In today’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome the gloriously talented and deep-thinking Rainn Wilson.

Best known for his iconic portrayal of Dwight Schrute in 'The Office', a role that earned him three Emmy nominations, Rainn's journey has extended far beyond the screen.

He has gone on to co-found Climate Basecamp, a platform to educate people on climate change, where some of the unique things he has done include:

Handing out bottles of water from an iceberg at COP26, offering ‘limited edition’ ice-creams with ingredients that could go extinct, and filming ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Climate Change’.

And then there’s his book… Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

Obviously as an Englishman, I don’t often talk about spirituality, so this episode takes me into rarely charted territory. We also discuss his journey from acting to activism, and the power of storytelling in inspiring change.

It was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Chapters

00:00 From Dwight Schrute to Climate Change

05:27 Influence of Role Models

09:03 Importance of Father Figures

13:25 Spirituality and the Soul

17:56 Connection to Antarctica

25:20 Becoming a Dad

30:45 Balancing Greed and Ambition

35:38 Dealing with Climate Anxiety

38:52 Comedy and Climate Change

41:34 Alienating Audiences

43:42 Transferable lessons from Acting

46:15 Redefining Success

48:28 Key Takeaways

49:49 Why Rainn did the Podcast

Final Note:

Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when we publish all future episodes and updates: https://bensaunders.substack.com/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.