Dean Russell had just wrapped several reporting projects on climate change, mental health, and COVID. “My world was just so serious,” he said. That’s when his boss approached Dean with an idea. What if they made a fiction podcast about climate change?
At first Dean wasn’t sold, but a few years later he’s become a full believer, and is the co-creator of WBUR’s The Midnight Rebellion, a choose-your-own-adventure podcast set in a futuristic climate-ravaged Boston.
This week we’re sharing the first episode of the series. But we also hear from Dean directly about what it was like to tackle such a different kind of storytelling and why he thinks embracing a format borrowed from a hit book-genre of the nineties is so apt for exploring climate action.
Featuring Dean Russell, and the cast of The Midnight Rebellion.
To hear the rest of the series, subscribe to The Midnight Rebellion wherever you get your podcasts.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
As listed, our staff recommendations for cli-fi books are The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken, and A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet.
Interview portion produced by Taylor Quimby. The Midnight Rebellion is produced by Dean Russell. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.
