Stories Sustain Us #33 – Good Energy and the Power of Storytelling

Summary
In this conversation, Bruno Olmedo Quiroga shares his inspiring journey from Cochabamba, Bolivia, to becoming a leader in human-centered design and responsible innovation. He discusses his adventurous upbringing, the challenges of moving to the United States, and his educational path at Tufts University, where he discovered his passion for engineering psychology. Bruno reflects on his experiences at IDEO, where he explored the intersection of design and emerging technologies, and emphasizes the importance of considering the broader implications of design choices on society and the environment. He discusses the intersection of climate change, cultural values, and storytelling through his work with Good Energy. Bruno shares insights on the challenges of promoting eco-friendly practices in the beauty industry, the importance of aligning financial viability with cultural values, and the need for more expansive narratives around climate change in media. The discussion also covers the Climate Reality Check initiative, which aims to measure the presence of climate change in storytelling, and the future directions for Good Energy in promoting climate narratives.

About the Guest
Bruno Olmedo Quiroga is the Vice President of Strategy for Good Energy. Bruno is a design researcher, storyteller, and strategist from Cochabamba, Bolivia with a background in Engineering Psychology. He founded an educational technology startup that was part of an innovation lab, and worked at IDEO as a Design Lead — where he led global research programs and design teams across multiple industries.

Show Notes
Good Energy: https://www.goodenergystories.com/
Bruno Olmedo Quiroga Instagram: @brunoolmedoq

Takeaways
•Bruno's upbringing in Bolivia fostered a deep connection to nature.
•Moving to the U.S. opened up new opportunities and was a culture shock.
•He initially pursued a medical career before shifting to engineering psychology.
•Bruno discovered a passion for human-centered design at Tufts University.
•His work at IDEO focused on applying cognitive psychology to design.
•Bruno emphasizes the need for responsible innovation in design.
•He highlights the challenges of balancing creativity with sustainability.
•Bruno's journey reflects the importance of adaptability and resilience.
•The conversation underscores the power of storytelling in climate and sustainability. Innovating responsibly must align with commercial viability.
•Cultural values influence financial decisions in business.
•Good Energy aims to make climate change narratives more engaging.
•The Climate Reality Check measures climate presence in media.
•Only one film passed the climate reality check this year.
•Stories about climate change should be diverse and expansive.
•Guilt and shame are ineffective motivators for climate action.
•Hope requires effort and is a collective responsibility.
•Harmony between nature and society is essential for a better future.
•Storytelling can norm

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Transcript

Steven 
What if the stories we tell about climate change could actually make a difference? Not just in policy or activism, but in the way we see ourselves, our future, and the choices we make every day. Too often, climate storytelling relies on fear and guilt. But what if the real key to action is hope, creativity, and cultural connection? Hey everybody, I'm Steven Schauer, and you're listening to Stories Sustain Us.
podcast that uncovers the personal journeys of those shaping a more sustainable world. Today we're diving into the fascinating world of human-centered design, storytelling, and climate action with my guest Bruno Olmedo Quiroga. Bruno's story is one of resilience, adaptability, and creative problem solving. Growing up in Bolivia, his deep connection to nature shaped his worldview, and his transition to the U.S. introduced him to new challenges and opportunities.
From navigating the culture shock of Miami Public Schools to shifting from a medical career path to engineering psychology, Bruno's journey has been anything but conventional. His work at IDO allowed him to apply cognitive psychology to design, and today, as the vice president of strategy for good energy, he's on a mission to revolutionize climate storytelling. In this episode, we explore the challenges of balancing creativity with sustainability.
power of storytelling and climate action and why hope isn't just a feeling, it's a responsibility. Bruno will also share insights on Good Energy's groundbreaking Climate Reality Check, which evaluates the present of climate themes in movies. You're going to want to stick around to learn how this year's Oscar-nominated film scored. But first, here's a bit more about Bruno. Bruno Olmedo Quiroga is a design researcher, storyteller, and strategist from Cochabamba, Bolivia.
with a background in engineering psychology, he founded an educational technology startup, worked as a design lead at IDO leading global research programs, and now helps shape climate narratives at Good Energy. Bruno has a talent for making the intangible tangible and for turning difficult conversations into engaging experiences. And he's at the forefront of re-imagining how we talk about climate change. So how do we craft movies and TV stories that inspire action?
rather than apathy. And what role does culture play in shaping the way we approach sustainability? Let's dive into this thought-provoking conversation with Bruno Olmedo Quiroga right here on Story Sustain Us, where we are inspiring action through the power of storytelling.

Steven 
Bruno, good morning. Welcome to Story Sustain Us. Thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate it. I'm looking forward to speaking with you.

Bruno 
Good morning, Steven. Thank you for having me here.

Steven 
Yeah, well, I definitely want to jump into the story of Good Energy. I was super excited when I came across your organization because what you do is kind of what the show is. It's about making sure we tell good stories about climate and sustainability because it's very powerful stories that move people into action as more so than just data.

I definitely want to jump into everything about good energy, but first let's jump into your story. What's your story, Bruno? Where are you from and how did you get to where you are?

Bruno 
Yeah, so I was born and raised in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and to a gigantic Latin family that was super, you know, close knit. I lived on the same street as like 16 of my cousins, and we were like five houses next to each other to the point where when we would go visit each other, wouldn't.

Steven 
Yeah.

Nice.

Bruno
leave the house through the door to go to the other house. We just jumped the wall because we were literally neighbors. And so that upbringing was wonderful because my family was so adventurous. We would always go into nature, into the Andes or into the Amazons, to camp, to hang out by the rivers. And we had four wheelers, like ATVs.

Steven 
Yeah.

Nice.

Bruno 
We would go on like week long camping trips, like leaving the cities. And the one rule was that we couldn't use paved roads unless strictly necessary. Right. And I was a whole social group that my family was part of. was like 50 different four wheelers with, you know, one to two people on them, some families, friends, et cetera, that would join for these big caravan trips. Exactly. We call them caravans. and so.

Steven 
That's just how it's you. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. Yeah.

It's a giant caravan. Yeah.

Bruno 
I've always had a very, let's say, emotional relationship to nature, right, in an adventurous sense because of that upbringing. And I think when I think of why I care about nature so much, I really attribute it to those experiences with my family in Bolivia.

Steven 
that choice of words. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, well, what was your, if you don't mind my asking, what was your parents doing and what was life like for you beyond these, what sound like incredibly amazing adventures that I'm already envious about. But what was your typical life like on a typical day when you weren't out on the ATVs and the Andes?

