Damon Gameau is on the show today. This one was many many months in the making so I’m incredibly excited to be sharing it and so glad the diary Gods eventually made possible a chat that will live long in my memory for me. Damon is a renowned, award winning actor, filmmaker, and director who has made some of my favourite documentaries of the last little while. Most recently, Future Council centred children in their pursuit of understanding why adults seem so incapable of dealing with a series of problems that are so obvious to see, be affected by and seemingly addressable too. Before that, 2040 examined and highlighted the technological and governance solutions that already exist to deal with decarbonisation, pollution and circularity. He made That Sugar Film which revealed the captured dietary and health system all of us struggle to free ourselves from on a daily basis. Each of these and much more of his work goes to a simple truth - story is what moves humans.

We care when we know others. We care when we understand. We care by knowing the stories of others and having them explain what’s not working and what is working, what’s possible if we change and also what’s likely if we don’t. I was keen to speak with Damon not only because of his body of work and learning from him through conversation, but also because over the last six months I’ve had my own epiphany which he helped me realise - that story is most likely the most disregarded yet necessary component of any change process. Easy to disregard as story can get wrapped up in stereotypes of advertising’s dark arts or the lamentable challenges associated with greenwashing. Story also takes time. It involves being with others, slowing down, listening, openness, a humility to let in what you may not already know, ultimately, to be challenged in what you believe or think is right. Story is inconvenient and may not work - much easier and faster to turn to a powerpoint or petition or to find blame in what and who you don’t like. After 20 years attempting to do change I never realised that every single time I’ve been moved and shifted a belief, it’s because of a story I was told, read or watched. From Inconvenient Truth and The Weather Makers in the mid 2000s, to the experience of watching Future Council to prepare for this chat. What resonates are stories.

In this conversation Damon and I speak about all of this, including his own philosophy on story, their cultural significance, as well as how it matters in countering darker visions of a future that seems inevitable in our common consciousness. We also get into his and my own journeys as men and parents who’ve been cracked open by difficult life events, how we both had the stories we told ourselves fissured and needed to go through the proverbial crucible - something our whole society may also need - to come out cleansed, refreshed and buoyed by a new perspective and closer relationship to reality.

Check out more of Damon's work at Future Council and The Regenerators.

Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem.

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We need a revolution in environmental communications

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