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The Current Transcript for September 23, 2019

Host: Laura Lynch

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

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VOICE: We deserve a say in what's going on in our future and although we're not the ones making policy right now, we know that this is the world that we have to live in and we're going to deal with the consequences when we're older. A lot of people are going to die from old age, but our generation, we're going to die from climate change.

LAURA LYNCH: Around the world young people are urging action, even as a new UN report underscores the worry: sea levels rising, ice shrinking and a warming planet. We begin by bringing back our panel of young activists who have a keen interest in climate change and in changing the minds of those who would do too little to stop it. In an hour, we'll also have a documentary from Germany on its efforts to switch to green energy. Also.

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VOICE: It went so far beyond one particular individual and into these broader questions of abuse of power and systemic failures that we're still grappling with today.

LL: Two Pulitzer Prize winning journalist took on Harvey Weinstein and inspired the MeToo movement. Their new book chronicles the investigation and just what they were up against. I'm Laura Lynch and this is The Current.

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A glimmer of hope for youth climate activists as UN summit begins

Guests: Sophia Mathur, Joe Crabtree, Aditi Naryanan, Cathy Orlando

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[Protestors chanting at climate rallies]

LL: From Washington D.C. to Islamabad.

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VOICE: We are not causing climate crisis, yet we are one of the most vulnerable countries affected by climate crisis.

LL: From Rio de Janeiro.

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[Sounds from protests]

LL: To Brussels.

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VOICE: I'm here today because I feel like I am betrayed or abandoned by my governments. I am disappointed that they won't accept the scientific truth behind all of us. I am here so my voice can be heard by them.

LL: Young people around the world took to the streets on Friday demanding action on climate change. And as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations climate action summit, we welcome back a group of youth activists who are done waiting for grown ups to do something. Sophia Mathur is a 12-year-old climate activists from Sudbury, Ontario who traveled to Washington and New York last week. She's with me here in our Toronto studio. Joe Crabtree is a 16-year-old activist and he lives in London, England. Welcome to you.

SOPHIA MATHUR: Hi.

JOE CRABTREE: Hello.

LL: Sophia, we're going to start with you. You were in Washington and New York for the past several days to participate in a number of climate action events. What was the highlight for you?

SOPHIA MATHUR: The highlight was probably meeting Greta Thunberg. I got to sit on a panel with her when she received the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. That was just amazing to experience meeting someone that empowers me.

LL: What did she say to you?

SOPHIA MATHUR: We all had one big conversation and we were talking about. But how she enjoyed the Americas and I talked to her about coming to Canada and I was really excited because maybe we'll meet again.

LL: Is that is that the hope that she will be able to come to Canada and you'll be her host?

SOPHIA MATHUR: I know that she'll come to Canada. She's going to be in Montreal, but I'm also hoping that she might come to Sudbury. That'll be really fun too.

LL: Yeah, I guess. Now you marched in the climate strike on Friday. Tell me what that was like.

SOPHIA MATHUR: The climate strike on Friday there is so many people, there was chance, there were speeches and it went really well. And. It was really amazing and there were so many people. Like a lot of people and I felt like we were making a difference because it felt like people actually cared about this.

LL: So you really do feel like there was a difference happening because of what you were doing?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Yes I did feel like there was something was happening and I did. I felt hopeful.

LL: Was that different for you to feel that way? To feel hopeful?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Yeah I used to be more worried about the climate crisis because there weren't as much people, but now there's so many people. There's like millions of people all around the world. Just about the future, just striking and there's just so many people who care about this. Millions of people and it's amazing.

LL: Joe let's cross over the ocean to you. We spoke with you also in March. How have things changed in the United Kingdom?

JOE CRABTREE: Well actually since we spoke in March, there's actually been quite a lot of developments actually because in I think it's April or May extinction rebellion blocked the whole of London. I'm not sure if you know extinction or rebellion it comes from the UK but it's starting to grow in other parts of the world. But it's basically a group which promotes non-violent direct action and they block the whole of London five central locations for two weeks overnight and after that the House of Commons declared the climate emergency. So it was quite a big step to show that people power does have a change. And yep so also a recent poll said that 74 percent of people in the UK think climate change is the main issue the most important issue. So I think it's showing that there's been a real shift in opinion and that climate change is really important to everyone.

LL: Joe, you've also since been elected as a member of the Youth Parliament. Tell us about what that is.

