# Transcript: Turning Up the Heat: Climate Content That Clicks **Date:** March 12, 2026 · 10:00 PM **Session:** [Turning Up the Heat: Climate Content That Clicks](/sessions/2026-03-12/pp1162635-turning-up-the-heat-climate-content-that-clicks) ## Summary A panel of children's media creators discusses how to make climate content engaging and age-appropriate for kids from preschool through teens. The panelists share their approaches across podcasts, streaming series, YouTube, and geocaching, emphasizing humor, agency, and embedding climate messaging into compelling stories rather than lecturing. They explore the unique challenges of climate communication in a polarized media landscape and advocate for empowering kids to drive conversations with their families and communities. ## Topics `climate communication` · `children's media` · `climate storytelling` · `youth agency` · `educational content` · `streaming and youtube` · `age-appropriate messaging` · `media funding challenges` ## Key Takeaways 1. Climate messaging is most effective when embedded in compelling entertainment rather than presented as standalone educational content — Avatar is the biggest blockbuster in the world and nobody thinks about its climate message. 2. Children activated early become lifelong advocates — three-quarters of conservationists featured in the Jane series cited childhood inspiration from Jane Goodall as their catalyst. 3. The most impactful individual climate action is simply talking about it — kids speaking to parents moves the needle more than adults preaching to other adults. 4. YouTube and direct-to-audience platforms offer unprecedented creative freedom for climate content, allowing creators to tackle hard questions and respond to current events without traditional gatekeeper constraints. 5. Climate content strategy must be age-differentiated: preschoolers need to fall in love with the world, school-age kids need facts and agency, and teens need authentic, peer-driven content that feels cool rather than preachy. ## Full Transcript This session brings together leaders working on climate content for kids. The panelists include Mindy Thomas, co-founder and chief creative at Tinkercast and host of Wow in the World; Susie Jaramillo, CEO of Encantos; and JJ Johnson, founder and executive producer at Sinking Ship Entertainment. The moderator, Laura Schifter, opens by asking each panelist what personally motivates them to care about climate work. Each panelist shares their personal climate moment. Mindy describes how she wants to help kids develop the language to speak about climate change, believing that children speaking to their parents will move the needle more than adults preaching to other adults. Susie recalls watching the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and seeing the carousel in New York underwater, which drove her belief in purpose-driven media that shapes culture. She draws parallels to Avatar, noting that effective climate messaging can be embedded in compelling entertainment. JJ recalls looking at his newborn daughter and realizing the world was on fire, sparking his commitment to activating kids as agents of change. The conversation shifts to how climate has become foundational to storytelling rather than just a standalone science topic. JJ explains that all their shows aim to give kids a sense of agency and spark their imagination, noting that kids are rightfully anxious about climate and that anxiety can be channeled into action rather than suppressed. The goal is to provide concrete steps kids can take to feel like they're making a difference. Susie describes two brands she's been building. Encantos has a preschool brand called Canticos that bakes climate messaging into songs in a preschool-friendly way, including themes of reuse and stewardship. Their other brand, This is Cooler, takes a completely different approach for tweens, adopting a YouTuber-style, scrappy, cool format that addresses real questions kids have, like why it's too hot to practice soccer or why the beach in Florida smells bad. The approach combines humor, awareness, and agency to make climate consciousness cool. Mindy adds that for the five-to-ten age group, kids love facts because knowledge gives them a sense of power. She describes how their show Wow in the World models both climate awareness and common adult denial through characters like Grandma G-Force, a pro-wrestling grandma who complains about the heat but refuses to acknowledge climate change. The show weaves in climate toolkit principles through humor and relatable scenarios. Mindy then introduces their geocaching eco-adventure project, where they created trading cards with climate change principles and had kids plant them in geocaches around the world. Each card has a QR code leading to more information. The project gets families outside, noticing environmental changes firsthand, and building connections between families and educators. She personally planted a card in a geocache at Pike Place Market in Seattle. JJ discusses his progression through three series. Endlings, inspired by news about the last northern white rhino and predictions of elephant extinction, is set in the near future and follows four foster kids who meet an alien creature that collects the last of every species. The show ran for two seasons on Hulu and was picked up by BBC and distributed to 150 countries. Through a partnership with IFAW, they built an elephant orphanage in Zambia. The key lesson was that empathy must start with yourself before extending to others and the planet. JJ's second series, Jane, was created for Apple TV Plus alongside the Jane Goodall Institute. It follows a little girl who wants to save the world but lives in the middle of nowhere, imagining fantastical adventures with her friend and a chimpanzee named Greybeard. Each episode features a real environmental conservationist in a mini-documentary segment. The show saw a surge in the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots and Shoots program, with three-quarters of featured conservationists citing Jane Goodall as their childhood inspiration. JJ's latest project, Lila Goes Viral, targets the teen audience on YouTube. It follows a fifteen-year-old girl who visits Australia, sees the Great Barrier Reef's decline, writes a song about it that goes viral, and must navigate being a viral sensation while finding her activist voice. The show starts shooting imminently and is designed so that simply watching and sharing the content directs resources to charities addressing the causes discussed in the show. YouTube allows them to respond to current events overnight rather than waiting eighteen months for traditional production cycles. Laura introduces the toolkit for climate storytelling that Planet Media created with the panelists. It includes four essential climate principles: the earth is our home, it's getting hotter because of us, it's changing now and that impacts us, and we can all work together to make change. The toolkit also includes strategies for integrating climate content, age-appropriate ideas, and real examples to inspire storytelling. The panelists discuss reaching kids across different platforms. Susie notes that ninety percent of kid viewing comes from YouTube, and kids are also on TikTok and Snapchat regardless of what adults prefer. She sees a tremendous opportunity to get kids producing their own content through user-generated content strategies, building community and owning their audience. JJ emphasizes treating climate content as a big brand idea and using all available levers, while noting that many celebrities and organizations have never been approached about doing kids' content. Mindy stresses the responsibility to meet kids wherever they are. On challenges, the panelists discuss funding difficulties as tech disrupts traditional media, the politicization of climate language, and the current regulatory environment. Susie notes that while traditional funding is harder, creators have never been closer to audiences through direct-to-consumer platforms. JJ emphasizes creative financing, noting that Endlings was funded by thirteen different networks worldwide, reducing risk for any single partner. Mindy observes that climate change language has become so politicized that it may need a rebrand for the new generation. During the Q&A, the panel discusses creating content that engages both children and parents simultaneously, with Susie describing how Canticos is being developed into long-form family content. They address how to reach people in denial about climate change through story rather than preaching, using love and fear as entry points. A question about fossil fuel dependence in conflict zones prompts discussion about the freedom YouTube brands have to tackle hard questions without worrying about traditional funders. The session closes with each panelist sharing their five-word climate message: JJ says 'you can help the world,' Susie says 'you can be the difference,' and Mindy says 'knowledge is power.' --- *Source: stt · Language: en · Model: claude-opus-4-6* [← Back to session](/sessions/2026-03-12/pp1162635-turning-up-the-heat-climate-content-that-clicks)