or take some climate stuff, but the weather here is great. I don’t know, I don’t know what they’re doing on the west coast of whatever the equivalent of United States is on Mars. And I’m not, kind of curious, but super, not, like interested. Don’t ask me to go. It’s gonna take a really long time. I gotta get back. I’m sure there’s no place I can get my hair done over there.

Yeah, I mean, and that, yeah, the trip is like years. I mean, you’re in a you’re locked up in a space cabin with, God knows who for, God knows how, long, like, No, thank you. I’d rather, I’d rather stay here. Why?

From LA to New York is brutal. You got to get up and walk around every three hours. What I look like trying to go to Mars. No thanks. Even have enough fuel to come back now, you got to go stuff the resources off of Mars dry, and then it’s just a habitual colonizing cycle that I don’t want to be a part of.

Yeah. No, thanks. Yeah. We’ve got a great planet here. Let’s save the one we have. And, you know, Mars can wait.

Mars, can I like that idea? Matt, thank you. Someone had to say it.

Yeah. I talked to this guy who worked for NASA, and he was saying that, you know, we have to evolve to the point where we’re completely sustainable and use everything and recycle it and, like, leave no trace behind before we could even get to interplanetary travel and stuff. We have to figure that out here before we could ever hope to kind of, you know, travel long distances.

Oh, my goodness, I’m gonna butcher it, but there’s a proverb, and I think it says something like, clean, clear your own field. First before you look to build houses, like you really do have to clear and put your own, your own environment into order, first before you start going out trying to do big ventures like colonize Mars, like, let’s, let’s get Nevada straight.

Nevada needs water. We aren’t doing enough. Let’s, you know, get home squared away and taken care of before we go trying to build new houses on Mars.

Yeah. I mean, like you talking about big corporations destroying stuff all the oil companies in Texas and the Permian Basin or injecting wastewater down into these wells, and they don’t know what to do with all this water that’s just polluted.

Yeah, can’t nobody drink it. It’s, I don’t know what to do with that. That’s very It sucks. And when Big Oil big, I feel like it’s just one big like octopus with eight arms, and it’s Big Pharma, Big Oil, big plastic, Big Beef. Like, they’re all just the same conglomerate doing the same thing, which is using greed and capitalism to destroy the planet.

Yeah, well, I guess we’ve got to kind of stand up and say no, and this isn’t working. And, yeah, I saw this, you know, amazing documentary about all these companies on the East Coast in like North Carolina and stuff, who are pig farmers, and they just destroy not only, you know, their little bit of turf, but their neighbors, anybody who’s around them. It’s so, so noxious to do this stuff, it’s incredible.

I haven’t heard about that, but I do believe this, and I’m a person of faith, and I had a conversation with someone one day, and he said, What do you think the bridge is between climate change and Christians? And I thought about it, and I’ve been going to church pretty much my whole life, and I was like, Dad and no one and no one has ever brought up climate change in any of my churches, right?

And I was like, Dad, I really think people just waiting for Jesus to come back are if you are a Christian and you believe that God gave you this earth to be a good steward over why are you fracking, right? Like when you really think about it, yes, Jesus is Lord. Yes, the Lord is our shepherd. The Lord is our father. He’s also our landlord. And if you believe that God is coming back, why are you fracking?

Like landlords don’t like that. How would you feel if you gave somebody something that you owned and you said, I’m coming back from my property, and then when you came back, they drilled a hole in your living room. Landlords don’t like that.

Or the other one, you know, I gave you this treasure, and the guy who buried it versus the guy who used it for good, like, hey, let’s, let’s use this for good. And you hit on a word that, let’s use our good.

Yes, stewardship. That another climate guy I know is he wrote a book about this, and it’s a real kind of founding concept for liberty, which we’ve kind of put on the back shelf when it relates to climate. Josh Spodek, who wrote it, and he’s a sustainability guru back in New York City, the most sustainable guy in New York.

And, yeah, just talking about religious figures. Katharine Hayhoe is an environmental scientist, and interviewed her on the program a while back and and she speaks to people of faith and in climate change.

And then I was just reading about Pope Francis, I kind of maybe vaguely knew that he was pro environment, but I didn’t like know a whole lot about it. And, you know, of course, after he dies, then people write a lot more and say, Oh, well, way to go, Pope Francis. But also, we should all be pro environment, like, it’s just one of those things, like, don’t you want the environment to be okay? Don’t you want to live here in a in a good, healthy environment, right?

Well, first, do no harm, and that, that principle is obliterated with a lot of fossil fuel stuff. And, and, of course, we’re all kind of part of this process now, you know, I think part of our country is waking up to it, and, and the then you have the death rattle of the fossil fuel company, and they’re they’re doing whatever they can to hold on to the trillions of dollars of that they have invested in their that in their oil projects and all that.

How do you reconcile spilling gallons and gallons and gallons of toxic waste into the water where people are drinking the water. Like, how do you how do you justify that? How do you reconcile that? How do you reconcile Flint, Michigan? How do you reconcile that? How do you reconcile the Gulf Coast and and all of those spills, like, how do you reconcile that?

And they’re trying to convince the everyday lay person that it’s our responsibility individually to save the planet when really it’s on them, because they’re the ones who tour it.

Well, I appreciate all your work in this climate space and making it fun, because that’s it makes it easier to do when it’s fun. And so thank you, Rashida, for being on the show, and everybody check out your website, and if you could give it to the audience, we’ll pass it on.

Sure. You can find me on YouTube at rscrockett, that’s R S, C, R, O, C, K, E,T, T, and there you’ll find all of my climate jokes and my climate comedy series.

That’s awesome. Are you going to be at the Hollywood Climate Summit this year.

Yes, I will be there. So the Hollywood Climate Summit is June 2nd and 3rd, 2025, and I will certainly be there. I’ll be there one or both of those days. So hear about how Hollywood has the ability to positively impact our climate and make some change.

That sounds like a great plan. I was there last year, and was fantastic. So many great speakers and incredible information and and inspiring the way that entertainment can can shift the conversation and really change our world.

I agree, Matt, thank you for saying that.

Great work. Rasheda, wonderful to have you on the program, and love to keep in touch with you going forward.

Absolutely. Absolutely and thank you for all the work that you’re doing in this space. This podcast is excellent, excellent resource. So thank you for this.

Thank you.

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