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"path": "/story/26/04/24/encore-taylor-brorby-and-suzie-hicks-tell-the-stories-we-dont-always-hear/",
"publishedAt": "2026-04-24T11:15:00.000Z",
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"textContent": "Finding one's voice in climate action can come in many forms. Author and activist Taylor Brorby grew up in Center, North Dakota as a fourth-generation member of a fossil-fuel family. He struggled to find his place as a young gay kid who loved art, music, nature and poetry. Over time, he turned that tension into writing that challenges the fossil fuel industry, makes space for others stuck in a broken system, and inspires a more just future. \n\nSuzie Hicks felt the weight of climate concerns but after college, didn’t know what to do with those feelings. After doing an internship at the New England Aquarium, they realized they could merge their love of performing with a career focused on climate. With the help of a sunflower puppet named Sprout, Suzie created a children’s show that teaches kids about climate change through a frame of possibility and hope, not doom and gloom. \n\n\n\nGuests\n\nTaylor Brorby, Activist, Author, “Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land”\n\nSuzie Hicks, Climate Media Maker and Educator\n\n\n\nFor show notes, transcript, and related links, visit ClimateOne.org/podcasts.\n\n00:00 – Intro\n\n02:20 – Taylor Brorby describes the N.D. town where he grew up\n\n05:00 – What he learned from the prairie landscape\n\n07:30 – Other queer writers from the Great Plains\n\n13:30 – Influential environmental writers \n\n17:00 – Writing optimistically rather than dystopian narratives\n\n20:00 – Getting arrested protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline\n\n25:30 – Why we need to be supporting rural writers \n\n30:00 – Project Tundra, a carbon capture project near Center, N.D.\n\n34:00 – Origins of Suzie Hicks, the Climate Chick\n\n36:30 – It’s okay to have complicated feelings about climate change\n\n40:00 – Working with kids' existing love for nature in educating them about climate change\n\n42:00 – Why introduce kids to climate change? Because it’s already happening.\n\n47:00 – How Hicks sees their role as a positive storyteller around climate change\n\n**********\n\nSupport Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. \n\n\n\nAd sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices",
"title": "ENCORE: Taylor Brorby and Suzie Hicks Tell The Stories We Don’t Always Hear"
}