Bruno 
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. mean, you know, my dad was an entrepreneur. He started, he ran a huge import export company in Bolivia. I imported everything from like leather to cars to Pepsi. and my mom ran, there's these like internet cafes, right? And like phone call cafes. And she had a bunch of them, across the city.

Steven
Okay, yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Bruno
And growing up with them as like business leaders, right, in their own way, also really wonderful because I think they taught me leadership from a young age, just by the way that they were and led their own lives. And I went to an American school there. It was an American Christian evangelical school. My family was not practicing the religion. They were Catholic, but

Steven 
Yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
It was the only place to learn English in the city that I grew up in. Because of this like missionary group that came to Bolivia to spread the word. Started a school there so that the missionary kids could have an American education and then they would allow some Bolivian kids in. Frankly to offset the bills because I don't think the missionary kids were paying. would allow the Bolivian kids who could pay the bill enter and...

Steven 
Yeah.

Probably so.

Bruno 
you know, a handful of us were in there, but I'm so happy that that happened because, you know, even though I don't practice evangelical Christianity, I'm grateful that I learned English.

Steven 
Yeah.

Sure, sure. There was a trade-off there. Yeah, yeah. So tell me then, I guess, as you're growing up there in Bolivia, at what point did you start to extend into the States? Because I know we talked a little bit before the recording that you're in the Miami area right now. So how did you start your journey from Bolivia to the States?

Bruno 
Yeah, one could say so.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. mean, that's its own, we could do an entire podcast just about that story. but I moved to Miami when I was 14 with my family, long story short, because the government became socialist and socialism does not get along well with entrepreneurship. so,

Steven 
You

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Entrepreneurs, yeah, there was a conflict. Okay. Yeah, I was wondering,

I was wondering, putting those pieces together with, when you shared what your family was doing, how that was gonna pan out with the change of political winds in Bolivia.

Bruno 
Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. And in Bolivia, the legal system is different where you're guilty before proven innocent, right? And so I'm sure it's a political weapon that's been used many times before. you're someone of a crime, didn't commit, imprison them and, you know, leave them there for the five year period. is the, how long someone's allowed to be in prison with no evidence or trial in Bolivia. And

Steven
Sure, Sadly.

Jeez Louise.

Bruno 
In those times, that political weapon got pointed at my family, right? And so we had to run away.

Steven 
Yeah, I'm sorry.

Yeah, sorry to hear that you had to leave your home country for those reasons.

Bruno 
Yeah, I mean, was definitely whiplash. think for my parents, it was definitely hard, but I'll be honest. Like, I was a 14-year-old queer Bolivian kid. Like, I won. Like, sure, we lost financially. We were well off in Bolivia. And when we moved to Miami, I owned a suitcase full of tennis clothing because I was at tennis camp in Argentina when it all went down. And you know, we went from being...

Steven 
Yeah, you Yeah, yeah

Yeah. Wow.

Bruno 
a wealthy family in Bolivia to not really having anything here, but at 14, it's like the United States is so full of opportunity, much more acceptance of queerness. So I think for me, it actually opened up the world rather than feeling like a door got closed.

Steven 
Yeah.

Sure, sure.

Yeah,

yeah, I'm grateful to hear that. And I hope for the rest of your family that has been their experience as well, that out of that tragedy, so to speak, or not even so to speak, think out of reality, out of that ugliness that something beautiful came in your life and hopefully for your family as well. So you're 14 now, living in Miami. What?

in, you've got some good English, I'm assuming, or English, you'd been learning that already, so you, yeah.

Bruno 
I was just great, actually, to the point that

when I came, you know, there's a lot of immigrants that come to Miami and not all of them speak English well. And I remember going into middle school, it was halfway through eighth grade that I moved here.

Steven 
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
they do like an English test, right? And the teacher that did the English test would like show me off around the like administrative, like the administration office being like, this kid speaks English perfectly. And he just came from Bolivia, has never lived anywhere else before. Like I've never seen something like it. Cause you know, there's a lot of like Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians that come here and don't speak any English.

Steven 
Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure, sure. Yeah, you had that leg up

at that advantage, yeah.

Bruno 
Yeah,

like ESL in high school and school was just so big. Like so many students had to go through that program, English as second language, but I thankfully was able to go straight to it. And it was a culture shock because going from a Christian private school in Bolivia to public school in Miami is, yeah, yeah, it was crazy.

Steven 
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, an evangelical Christian school is that. I grew up in

South Texas, know, San Antonio, so I'm familiar with evangelical Christian schools. So I can have some appreciation of that culture. So.

Bruno 
Yeah.

No, definitely, and I'm telling you, the culture shock of going into eighth grade where people were partying, I mean, it felt like euphoria, like actually the TV show euphoria, but in eighth grade already, the drugs people were taking to go to prom in eighth grade, was like, this is crazy. Miami public schools are a different world. But I found my place there, I found my people.

Steven 
Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
This obviously was a very chaotic time in my life trying to make sense of what was going on. And I just remember 14 year old me being like, okay, Bruno, like you can't really control anything that's going on around you, but you can just like buckle up and do your best to be an incredible student and claw your own way out of this situation. Because again, for better or for worse, you're now in the country of opportunity, right? much more than I had in Bolivia.

Steven 
Of course. Yeah.

This is where you are, yeah. Yeah.

Bruno 
And so that's what I did. mean, I was set on being an amazing student. I engaged in a lot of extracurriculars and that got me all the way through to college. know, I went to, I don't even know what high school was when I moved here. Actually, I remember in eighth grade, they were like, what high school are you going to go to? And I was like, I don't even know what high school is. Like I thought I was going to just graduate from this place. Like, I don't know.

Steven 
Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
But you know, I did high school, I used to play tennis, I was a swimmer. And one thing led to the next and I ended up at Tufts University for college.

Steven 
Yeah, right on. Yeah, nice. Do you have siblings, if you don't mind my asking? Was there transition for them as well, or was it just you and your parents? Yeah.

Bruno 
Yeah, I have a brother. Yeah, I

have a brother. He was nine years old at the time. He's five years younger than me. And so I think for him, he was young enough that at that point, you know, he kind of knew something was going on, but also was just along for the ride.

Steven 
Yeah.

Sure, more, yeah,

more malleable taking it all in just cause, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
Yeah, exactly.

so, and thankfully we had family here in Miami. So my uncle and aunt lived here and that's why we ended up here. Yeah.

Steven 
Okay, good.