JOE CRABTREE: So the Youth Parliament is basically a parliament for young people, for people between 11 and 18. So I basically have a constituency like actual MP do and we represent them on a variety of issues. And for me I got elected on the on the manifesto of mainly about climate change. So I'm I've been promoting my area in the Youth Parliament and there's basically representatives from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all making key decisions. So yeah.

LL: I'm wondering if that if that new role has sort of sharpened your activism or given you a new focus.

JOE CRABTREE: Well it's given me in a way it's given me more power in the local area to make change because I'm allowed to speak with my local M.P so I've got a few in my area, Zach Goldsmith and Ed Davey who are both actually quite high profile members of the House of Commons. So I can just go up to them and ask what they're doing on certain issues and pressure them because young people have real power with the Youth Parliament. So I think it has.

LL: Let's talk about today's U.N. climate action summit. We'll start with you Joe, what do you expect to come out of it?

JOE CRABTREE: Well I really hope that not only words come out but real actions because I think frequently people just give words and say oh we want to make change but they never actually do enough because people don't realize the significance of the issue. Climate change is going to affect every single one in the world. And I think people need to ask themselves how far they will go to save the planet.

LL: And Sophia what about you, what are you hoping for?

SOPHIA MATHUR: I definitely agree with Joe. I don't like hearing politicians saying oh we're going to do something, we're so hopeful about you and they're not doing anything. We need action and not words.

LL: Are you surprised that U.S. President Donald Trump is skipping some?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Wow I didn't actually know that, but that's very surprising.

LL: Okay we're going to bring someone else into this conversation. Aditi Narayanan is a 16-year-old climate activist who organized events across Arizona to coincide with the climate action summit. She's in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi Aditi.

ADITI NARYANAN: Hi. Actually I'm 17 now, but yeah.

LL: Oh congratulations. OK. What climate action was going on in Arizona on Friday?

ADITI NARYANAN: Oh a lot. Yeah. We were giving speeches, registering the voters, having community organizations table. Sorry if my voice sounds kind of weird, I'm kind of sick.

LL: Oh honey, I'm sorry to hear that. We'll keep trying though. You sound alright.

ADITI NARYANAN: Thank you.

LL: When we first talked to you last March the student climate strike movement was just getting started. And I'm wondering what it looks like today from where you are.

ADITI NARYANAN: Sorry, what was your question again?

LL: When we first talked to you last March, the student climate strike movement was just getting started where you are. I'm wondering what it looks like today.

ADITI NARYANAN: Well we have like a lot more people at our strike. I would say the first one we had 100 to 200 and we had like 1500, which is really amazing.

LL: Can I ask you Aditi, I just asked Sophia this and she was surprised by it. The climate action summit today, your president, President Trump, is not attending. What do you think of that?

ADITI NARYANAN: I mean I'm not surprised. Honestly I didn't expect anything better. I just think our best hopes for getting climate is taking over the House and the Senate and eventually the presidency. But honestly I think change still should come from our state legislatures and our city councils and from local government rather than national because I think that's honestly the most likely way we'll pass things.

LL: Okay Aditi we're gonna say goodbye to you now because I can hear that it's actually hurting you to talk, but I appreciate you talking to us. Thank you.

ADITI NARYANAN: Yeah definitely. Yeah. Good to talk to you all. And yeah, just to anyone listening. Let them know too, if they want to get involved in the movement in America, it's really accessible. They could just email any of us. But yes, thank you I appreciate that. My voice hurts a lot.

LL: Okay bye bye.

ADITI NARYANAN: Bye.

LL: Sophia you were an early player in the Fridays for Future Movement. You've been striking from your school in Sudbury once a month since last November and once a week since May. I'm wondering how things have changed in Sudbury.

SOPHIA MATHUR: Sudbury declared a climate emergency in late May. And I mean that's made a difference in it's changed people's minds in Sudbury, since in Sundbury we used to be called the moonscape because we had all of our trees were cut down and we made a big difference and now we're making a big difference in action on climate change. And I'm really really proud of my city of Sudbury.

LL: And you actually spoke with your classmates back in Sudbury fom the climate strike in New York. What are they telling you about your activism?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Well I mean it was kind of like an interview. People in my class asked me questions like why were you in New York? How much people are there? One of them asked what is climate change and I just explained to them why I was there and how important this issue was.

LL: And what did, what was their reaction to what you were saying?

SOPHIA MATHUR: I think they were pretty excited because I'm pretty sure our class might be coming to the Our Strike on September 26.

