Jan 20, 2022 · 33m · green-blueprint
Adam McKay on how to make a movie about climate change
Adam McKay · 11m spoken David Roberts · 11m spoken Stephen Lacey · 5m spoken Kate Dibiasky · 24s spoken Jason Orlean (Film Clip) · 5s spoken Brie Evantee · 5s spoken Jack Bremmer · 5s spoken Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Film Clip) · 3s spoken President Janie Orlean (Film Clip) · 3s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this crossover podcast between The Carbon Copy and Volts, hosts Stephen Lacey and David Roberts interview director Adam McKay to analyze how his satirical disaster film Don't Look Up tackled societal denial, subverted Hollywood conventions, and broke streaming records.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 1.7 Guest disagreement 0.3 The hosts pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:50 McKay rejects social media mischaracterization of his stance
McKay firmly dispels the online narrative that he equated disliking the movie with climate denialism, rejecting the distorted framing.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 12:33 Roberts interjects with climate movement cultural critiqueRoberts counters the surprise around hostility by asserting he could have predicted it, diagnosing a toxic shoot-down culture within climate circles.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 24:10 McKay details studio screening thresholds and Mike Judge anecdoteMcKay walks Roberts through the specific numerical grading of test screenings, studio clout dynamics, and how low test scores can bury films.
The host holds their own ▶ 16:28 Roberts explains evolutionary limits of climate perceptionRoberts delivers an articulate synthesis of evolutionary psychology and narrative theory, demonstrating deep domain mastery on why climate storytelling struggles.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examining Climate Tropes in Pop Culture and Don't Look Up | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | In this introductory framing segment, Lacey and Roberts establish their extensive history covering climate culture and analyze the shortcomings of historical climate fiction. | |
| Deconstructing Disaster Cinema Conventions and McKay's Satirical Allegory | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | The hosts dissect disaster cinema tropes since The Day After Tomorrow and contextualize McKay's satirical allegory against Hollywood convention. | |
| Adam McKay on Unprecedented Global Viewership and Critical Backlash | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | McKay and Roberts discuss global streaming metrics and critical polarization. Roberts shares insider perspective on climate movement factionalism, while McKay reframes the critical blowback. | |
| Adam McKay's Personal Climate Awakening and Impetus for Film | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | McKay describes his awakening to the climate crisis through IPCC reports, while Roberts delivers an informed breakdown of evolutionary psychology and human narrative capacity. | |
| Subverting Hollywood Conventions and Testing the Uncompromising Tragic Ending | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | McKay educates Roberts on Hollywood test screening mechanics, scoring systems, and studio risk aversion, recounting how audience focus groups strongly embraced the movie's tragic ending. | |
| Proving the Commercial Viability of Substantive Storytelling in Hollywood | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Roberts frames McKay's career trajectory from broad comedy to serious issues, prompting McKay to explain how commercial viability paves the way for peers to tackle substantive topics. |
Statements from this episode (10)
Roberts: Most Climate-Themed Art and Media Have Been Bad
“Over the course of my career, most attempts to grapple with climate change via art, you know, music, or movies, or TV shows, or poetry, have just been bad.”
Roberts: Climate Art Struggles Because Scale Conflicts with Specificity
“It's so big and so distant and so kind of all-encompassing and abstract that it's very difficult to approach it via a specific place or person or story or relationship, and those specifics are what give art its power and its meaning.”
Roberts: Don't Look Up Broke Netflix Weekly Streaming Records
“It broke records on Netflix. I think it has the most hours streamed for any movie in Netflix history in the space of a week, the week of December 27th, and in terms of total streams, it's the second biggest movie in Netflix history.”
Roberts: Audiences Won't Flock to Movies Explicitly Marketed About Climate Change
“If you tell people, I made a movie about climate change, they're not going to herd to see it. They're just not.”
McKay: Don't Look Up hit number one in 87 countries on Netflix
“They said that they've never seen a comedy play across this many countries. I think the movie was, like, number one in, like, 87 countries, and top 10 in, like, 90”
The Climate Movement Devolved Into Infighting Because Mainstream Institutions Ignored It
“You just end up talking to other climate people, and you end up Arguing with other climate people and forming these sort of teams and factions within the climate movement because no one else is paying attention. So I think that's sort of like become the cultur…”
Adam McKay: IPCC reports triggered severe climate anxiety that inspired filmmaking
“Where I went from the somewhat concern range to the very, very concern range was that IPCC report and several other reports that came out, culminating in me eventually not being able to sleep, and my wife being like, what's going on?”
Roberts: Mammalian evolution makes humans ill-equipped to emotionally process climate change
“We're evolved creatures who are evolved to care about things within a certain space around us and on a certain timescale, right? We're just mammals. That means close proximity and relatively short timescales. And climate is huge and far away and slow.”
Only Spielberg and Scorsese Can Override a 20 Test Screening Score
“Maybe Spielberg and Scorsese are two people that could score a 20 on a movie and say, I don't care, put it in 3000 theaters anyway.
David Roberts: Right.
Adam McKay: No one else on the planet has the clout to tell a studio, I know we got a 20, but go with it.”