That makes sense. was gonna actually

ask that why Miami, but that I was assuming family, but I didn't wanna make the wrong assumption, but yeah, that makes sense. So at Tufts University then, what are you focusing on as far as thinking about moving forward in life and the things that we have to do at college and university years besides have fun? What was it like for you there?

Bruno 
I loved it, honestly. I wouldn't do it twice, like college. I'm glad I did it. I'm to go back. I really loved it. Funny enough, I thought I was going to be a doctor. That's why I chose Tufts University because all through high school, I was so set on bio and chemistry. was in the IB program. I did all the right IB classes to accelerate my medical career. And at Tufts, you can start medical school two years earlier because they haven't

Steven 
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
you know, a medical school associated to it. And at the time I was like, the worst part about medical school is that it takes so long. So if I can just start earlier, it'll be great. I did one year of pre-med and I was like, the worst part of medical school is not that it takes too long, but it's a ton of work. And, you know, after a year at Tufts, I realized that I didn't want to be a doctor anymore. like, on a whim, my sophomore year, I was just like, if I'm...

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
unhappy, like why am I going to lean into this and pursue bio even if I'm even if I'm good at it. Um, so I dropped all my classes, didn't even tell my advisor and just started picking up random ones. And one of those was engineering psychology, intro to engineering psychology. Um, and I had just read this book called creative confidence by, uh, David and Tom Kelly, the founders of IDEO.

the design and innovation consulting firm and fell in love with it. Like the concept of human centered design had just like blown my mind. engineering psychology felt close to that, right? Because to me, science was great, but almost too technical. Psychology was great, but almost too theoretical. And engineering psychology is about applying cognitive psychology to design.

to product design, to systems designed to make sure things are easier to use, they're culturally and contextually aware and emotionally ergonomic per se. Really taking into account, yeah, taking into account, you know, what the cognitive capabilities of the brain are and optimizing for those. And I loved it. Like I...

Steven 
I like that term, emotionally ergonomic. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Bruno 
thought it was the coolest class I'd ever taken and ended up majoring in engineering psychology at Tufts.

Steven 
I am absolutely fat and I told you before I started the recording, I wanted to learn more about engineering psychology because I hadn't actually heard that before. And I am fascinated already and intrigued and I am going to do a deeper dive after this because all of that is the kind of stuff that just grabs my attention. How do we understand how our minds work and how the significance of our emotions and the importance that they...

Bruno 
Yeah.

Steven 
they play that we should be listening to them and using them to help us make healthy choices. It's not just, right. That's the part that I hadn't really thought about, but yeah, that connection is like, yeah.

Bruno 
to design things, right? That was the application of it. was like, okay, yeah, this is how much the

brain can take. Why overwhelm it? You know, there's, there's a famous story of I think it was in World War One, more pilots died of human error than actual war. Because the cockpits were too complicated, like they were designed by engineers, and we were trying to make humans learn how to figure it out.

Steven 
Right, right.

Bruno 
And then by World War II, people were like, what if we studied humans instead and then designed the cockpit according to what human capability is, right? Alarms, buttons, lights, how many things can you pay attention to at the same time? What's your emotional state when you're flying a plane in war? And so engineering psychology, human factors really emerged from that. It has like its roots in war, funny enough. And then engineers...

Steven 
made this to fit them.

A lot does.

Bruno 
came from there. It's very true. And you know, everything happens for a reason. Tufts was one of two universities in the country that offered that major for undergraduates. So I ended up in the right place at the right time.

Steven 
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, your, your path, I'm seeing it unfold from your childhood in Bolivia, you know, the adventures in the Andes and your parents entrepreneurial spirit, all intertwining into your foundation of who you are. And now this journey through a university where you're, you know, kind of latching onto this engineering psychology concept. I can just see kind of how your path is taking shape, even though

You didn't maybe know that at the time. mean, because how do we know that at the time? But I can see your story emerging here and it's lovely. I appreciate it. So what's next then? You're moving on through college and you're going down this really fascinating road. And so where do you end up after college? Yeah. Perfect.

Bruno
Yeah.

I that I, you know,

when I read that book, Creative Confidence, and I just remember being like, I'm going to work here. Like, that's my goal. And so I ended up getting a fellowship, an internship in between my sophomore and junior year of college as part of the IDEO CoLab, which was IDEO's very first exploration into

Steven 
Perfect.

Bruno 
blockchain as an emerging technology before, I mean, like, I think the literally only two websites that existed regarding crypto was bitcoin.com and blockchain.com. Like, was nothing else. There were no apps, no Coinbase, Ethereum didn't even exist at the time. But we were looking at this emerging technology from the lens of,

Steven 
Okay.

Yeah.

Bruno 
imagining into the future, projecting into the future, what is the potential that it has and how can we take a human-centered lens to start solving real problems, even though there's not even any infrastructure in it yet. And I loved it. I mean, it was incredible. I've always had a passion for emerging technology and I got to...

applied cognitive psychology to it, right, with a multidisciplinary team at the Harvard Innovation Lab. I came back that winter, but for a different fellowship. This time it was about food and the innovation of food systems in collaboration with Target and the MIT Media Lab. And the project that I worked on that summer, I mean that winter, because it was like a three week winter fellowship.

got a lot of traction, they asked if I would stay through the semester. So I took the semester off. didn't tell my family that I took the semester off because I knew they were going to say no.

Steven 
You

You

Bruno 
I worked, you know, with MIT, with Target, with IDEO through the summer, started an educational technology company that was all about bringing food and nature into classrooms. We actually got curriculum in Boston public schools and Minneapolis public schools. I worked there through the summer and then Target, no, actually then I was going to take one more year off.

Steven 
Right on.

Bruno 
to keep working on the startup. But I remember my boss saying, look, you're one year away from graduating from college. Like if you don't do it now, you're not going to finish. And so go finish college or you're not hired again. And so I was like, okay, great advice. Yeah, great advice. At the time I was annoyed by it, but looking back, I'm so glad that my boss took that position.

Steven 
Yeah, yeah.

advice yeah yeah

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Bruno 
And especially because the company ended up shutting down, not because it was doing poorly. It was actually growing, but it's the risk of starting a company in an innovation lab. was owned by Target. Target shut down a lot of its innovation arm because as soon as the economy kind of struggles a little bit, first thing that goes is innovation. so since they technically still own the IP over the company before it fully became its own thing, it just got shut down with it.