LL: OK and as you talked about before, you met Greta Thunberg when you were in New York and I want us to listen to just a bit of her now famous speech from Davos, Switzerland last January.

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VOICE: Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope, but I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act. I want you to act as if the house was on fire because it is.

LL: Joe Crabtree what is it about her message that is so powerful?

JOE CRABTREE: Well I think she obviously really cares about it. I think that's inspired people around the world and it's inspired me to go out and strike and make a difference. So I think that she she's cared so much and also sort of ignited this movement because she was the first striker. I think she's just really inspirational.

LL: I wonder if at this point then are you more hopeful or angry?

JOE CRABTREE: Oh I think I'm hopeful. I am hopeful. I think there has been a shift in opinion towards pro climate action. I think that I'm hoping the U.N. Climate Summit will come up with something solid, which will actually make a difference. But I am worried because I think the point of no return is getting closer each month. Each day each minute. So I think I'm both hopeful, but also a bit anxious.

LL: I am wondering then because you don't just have to deal with climate change in your country, you have the Brexit drama to contend with. And I'm wondering how that has affected any potential action on climate change.

JOE CRABTREE: Well at the moment with Brexit, both sides are just arguing with the other, but they're not respecting democracy and it's just taking up all our time, while we should be talking about climate change and actually another poll recently said that 71 percent of people think climate change is a more pressing issue than Brexit in the UK. So I'm constantly confused why we're always talking about Brexit and about no deal, hard deal, all the different types of Brexit deals rather than the real issues of climate change.

LL: Well when you talk then to two members of parliament who you say you've met through your youth parliament involvement, what are they telling you about that?

JOE CRABTREE: Well they're saying that they are doing stuff about climate change and I think the issue in the UK is that we do it we're doing some stuff on climate change but no near enough. So we are cutting emissions but nowhere near the scale that we need to because the UK has set a target in law for 2050 for carbon neutral. But we need to get it down to 2030, 2025, if we really want to curb the global warming.

LL: Sophia you and your mother Cathy Orlando who's with us here in the studio, decided you weren't going to fly to Washington or New York and they're both a long way from Sudbury.

JOE CRABTREE: Yeah.

LL: So how did you get there?

JOE CRABTREE: Well we drove a hybrid car and then we rented a car to Washington and then from Washington to New York we took an Amtrak train and then from New York back to Niagara we took an Amtrak train again. And then now we're driving back to Sudbury.

LL: And you stopped in on the way. I'm wondering what that journey Sophia taught you about the kind of lifestyle changes that are going to be required to reverse climate change.

SOPHIA MATHUR: Yeah. But I mean in the future I believe that there's probably going to be a lot, there's going to be more accessibility to trains and electric cars and ways that we don't have to burn as much carbon and have lower carbon footprint.

LL: Now Cathy Orlando I mentioned that you were here in studio with us with Sophia. I'm wondering what you think of everything that your daughter's been doing.

CATHY ORLANDO: I'm amazed. I'm in awe, she's me, but an extrovert. I'm an introvert. So and we've been doing this together since she's been inside of me, so she's followed me everywhere. Yeah. It's amazing.

LL: Has she awoken you to the need for climate change?

CATHY ORLANDO: Yeah. When I was pregnant in 2007 the IPCC report came out and what I heard was that if we keep doing what we're doing the world will be a very difficult place to live 40 years from now and that was over a decade ago and I changed my life. I pretty much dropped out of the money economy and went into the social capital economy to make a difference.

LL: Right beside her.

CATHY ORLANDO: Yeah with her at my side.

LL: I'm wondering Joe what's the single most important thing a person can do to combat climate change right now?

JOE CRABTREE: I think firstly it's really important to be aware of the real issues I think get involved certainly with Friday's the Future extinct rebellion to make the government wake up about the crisis. I think direct action is the best way of making change, but also on a local level try to cut down the amount of meat eating, try to cut down the flights you're taking and also recycling. You know the basics. But I think if everyone did a little bit and also the government pulls their weight, I think we can really curb the course we're on to.

LL: And what do you think Sophia? What's the single most important thing that someone could do?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Right now I think people need to educate themselves about the climate crisis and then they need to by following the experts which lots of people get their information off social media. Social media has a lot of lies and people lie about this. That's the reason that a lot of people aren't educated about the climate crisis and we need to get our information from the experts like the scientists as in through the IPCC, the Paris Agreement, Nobel Prize economists, the Lancet Countdown and then we need to take action and we need to lobby our politicians and we need to have action now.

