This is a special episode in collaboration with my Substack newsletter, The Socially Conscious Book Club (TSCBC). This past weekend, I attended the LA Times Festival of Books as media. This is a culmination of my time, and why art and storytelling are so important in this moment. Check out the TSCBC substack for the full post and more!

In this episode, I talk with Mark Wright. Mark is the VP of Film at Higher Ground. He’s produced various projects like They Cloned Tyrone, Tigertail, Young Wild Free, and most recently Rustin. Today we dive into his career and how to tell impactful and diverse stories.

In this episode, I talk with Marisa Nightingale, a social impact media strategist who has worked with organizations like Power to Decide, Zero to Three, and Planned Parenthood, and now works as an independent consultant. Through her work, she’s consulted on many shows like Dawson’s Creek, The Bold Type, Family Guy, and 16 and Pregnant. Today we talk about some of her work and how non-profits can better engage audiences and storytellers.

In this episode, I talk with Ayo Oti. Ayo founded Unofficial Social Chair which runs the newsletter Sounds Like Impact. The newsletter is a hub for finding podcasts focused on impact and calls to action you can participate in. We also talked about her previous work at Spotify and how podcasts can be more active in creating impact.

In this episode, host June Neely, talks with Meredith Blake about her career in social impact on projects like An Inconvenient Truth, a few of her recent projects, and her latest film which was just released on streaming, Uncharitable, the impactful film exposes the dark side of philanthropy and introduces a radical new way of giving.

In this episode, I talk with Carmiel Banasky, who wrote on the hit Amazon series Undone and recently was the Head writer on The Last City, a near-future sci-fi climate-focused fiction podcast from Wondery, and is the editor-in-chief for Good Energy, a non-profit focused on climate storytelling. In this episode, we discuss some of her projects and the eye-opening Climate Reality On-Screen Report that Good Energy just dropped today.

In this episode, I talk with Allison Begalman CEO of YEA! Impact, and the Co-founder and EP of the Hollywood Climate Summit. We talk about how her trajectory toward Hollywood shifted as she took on more of an activist role, the creation of the Young Entertainment Activists (YEA! Impact), and the Hollywood Climate Summit.

In this episode, I talk with Brian Walker, the CEO of Picture Motion, a social advocacy and marketing company, and his path from wanting to be a civil rights attorney to doing social impact in film. We also talk about how you can create and measure the impact of your film.

In this episode, I talk with Carri Twigg about her journey from working in the Obama Administration to being the Co-Founder and Head of Development for Culture House. We get into some of Culture House’s projects like their two amazing docuseries Ladies First and Hair Tales. We also dig into how policy change and storytelling are interlinked and how you as a creator can use that to effect change.

In this episode, I talk with Robert Rippberger who is a filmmaker and producer, Co-Executive Director of the SIE Society, and author of the book The Power of Storytelling. We get into some of the projects he’s working on, the purpose behind the SIE Society, and his book The Power of Storytelling.