Steven 
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
But I ended up joining IDEO full time after that instead of running the company. But now in the core consulting business. And so I was there for four and a half more years doing research and design projects all over the world, working on the medical space, working with governments, working in insurance, working with tech companies.

creating products, services, programs, organizational strategies. Really every project was totally different. And I got to live all over the world. I was in Munich, I was in Montreal, Dubai, Mozambique, New York. So again, I really loved the experience at IDEO as well. was really wonderful. Yeah.

Steven 
Yeah, sounds wonderful. Yeah. Sounds

like an incredible opportunity for a young professional to get that experience traveling the world and working on all these different, you know, different ideas, bringing in so much more into your own landscape, into your own perspective on things. mean, what an opportunity. Yeah. So four years then at IDEO brings us up to where are we getting close to?

The good energy or is there something else between here? Okay. Yeah.

Bruno 
Yeah, we are actually.

So I was at IDEO, I think a total of six and a half years, including college, my college time. And while I was at IDEO, I started asking a lot of questions around human centered design and the limitations that it had when we're also considering planetary.

needs and societal needs, right? From both a DEIJ perspective and a climate perspective, because human-centered design aims to make something really easy to use, really desirable. It's, I would say, I mean, it saved so many lives. It, IDEO invented the diabetes pen, right? As a result of the design thinking and human-centered design process.

Steven 
Yeah, I was gonna ask for an

example to help the audience understand what human, you know, center design is, yeah.

Bruno 
Yeah, so that story's actually crazy. was

a woman, because before the diabetes pain, had to like inject with an actual syringe, right? The insulin. And the research team, because...

Steven 
Yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
the whole process of human centered design and design thinking is that you first start by deeply understanding people's needs, their actual human needs and their lives. it's like human anthropology applied to design. And that was my craft. It was going out and talking to people and, you know, visiting them in their home or in their workplace, observing how they live, how they work, and asking a lot of questions about that specific thing we were talking about. Diabetes pen.

I mean, I didn't work on this project. It was invented before my time, but there was a woman who shared a story about how she was on a date and she went to the bathroom and came back and the date was gone. And she looks at her phone and there was a text being like, I can't believe like you're a drug user and wouldn't say that to me. It wouldn't tell me the of time and just kind of like disappeared. And she was mortified. And it's because he looked through her purse and saw the syringes and thought that she was a drug user. Right. And so.

Steven 
Wow. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, also probably a good reason

not to stick with that person who's looking through your purse though. Right? Right. Yeah, but still, it led to something better.

Bruno 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, I ultimately I ran a flag. She dodged the bullet.

Yeah,

and so that story obviously led to the insight that hey, maybe we need some more subtle, not just easier to use, but subtle and even personalizable tools for diabetes treatment so that if it isn't a purse, it looks like a pen. Like you won't distinguish in it from anything else.

Steven 
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Bruno 
And you can choose what color it is also to add some personality to it. And it blew up, right? It did incredibly. And so that's what human centered design is about. However, when you're designing something that's really amazing for one person, one individual, this process doesn't necessarily take into account the negative impact of things, right? So an example that I like to give is like Keurig cups.

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
So the Keurig machine coffee makes it super easy to make coffee easier than ever before. Right. I'm going to withhold my opinions on the actual flavor of my coffee, but it makes coffee. makes it really easy. And then you can see that model of, you know, really disco disposable cartridges applied all over the world. Right. And in a lot of different.

Steven
It makes coffee.

Yeah, those single

use things, yeah.

Bruno 
areas, right?

You have the in medical devices, you have it in printers, you have it in curing cups. And so even though you're making this thing that makes things much easier to use and much more commercially successful, there's not like a closed loop to then consider, okay, when we do this times a million, at what point do we consider this bad innovation? Because even if it's for a medical product that's saving someone's life today,

Is it contributing to cost us our future or future lives? Even, you know, even worse if it's not even saving someone's life, there's no moral kind of like balance to put it on, which I know is an oversimplification, but those are the kinds of questions I started asking. Right.

Steven 
down the road.

Right.

That's an important

thing to bring up. Thank you for doing that to show that there is this bigger picture that you're looking at. not just about making things more convenient for an individual, but it's also thinking larger beyond that single use individual as well. I appreciate that context around your work.

Bruno 
Exactly. And so I started

the leading the charge around the responsible innovation portfolio, right? And trying to see how do we make design thinking and human centered design a more responsible practice without limiting its boundless creativity, right? And that process broke my heart, to be completely honest, like.

Truth is that under this system and culture that we're in, if you can't justify something commercially, it's really difficult for it to actually happen. I kept entering meetings with people in and outside of the company, right? Potential clients or leaders in the company that would say, this is great, but it's going to make things more expensive if we're doing this small change to be more sustainable. I won a big aha moment in my career was working for a celebrity

beauty brand and I remember we made this whole presentation on how they should use glass packaging for their products because they're more eco-friendly and recyclable and we could even more easily do a reusable situation in the future

And they said, no, they were like, this is going to be too expensive. It adds to the cost of the product. There's going to be more product loss in the supply chain because glass is more sensitive. Shipping is more expensive because it's heavier. And so they, it was an absolute no. And then it created a weird relationship between us and the clients because I think now they felt judged that we weren't like, you know, that they didn't want to spend a little more of their money on making things eco-friendly, but they're starting a new beauty brand, right? Like they have to kind of

Steven 
Sure.

Bruno 
be smart about their money as well, I totally understand. One week later, we find a paper, like a research study, talking about the trend of glassification, which is the general trend in beauty products embracing more glass packaging because they're perceived as premium. And so people are willing to pay more for something that comes in glass, even if it's the same formula, right?

Steven 
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Higher value. Yeah.

Bruno 
And they wanted to be a premium brand. so we didn't even make a presentation. We just sent them to study and we were like, Hey, like forgot everything we said last week. This is actually the reason why you should do glass. You will perceive it as premium plastic is going to be perceived as cheaper. And they were like, great, let's do all glass. Like not even a big conversation around it. And so something clicked there for me, right? That like. Innovating responsibly has to be.

Steven 
Yeah, you're gonna make more money if you do it this way, right.

Bruno 
within the current of commercial viability and commercial potential. And the second thing that clicked for me was financial value follows our cultural values, right? And if our cultural values are going to keep prioritizing profit over the planet, so will financial values. Because that first week we tried to use

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
The planet as the argument did not work. And then we used commerce as the argument. did work. And so it became really clear to me what it is that we're culturally valuing more and therefore what business values, because I think business is more a reflection, like a financial reflection of what we culturally appreciate and value. And so that's when good energy came into the mix. I, an alum of IDEO,

Steven 
Sure, sure.