LL: I was going to say what should politicians be doing right now, particularly in Canada?

SOPHIA MATHUR: Politicians need to listen to the experts and I'm only twelve years old. I don't know everything that the experts are saying, but I know that they're saying to price carbon and I think, I don't know all the complexities of what they're saying, but I know that we need to do something now and I know that this is really serious and politicians need to start doing what the experts are saying and they need to do it right now.

LL: Right. Joe, I just want to challenge you a little bit. This isn't the first time we've seen mass demonstrations about climate change and yet it feels as though there is little to show for it in terms of concrete action. I'm wondering if you could tell me more about what has to happen to hold people and politicians accountable.. You talked about extinction rebellion, is there more that needs to be done?

JOE CRABTREE: Well I think we need to really exercise our voting power and vote out politicians which don't respect the planet. I think that it's really important that I think well the thing with extinct rebellion is it does get issues like climate change onto the news which educates people and also keeps the importance of climate change right at the top of the new circuit. So I think stuff like extinction rebellion really does work. But I think the best way to hold people to account is through elections.

LL: Alright. Both of you and Cathy Orlando thanks very much for coming in and talking to us about it.

SOPHIA MATHUR: Thank you.

JOE CRABTREE: Thank you.

LL: Sophia Mathur is a 12-year-old climate activist from Sudbury. She was in our Toronto studio. Aditi Naryanan is a 17-year-old activist in Phoenix, Arizona, who joined us earlier. Joe Crabtree is a 16-year-old activist in London, England. And Cathy Orlando, Sophia's mom, joined us as well. And just a note there is more coverage of Climate Action Week here on The Current. From an examination of Germany's troubled push for clean energy later in this show to a day of climate action here in Canada, we will be on the story throughout the week.

[Music].

LL: Next week The Current and Q are coming together for a live show in Toronto. We will speak with voters, artists and thinkers about why it's important to engage in this election. Join us with guests Rick Mercer, some first time voters and our musical guests, The Weather Station for a night of music and conversation. It is happening Tuesday, October 1st at 7 p.m. at Glenn Gould Studio at CBC Toronto. Tickets are available at cbc.ca/thecurrent and I'm looking forward to seeing you there. The CBC News is coming up next. Then.

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VOICE: We live to report these stories in part because we hope and think they will mean something to other people, but we had never seen a reaction like this in our lives.

LL: In fact their reporting led to a whole movement, MeToo. Two New York Times journalists join me after the news to tell us what it's like to take on Hollywood's richest and most powerful. I'm Laura Lynch and you are listening to The Current.

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'An X-ray into abuse of power': Reporters describe the investigation that sparked the #MeToo movement

Guests: Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey

LL: Hello. I'm Laura Lynch and you're listening to The Current.

[Music: Theme]

LL: Still to come, the landscape in Germany is dotted by windmills and solar panels, but is the nation's transition to green energy a failed experiment or does it just need more time? Kristin Nelson's documentary, The Power Struggle, in half an hour. But first taking on a giant of Hollywood.

[Music]

LL: Montreal actor Erika Rosenbaum is one of the many women who have accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She talked about it on The Current in October of 2017. And a warning here we're going to hear her account of what happened and she uses graphic language to describe the sexual assault.

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VOICE: He holds me by the back of the neck and faces me to the mirror and very quietly told me that he just wants to look at me and he starts to masturbate standing behind me. And I stood there and I did nothing. I remember him looking right into my face and I remember looking at my own reflection and I think I was just too shocked to move or say anything. I couldn't believe it was happening.

LL: And as I said Erika Rosenbaum is just one of dozens of women who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse and harassment by Weinstein. The fall of the Hollywood mogul was due in large part to the dogged investigation of two New York Times reporters. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for their work on the Weinstein scandal. And their new book about landing that story is called, "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite A Movement. And they join me from New York City. Hello.

JODI KANTOR: Hi. Thanks for having us.

LL: What a terrific book. Jodi Kantor, you spoke to a number of women who were abused by Harvey Weinstein. How familiar is the story that Erika Rosenbaum told us?

JODI KANTOR: Very familiar because I think I was the first reporter Erika spoke to. She sent us an email right after we broke the Weinstein story and here's what I can tell you all summer. We had been we had been hearing something we began to call the pattern because these Weinstein stories were all so similar and it was chilling it was women from different countries who didn't know one another it was famous actresses last famous actress says it was former assistants and the details they were telling us were were so much the same. But at the time that Erika and I first spoke neither of us had any idea what the consequences of this story would be. And it's really because MeToo has come to mean so much to so many people that Megan and I wanted to go back and take you behind the scenes and tell you the very surprising story of what actually happened during the Weinstein investigation because there's a lot of drama obviously that played out in newspaper pages. But finally for the first time we're able to reveal the drama behind those newspaper stories.

