A controversial play — and what it taught me about the psychology of climate | David Finnigan

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2024

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When playwright David Finnigan launched a new play in 2014, controversially titled "Kill Climate Deniers," he was not prepared for the blowback. But the conversations with climate skeptics of all stripes ultimately taught him a fascinating lesson about how many of us think about — and act upon — the climate crisis.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective.
0:02.0	Audio Collective.
0:04.0	You're listening to Ted Talks daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.
0:14.8	I'm your host Elise Hugh.
0:16.6	Playwright David Finnegan made a bold choice about a decade ago.
0:20.0	He created theater about climate denial.
0:23.8	And in spending a lot of time with climate deniers,
0:26.4	he learned one key way in which they're actually quite right.
0:30.6	Taking the TED stage, he shares his journey to this understanding and after the talk
0:34.8	stick around for my interview with David it was one of my favorite interviews I
0:39.1	conducted at Ted 2024 it's all after the break.
0:45.0	Like TED Talks, you should check out the TED Radio Hour with NPR.
0:50.0	Stay tuned after this talk to hear a sneak peek of this week's episode.
0:55.0	And now our TED Talk of the day.
0:57.7	Hi, I'm David.
0:59.5	I'm a playwright from Nana Wall Country,
1:02.1	the unseated lands of the Nunnawal People in Southeast Australia.
1:07.0	I come from a family of climate scientists, and in 2014, I wrote a play entitled Kill Climate Deniers.
1:15.0	The play follows the story of a group of eco-terrorists who take over Australia's Parliament
1:21.0	House during a Fleetwood Mac concert and hold the entire
1:25.1	government hostage demanding an instant end to climate change. So the story is
1:30.7	ridiculous but I wanted the play to start a conversation
	...

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