Bruno 
was working with Anna Jane Joyner, the founder of Good Energy on the playbook, the very first playbook and before really Good Energy announced itself to the world. And they asked if I was interested in doing a project with them to do the foundational research and strategy for what should be in that playbook that then became the organization. And I said, yeah, of course. And I fell in love with the work to be honest, it was like four years ago and

I did the research for the playbook left. They came back to do the research to shape the actual organization, right? The services and structure and whatnot, as well as a strategy to do that. And after that project, they were kind of like, why don't you just stay? And I was like, I would love to stay. and so I've been a fractional leader at Good Energy since, right? It's not my, my full-time position, but I've been involved ever since.

Steven 
Yeah.

Fantastic. Let me, I want to, something that you were just sharing, I want to go back to for just a second and then we'll jump into good energy then I think we're at a good transition point here. what I think I heard you describing a short time ago in that kind of relationship between doing something for the planet versus doing something for profit and then you're.

your background in human systems and what actually is best for the user of whatever this product may be. What I'm seeing in my head or the story I'm telling myself about kind of where your work is beginning to align is in that kind of triple bottom line sweet spot of trying to find what's best for the person, what's best for the planet, and what's best for profit.

pieces together is what we're trying then to do. If we're all focused on profit, we're gonna hurt the people and hurt the planet. If we're all focused on the planet, people might want, not want it, and the folks with the financial backing are certainly not gonna do it. So all these pieces kinda need to fit together and find that sweet spot of that kind of Venn diagram, if you will, of where people, and profit align.

That's kind of what I heard you describing. Did I imagine that or is that kind of where you're ending up now?

Bruno 
No, that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, as I move forward in my career, I think that that sweet spot is something that I continue to explore in different ways. And also working at Good Energy is about making that sweet spot bigger, right? Because I don't know if you're familiar with the pace layering framework from the Long Now Foundation, but that's been a North Star in my career in terms of thinking about.

Steven 
Yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
how to do the work that I do and shape my theory of change. Essentially it talks about change over time. And Long Now focuses on long-term decision-making in a world that's stuck in really short-term decision-making loops. And...

Steven 
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that.

Bruno 
They have this framework that has layers in it, right? So the layers go fashion, commerce, infrastructure, governance, culture, and nature. and so the deeper you go into this framework, the slower changes to happen, right? So at fashion change comes and goes, trends, commerce.

Steven 
Sure, fast fashion, yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
Change happens a little slower than in fashion, but then it also goes away faster than when you make an infrastructural change. Same with governance, governance will take a little longer.

to change but then stays longer than when you make an infrastructural change. And then culture is below governance, meaning that changing something at the cultural level takes a really long time compared to these other ones, but that change remains for longer once you've actually created a change in culture. And more importantly, once you change something at a deeper level, it moves the layers above it with it.

Steven 
Yeah.

It influences

everything else, Yeah, sure.

Bruno 
Think about it with governance, right? Policy passes,

infrastructure, commerce, and fashion all change. Culture changes, right? Let's say with the acceptance of LGBTQ plus rights and governance has to react to that and change. But if the general culture in the United States hadn't accepted, at least gay people, trans people, of course, not really, but.

Steven 
make sense, yeah.

Yeah, still struggles going on. Yeah,

yeah, absolutely.

Bruno 
at least gay people,

the Marriage Equality Act wouldn't have happened. And there's so much evidence that points to shows like Will and Grace and Modern Family and Schitt's Creek increasing acceptance across the world for gay people. And so I entered this work applying that framework and thinking to the climate lens, right? If we change the culture,

Steven 
Perfect.

Bruno 
then governance will hopefully react to that and then business will react to that as well. So that I don't keep finding myself in this conversation where I'm trying to convince someone that caring for the planet is worth their money.

Steven 
Yeah, those dominoes start to fall.

It's good business, right? Right.

Bruno 
It's

like a heartbreaking conversation and I'm going to have it too many times and people are going to keep having it unless we change something at a deeper level. And so that's why I'm at Good Energy.

Steven 
change the culture. Love that. Yeah.

So Good Energy Then, Great Transition is an organization that supports television and movies, the writers, the script writers, helping them to speak correctly or write correctly, more accurately about climate change and climate crisis.

as I understand it. So what is good energy? I shouldn't be telling the story. You should be telling the story. What is good energy?

Bruno 
Yeah, Good

Energy is an organization that

helps make climate change as easy and engaging as possible to write about. so writers may want to reflect our climate reality better because we know from research that we've commissioned that climate change has been completely absent from fictional TV and film or focuses in fictional TV and film.

largely because it was too political, right? I remember doing a research interview earlier in the good energy process and a writer told me, yeah, mean, he's like a very senior writer now, but it was like when I was first getting started, especially people would say, okay, in the writer's room, we don't write about abortion and we don't write about climate change. They're too political. Like it was at that level of politicized. And so.

Steven 
Yeah, you want to get your...

Yeah, wow.

Bruno 
we want, what we are aiming to do is helping writers increase how often they talk about climate change now that that's changed, right? Because while climate change feels politicized, it's no longer divisive. Most people actually do believe that climate change is happening and they're worried about it across the political spectrum. I believe Yale's latest research shows that 73 % of Americans are now worried about climate change. And so,

Steven 
Yeah, yeah, it's hard to hard to escape it

Bruno 
We of course are focused on getting that reality reflected, but also we support writers who want to write creative and weird and different stories about climate change looking into the future, expanding what those stories are beyond the apocalypse. Because the only climate stories again, tended to be apocalyptic and that's not apocalyptic and that's not the most inspiring future to imagine or work towards, right?

Steven 
Right, right, right.

Bruno 
And so that's also what we do. It's not just about reflecting the reality of today, but about creating more expansive stories around what our futures could be.

Steven 
could be. I love that. there's a variety of services then that you offer. Tell us about that. So how do do that? How do you help writers incorporate these storylines into their visions and the fantasy worlds that they're creating?

Bruno 
Of We offer consulting services, right? So everything from script reviews to writers room visits to research reports, world building reports, where we help create the world of your story with a climate perspective in it. We also do more foundational research. Sometimes we've had production studios come to us and say, hey, we want to write about climate change. We don't really know where to start, but we want to do a very foundational.