LL: Okay let's back it up a little bit Jodi. How did the stories of Harvey Weinstein serial abuse of women come onto your radar?

JODI KANTOR: It's really because The Times made a substantial commitment to sexual harassment reporting. I think Canadians are probably familiar with the name Bill O'Reilly. Bill O'Reilly was. The loudest most bombastic most powerful right wing cable host imaginable. He he was kind of like a king on Fox News for years and years and years. And in 2017 our colleagues Emily Steele and Michael Schmidt reported that he had silenced allegations of sexual harassment by paying the women off paying them hush money essentially these secret settlements. And so after they published that story a shocking thing happened which is that Bill O'Reilly lost his job and the Times editors asked what now seems like a very quaint question. But it was an important one they said Are there other powerful men in American life who have covered up abuse towards women. And that's when I started looking into Harvey Weinstein.

LL: OK. And then later on Megan Twohey you were asked to to work on the story as well. What did you think when you were first asked to work on it?

MEGAN TWOHEY: I'll be honest as an investigative reporter you know lots of the coverage that we do is kind of giving voice to the voiceless. And I had a really hard time of conceiving of famous actresses as victims and people who were kind of in need of assistance in helping their stories come to light. But what we realized and what I quickly realized once I had in fact join Jodie on the investigation was that it was actually an indication the fact that people like Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow I mean Gwyneth Paltrow who had been probably Harvey Weinstein's biggest star known as the first lady of Miramax the fact that women like that who at least from the outside seem like they have so much power and so much resources that they too had been victimized suggested that that actually nobody was immune and that it was that this investigation had a lot of potential to help bring the broader issue of sexual harassment and the use of work to manipulate and terrorize to light.

LL: Jodi what kind of strategy to do develop to make your approach to women who had been victims to get them to talk to you.

JODI KANTOR: Well that's actually really the foundation of my partnership with Megan Megan without on maternity leave. When I was kind of going at it alone and the majority of my calls went unreturned and still in in the first few seconds of those phone calls it was it was still hard to know exactly what to say to try to earn trust with these strangers. So our editor Rebecca Corbett said give Megan to me a call because she did so much work on women's allegations against President Trump. Megan was actually one of the first reporters to really bring to light some of those allegations in 2016. So I called Megan and Megan was home with her baby and I think we were talking while her baby was down for a nap and I was explaining to her what was going on and Megan started suggesting some of the language she had used over the years and especially with the women who had spoken about Trump. And so she was this one line. She said Megan said the case she made to women was I can't change what may have happened to you in the past but together if we work together very carefully we may be able to do something that's constructive for other people. And as soon as I heard that line I felt like it was kind of a lodestar because look I've been a journalist for 20 years and I know that sources talk for all sorts of different reasons. But in my opinion the best reason to talk to a journalist is to try to add to a constructive social discussion. And many people think that talking to a journalist is like a bad or a traitorous thing to do or that you're a tattletale and we're always trying to define it as actually something that's very noble to do and we want people who are doing it to feel good about it.

LL: And so that did work and it meant that women did start opening up to you. And yet these nondisclosure agreements became another reason for them not to come on the record and Megan I'm wonder if you can tell me about the NDA's.

MEGAN TWOHEY: Right. So these secret settlements have been used, not just in the case of Weinstein, but in cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault across the country, and no doubt in Canada as well. And we kept running into them in the course of our investigation. For example there was a woman who had started off. It was her first job out of college working for Harvey Weinstein in 1990 when she was allegedly sexually assaulted by him. I tracked her down to a home outside of New York City in the summer of 2017 knocked on her door. She she opened the door she had a young daughter by her side looking up and she said when I explained what we were working on she said I have been waiting for this knock on my door for 25 years. And yet because she had been steered into a secret settlement with him she was legally prohibited from telling us what had happened. And we ran into these time and time again. Women whether they were sort of actresses or women young women who had worked in his companies who had sought legal help following a you know an alleged attack of some kind and were basically steered into these settlements in which they were told that they had had to accept money in exchange for a legally binding promise of never speaking about what had happened to ever again.

LL: And what are the implications of that when so many women sign these agreements?