Projects so that we can use that report hand it over to our writers and use as inspiration before the idea even exists And other times they do just bring us in for like a gut check on whether they got the facts right or not Right, the scripts already ready and they just want to make sure they got it, right? We also offer workshops to train writers and executives and showrunners

We host events like salons for high level writers who are interested in talking to each other and perhaps collaborating on new films, new shows, new stories. And we also have open source tools and services, really tools like the playbook, the climate reality check. And I'm working on a new one now that we can talk about the next time you're gonna be me. And.

Steven 
Yeah, nice.

Bruno 
We also do a lot of research, right, academic research through our narrative change R &D lab to understand what the current narratives around climate change are today and how often they're showing up. And we continue updating our frequency analysis every year of is this trend going up, right? Is climate change actually showing up more often? And the answer is it is.

Steven 
Yeah,

good. So you mentioned the climate reality check. This recording's happening the weekend before the Oscars. We're all gonna be, at least a bunch of us, will be watching TV on Sunday to see how that show goes down. you're just getting some press around your annual.

Bruno
Mm-hmm.

Steven 
Climate Reality Check. So what what is that? First of all, this is the second year. I believe you've done it and So tell us kind of what that is and then tell us if you can kind of what what this year's report showed

Bruno 
Yeah, of course. So the climate reality check is a two part test that measures the presence of climate change in stories. And so the two parts of the test are number one, climate change exists. And number two, a character knows it. It's inspired by the Bechdel test, which for the listeners who aren't familiar is a test that measures

the representation of women in stories. And so to pass the Bechtel test, there's three steps. Actually, there have to be at least two women with names who talk to each other, number two, and then number three, about something that's not men. And unfortunately, tons of stories do not pass this test. Yeah, because women were often being written as like accessories to men into stories and very one-dimensionally.

Steven 
Doesn't happen, though. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure, yeah, they were props

to this story. Yeah.

Bruno 
Exactly. But

since this test was created and gained popularity, the dimensionality of female characters and relationships between female characters in TV and film completely evolved, completely changed. And so the climate reality check takes inspiration from that to do the same for climate change, but really just for climate presence. We didn't want to dictate what the story should be about. We just wanted to be more present and more central.

Steven 
Yeah, nice.

Sure. Just acknowledge that

it's there, that it's a thing. Right, right, right.

Bruno 
Exactly.

And so we developed this test after interviewing over a hundred writers, show runners, media experts, climate experts, et cetera. Because we wanted to make sure that this was a tool that was creatively generative, easy for writers to use, academically measurable so that academics could also use it to measure TV and film.

and easy to remember, right? Like if you make it too complex, people aren't going to remember it. They're not going to use it. and so it's, I believe the first tool that both writers and media experts can use to be in this space of the intersection of media and, academics and climate.

We've been applying it to the Oscars and to... We also applied it to the 250 most popular films of the past decade in a different research study. But this year for the Oscars, one film passed the climate reality check, only one. And it was The Wild Robot, which is an incredible, incredible animated film. I it's a work of art.

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
there were 10 films that were eligible to pass the climate reality check. So what I mean by eligible is that, you know, we're not assessing historical films where it doesn't make sense for climate change to show up. We're not assessing high fantasy or sci-fi, where it also doesn't make any sense. So films like Dune that are climate allegories, let's say, don't qualify, but of course,

Steven 
Sure, sure, that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
we really appreciate that that kind of storytelling is still in the sphere, in the space. Exactly. But yeah, this year of the 10 films, it was the Wild Robot that took the crown and did so incredibly. I'm not sure if you've seen the film.

Steven 
Still influential, right, right, right.

Yeah.

You know, I want to thank Melissa who helped us organize this interview. I want to give her some credit here, so thank you, Melissa. She was kind enough to share with me the news release before it was sent out to the public a few days ago. And seeing then, you know, what you just shared that The Wild Robot was the only film. I hadn't seen it yet.

And as soon as she sent me that news release, was like, I got to, I'm curious, I got to see this. And my wife and I watched it. It is a fantastic film. I couldn't agree more with your assessment. It is, yeah, it's a kid's movie, of course, but it's way beyond that. And I mean, it's just such a great story and it's beautifully done. And yeah, I don't know that I would have watched that film had I not.

senior report and it grabbed my attention because you know it's like I don't know we don't have children in the animation films you know might not be top of our you know evening watch list on a weekend but because of this report I was like I gotta check this out and was not disappointed in fact quite the opposite I was thoroughly impressed and enjoyed it it was such a great great film so I'm cheering for it this Sunday hope it pulls some some wins yeah yeah so

Bruno 
Yeah.

Yeah, we are as well.

Steven 
So what's next then for the organization? I think your new organization, still kind of adolescent years of your influence in the Hollywood space and the TV streaming space. So obviously, I'm cheering for you all. TVs and movies are so culturally influencing.

talked about kind of bringing women's rights into our culture, normalizing LGTBQ issues. There's such a power behind the media that we absorb and the entertainment that we absorb. So that's why what you're doing I think is so important to start to try to move that needle, not, you know.

you know, beat you with a hammer over it, but just make sure the storytelling is including these important themes. So what's next for you? Because what you're doing is so, I think, culturally and critically important for moving all of us into a better understanding of climate change and some of the actions that we can do to slow it down and or reverse it.

Bruno 
Totally. Yeah. mean, the work, the short answer is we're going to keep making,

climate stories easier to write about so that we get more of them, right? We're already seeing a growing trend. Every year, the number of climate stories being written grows. Of course, this year at the Oscars, only one film passes a climate reality check, but as I mentioned, you have films like Dune or Flow or Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes that have deep climate themes in them. There were other films like Twisters, right, that didn't get nominated for Oscars but came out this past year that are embedding these themes in

there and what's brilliant about it is that climate change isn't the plot, right? It's not the story. Climate change is just the world that they live in and similar to the world that we live in today. so however it is that we do it by supporting stories directly by shaping the

story of the landscape itself, right, through media and research that we put out into the world, we want to continue increasing the creativity with which climate change is being portrayed on screen. Because the more people talk about climate change, the more likely we are to change ourselves, our society, our future. And people talk about TV a lot, people talk about film a lot.

And so, so far, good energy has been focused a lot on the breadth of climate change and trying to get it into every story and just expand it beyond the apocalypse. Now we're going to start focusing on more targeted narratives that...

in terms of not shaping people's behavior, right, but just the realities being reflected of the climate crisis under specific topics will be more motivating in terms of creating change. For example, at the intersection of health and climate change or the intersection of migration and climate change, my dream is to do a whole work stream around fossil fuels and climate change, but we haven't yet gotten that work funded.

Steven
Yeah, yeah.

Bruno 
But you know, the fossil fuel industry has been playing a role in Hollywood since 1934, where Shell has an in-house film production unit where they've been making movies and investing in movies that, you know, make the consumption of fossil fuels normalized and almost position it as an essential part of society. I think that we're now the counter

to that or the difference to that kind of narrative that has been put out into the world exactly. And so I'm very excited for what's to come. I'm excited for the next climate reality check report next year. And I think, you know, good energy is in a great pivot moment where we have established this industry, this practice of Hollywood even considering talking about climate change more openly.

Steven 
Yeah, it's a powerful narrative to change.

Yeah.

Bruno 
And now it's like, okay, what do we do next? What do we do with this now that we've created it?

Steven 
Yeah,

well what you're doing, I don't know if you're familiar with Dr. Catherine Hayhoe, kind of a globally recognized, perfect, because I was like, you're doing what she says we should do. And she's an inspiration for me. And this show is one of the most important, if not the most important things we can do about climate change is to talk about it. And to embed it into our stories that we're consuming on a daily basis.

Bruno 
Yeah, she's one of our advisors. She's amazing.

Steven 
on our streaming services or, you know, slowly getting back into the theaters and watching movies in that experience, you know, embedding that story into our daily observations will help normalize it and help bring it to the forefront. So that's brilliant work. There's a line I pulled from your website that I just love this line.

So storytelling takes courage and so does facing the climate crisis. And that's what you guys are doing. And I think it is courageous work and it's important work and I'm really grateful for it. Is there anything else about good energy that we haven't talked about yet that I haven't asked you about that you want to make sure you're getting out to the audience?

Bruno 
you

Steven 
Before we kind of transition, I want to make sure I'm being respectful of your time here. So before we kind of wrap up this, you know, fascinating conversation, what have we missed? What still needs to be said about good energy?

Bruno 
Yeah.

Well, I think that, you know, we deeply believe that telling more stories about climate change and telling your story as it pertains to climate change is so important. Really looking at your life, you've already been impacted by the climate crisis in so many ways, from the price of food to hotter summers to, you know...

even natural disasters in some cases. And these stories move people. These stories move our hearts and our minds much more than data does. And so of course we work with TV and film writers, but we encourage everyone to talk about climate change more, more openly, more often.

because even though can be a kind of depressing topic sometimes, it's so important for us to acknowledge that it's happening and acknowledge that we are in an era where it's up to us to create that change and create a future that is a gift to future generations rather than a debt to them. And so...

Steven 
Sure. Sure.

Bruno 
As you navigate your life, your days, I encourage people to notice how often climate change is being mentioned around them and to add to that momentum as well. And do it in creative ways too, like challenge yourself to tell the story in a comedic way, challenge yourself to think about it as a rom-com or whatnot. I mean, again, to a personal story, I remember...

An example I often give is that when I lived in Boston for Tufts, when I was studied at Tufts, I hated how cold it was. Like I'm Latino, I'm hot blooded, like hated how cold it was. did not like the winters. People said it would get easier with time every year and it only got worse and worse and worse. And so the winters did get warmer over time, right? generally. And I remember kind of just like secretly loving that the snow was coming later, like in the

and there was less black ice everywhere because my freshman year I broke my laptop because I slipped on black ice and there's like personal vendetta on it. And then I feel kind of guilty about it because I'm like, it's not really a good reason that this is happening, but also I kind of enjoy it, you know? And I think that complexity, the emotional complexity of climate change and how we're experiencing it is very real and...

Steven 
Yikes. Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Bruno 
No one's morally perfect around this. I think every day we are forced to make decisions that maybe act against our best interest and you can start feeling guilty about the climate crisis. But that's also something super important that we put out into the world. It's, know, guilt, shame, and fear are actually really terrible ways to motivate people around the climate crisis. Terrible.

Steven 
Sure, right.

to deal with, yeah, absolutely. There's some incredible research

around that already. And Brittany Brown and all her work and everything that, we, yeah, yeah. Yeah, angers and action emotion, absolutely, yeah.

Bruno 
Exactly. It's paralyzing. It doesn't move people into action. Whereas hope or even anger can be much more motivating emotions. Yeah.

And so that's something that I would love to leave everyone with, right? Like next time you find yourself feeling guilty or feeling like shaming someone else because of a climate thing.

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
stop for a moment and acknowledge that actually it's the system's fault. And we are personally empowered to change the system, but we are not at fault as individuals. It's like this system that we've created for hundreds of years that we didn't think was gonna lead to climate collapse most likely, right? Like, I don't think that seven generations ago when we were in the first and second industrial revolutions,

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
those people were thinking to themselves, wow, I cannot wait for the climate to collapse as a result of this industrialization. Right? No, they probably thought, wow, we're going to expand education. We're going to expand healthcare. We're going to, you know, evolve business and government and trade. and so their hopes are what we now have in our hands. however frail, however brittle we're receiving those hopes. And it's up to us to breathe air back into them.

Steven 
Right, we're gonna destroy future generations, right, exactly.

Bruno 
and make the best of what we have and make the most of what we can so that future generations can enjoy a better planet.

Steven 
Absolutely,

and I greatly appreciate that that messaging around, you know shame and guilt and you know Perfection ism that that's not what we need right now We need everybody just doing their little part even if it's you know, none of us are gonna do this perfectly But everybody just doing their little piece as best as they can Collectively then we'll start moving us the right direction. So rather than being

Bruno 
Yeah.

That's

great.

Steven 
Paralyzed

by this idea of like if I can't do it perfectly I'm not gonna do it at all or I'm gonna feel you know awful about myself because I didn't do it perfectly That's that's not helpful So appreciate your message around that that's super important to get out so Well, let me ask you Bruno as we're getting here close to the to the end here You just delivered this great message is there any other call to action is there anything else that you would like folks to do?

Bruno 
Totally.

Steven 
Now that they've heard this story, how can they support your work at Good Energy or what else do you want them to do in their day-to-day lives?

Bruno 
Yeah, well, first of all, you should follow us on Instagram, at Good Energy Story, to stay up to date with all the work that we're doing. Our website is goodenergysstories.com. And really the best way to support us and this is to talk about it, right? If you're working on a story, use our resources. Even if you didn't think it was gonna be about climate change, there is...

always a way to embed climate change into any story because it's ever-present, it transcends every topic. And we're even seeing people in the private industry start using our resources for climate storytelling from an advertising perspective, and I've had a few conversations there. these learnings that we have in Hollywood and storytelling apply to everything, and it can apply to policymaking, it can apply to...

advertising and product design and product messaging are going to apply to how influencers talk about the stories they write and so That would be my call to action

Steven 
Perfect.

I will make sure to the website and the Instagram information on the show notes so folks can get in touch with you and follow you and use those resources. So that's wonderful.

Bruno 
Right. Yeah. And if you want

to follow my personal Instagram, it's Bruno Olmedo Q, where I also post the work that I do for Good Energy and other organizations.

Steven 
Perfect,

well I'll get that on the show notes as well. So the last thing we then do, Bruno, is we talk about hope. know, hard conversations around climate change and the climate crisis and there is fear associated with this and anxiety and worry that, you know, climate anxiety is a thing and that can be, you know, also.

difficult to move people into action when they're so worried about the future or they're overwhelmed by it. know, overwhelm is an emotion that just shuts you down. You can't really do anything when you're overwhelmed. the challenges and the difficulties, you know, we're about a month away from, you know, Los Angeles and the terrible fires that were there, climate influenced issues. mean, there's this stuff is real, it's happening and it's hard and it's difficult.

But we need hope and hope as I imagine your well aware is not an emotion. It's not a pink cloud kind of thing. It's not defined as emotion. It's more of a mental state. It's this idea of for those who study it, you can have a vision for a better future. There's steps you can take or plan of action you can take and you have a sense of agency that there's something you can do about it. You might not get there, might fail, might be difficult.

And in my perspective, you can't do it by yourself, whatever your future is that you're aiming for, because we need community, we need collaboration. But hope is this idea of a better future that you think you can get to and you feel that you have some sense of agency to get there. So I want to ask you three quick questions about hope, your hope for a better future. And I would encourage you not to think too much about it. Just kind of give.

give the answer as I ask you the question. the first question for you Bruno is what is your vision for a better future? It can be for you personally, professionally, or for the world. What's your vision for a better future?

Bruno 
my vision for a better future is one where we learn to live in more harmony with nature and each other. Honestly, I think right now there isn't so much harmony between us and nature and between us and us. and so I think that.

Steven 
Yeah.

Bruno 
if and when we're able to harmonize this out of tune life that it sometimes feels that we're living, the future will be better.

Steven 
So second question then, tell me why. Why is harmony so important to a better future?

Bruno 
great question. think that when I think of harmony, it's when things are flowing well with each other, right? They for something to feel harmonious, each little piece has to be playing its part, knowing what's going on around going on around it for it to all work together and work well.

If something or a lot of things kind of like become disharmonious or choose a different path or get too loud, too noisy, too sharp, too aggressive, too hot, it throws things off, right? And I think maybe these days the harmony has gotten a little too loud, a little too intense, a little too hot in so many different ways that it's not feeling.

like harmony anymore, that hope and harmony is not really coming together. And harmony also takes effort, right? Harmony doesn't just happen, it takes work. Like, hope, as you said, is not just this like...

feeling of like a child hoping to get saved from this big monster. No, hope is like a fire. It's intense and it takes a lot of work and cultivation. It's a garden to be shared and tended to together. It's not an inheritance. It's something that we've received and that it is our responsibility to pass forward.

Steven 
Nice. So last question then for you Bruno, since we're storytellers, imagine a future, tell yourself a quick story, that that harmonious future exists today. We're living in what you just described. It's no longer a future, maybe we'll get there. It's a, we're living in that right now today. How does that make you feel?

Bruno 
Great. It makes me feel joy and peace and like I can think a little more long-term about society than I think I'm able to some days lately.

Steven
Perfect. Well Bruno, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a pleasure getting to know you and to speak with you. Really encourage you to keep doing all the great stuff that you're doing. need it. The world needs folks like you doing this hard work, because it is work. It is hard work some days. So thank you for all your efforts to make the world a better place. So wish you all the best into the future.

Bruno 
question.

Thank you, Steven. Thank you for having me here. I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.

Steven 
Thanks.

Take care.

Steven 
What an incredible conversation with Bruno Olmedo Quiroga. His journey from Bolivia to the US, his pivot from medicine to engineering psychology, and his passion for human-centered design all led him to his amazing work at Good Energy, where he's transforming the way climate stories are told. Bruno reminded us that storytelling isn't just about raising awareness. It's about shaping culture, shifting mindsets, and inspiring real action.

He also highlighted the importance of balancing creativity with sustainability and how responsible innovation must align with commercial viability. And of course, his insights on the climate reality check were eye-opening. Only one film passed the test this year. That tells us there's a long way to go, but also a huge opportunity to bring climate narratives into mainstream media in ways that truly resonate. Look, it's easy to underestimate the power of pop culture.

But think about it. How many of us have been influenced by a movie, TV show, or even a single line of dialogue? Stories shape how we see the world and what we believe is possible. That's why the work being done by Bruno and the Good Energy team is so important. If we can infuse authentic, engaging climate storytelling into entertainment, we can help shift not just individual behavior, but entire cultural narratives. And that's how real change happens.

So I want to thank Bruno for sharing his journey, his wisdom, and his commitment to making climate storytelling more impactful. Bruno's work is inspiring to me and I'm so grateful for the role he plays in shaping a more hopeful and action-driven narrative for our future. And to you the audience, Bruno's story is a call to action. If you're a storyteller, and let's face it, we are all storytellers, think about how you can integrate climate themes into your work.

and conversations with others in a way that sparks curiosity and engagement. If you're an educator, for example, bring climate discussions into your classroom in ways that connect with your students' everyday lives. As a community member, support organizations that are pushing for sustainable solutions in media, business, and policy. And if you're simply someone who loves movies and TVs, like I am, start looking for and supporting content that gets climate storytelling right.

Your choices really do matter. So with that, I also want to say thank you for being here today and supporting Stories Sustain Us. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your family and friends, follow the show and leave me a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And be sure to join me for the next episode of Stories Sustain Us, dropping on March 18th. I'll be speaking with an inspiring guest about the Bear River Massacre and the incredible efforts to reclaim and restore the site.

not just for conservation, but to honor and preserve the history of the Shoshone tribe. This is powerful conversation about environmental restoration, indigenous resilience, and why remembering our past is essential to shaping a better future. Don't miss it. Episode 34 drops March 18th. You can find it at storiessustainus.com, watch it on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Keep telling stories.

Keep taking action and please keep making the world a better place. Until next time, I'm Steven Schauer. Please take care of yourself and each other. Take care.