MEGAN TWOHEY: There's no question that the victims do in fact receive financial compensation for what has happened to them. But what we have realized and what we're sort of able to help pull the curtain back on in the course of the additional reporting that we've done for this book is how dangerous what those sort of dangerous implications are. These secret settlements have basically allowed alleged predators like Weinstein to cover their tracks and to erase evidence of of wrongdoing. I think that there is now a broader conversation happening about whether or not these secret settlements have helped conceal public dangers. You know in the case of Weinstein there we were able to document as many as eight secret settlements that were paid you know starting in 1990 going up through 2015.

LL: So in addition to the secret settlements and the implications of them, your additional reporting also brings forward more information about Lisa Bloom. She doesn't come out of this looking very good. She's a lawyer who made her career as a defender of women against sexual harassment. And you have in the book a frankly shocking memo that she wrote to Harvey Weinstein and Jodi I'm wondering if you can read a bit of that for us.

JODI KANTOR: OK. So what I'm about to read to you is basically Lisa Bloom's audition memo for working for Harvey Weinstein. It's from December 2016. So it's from nearly a year before we broke the story. And when Megan obtained this memo it really felt like we were getting to bedrock because we already knew that this famous feminist attorney had used her public credibility and had used her experience working with victims to instead protect Harvey Weinstein. We knew that she had crossed over to the other side. But what we're able to see here is her writing in her own words what she plans to do for him. Weinstein was very concerned because the actress Rose McGowan had tweeted that a prominent producer had raped her and pretty much everybody thought the man she was talking about was Harvey Weinstein. So the memos coming off a phone call, and then Bloom very quickly sort of makes a proposal to Weinstein. She says, I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world because I have represented so many of them. They start out as impressive bold women, but the more one presses for evidence, the weaknesses and lies are revealed. She doesn't seem to have much going on these days except her rapidly escalating identity as a feminist Warrior, which seems to be entirely based on her online rants. For her to keep her Rose Army following she must continue ramping up the outrageousness of her diatribe. Clearly she must be stopped in her ridiculous defamatory attacks on you. She's dangerous. You are right to be concerned. From there Blume goes on to lay out a six point plan for smearing and undermining and manipulating Rose McGowan. It ranges from initiating friendly contact with her, to starting a quote "counter ops online campaign" to push back and call her out as a pathological liar. Bloom explicitly suggests quote "placing an article re: her becoming increasingly unglued, so that when someone Googles her this is what pops up and she is discredited. She suggests sending her a cease and desist letter. She suggests that she and Harvey Weinstein come out publicly in a preemptive interview I'm quoting from the memo here 'where you talk about evolving on women's issues prompted by the death of your mother, Trump pussy grab tape, and maybe nasty unfounded hurtful rumors about you and then she says Number Five start the Weinstein foundation, focusing on gender equality in film or establish the Weinstein standards which seek to have one third of films directed by women. Finally number six is positive reputation management. And essentially she is suggesting manipulating Google search results to deliver more positive articles. And then she she ends by saying she actually ends by saying, hey I recommend you set up a new secure email account. We shouldn't be emailing on these sensitive matters to your company email.

LL: I guess not. Megan did Lisa Bloom try to defend herself or explain herself to you?

MEGAN TWOHEY: Well we certainly went to Lisa Bloom seeking comment once we had obtained this and actually other confidential records including the billing records that she submitted to Weinstein that provided an hour by hour account of all the various work she did in fact do for him over the following months. And she refused to comment. She said she cited attorney client privilege and would refuse to even talk to us about these records that we had obtained. And so more broadly she has said that well she has said that she went to work for Weinstein because she thought that he had only engaged in inappropriate comments towards women and that she crossed over to work with him because she wanted to help him apologize. But clearly these records really contradict those statements. They showed that she had a much deeper knowledge of the very serious allegations against him and that she played a far darker role.

LL: And this is just part of Weinstein's quite broad campaign against you and the stories you were trying to prepare. Jodi Kantor he hires an Israeli company called Black Cube. What does the company do during the course of your investigation?

JODI KANTOR: Well we really had no idea because you know we were just forging ahead with our reporting we expected Weinstein to perhaps use some manipulative tactics but we had no idea that for example an email I got during the course of the investigation which appeared to be unrelated which said that it was from a like sort of women's rights proponent who was organizing a business conference was actually from a black cube agent who was trying to dupe and manipulate me and not just me but other reporters and and most significantly some of our sources. Women. Women who Weinstein feared would talk including Rose McGowan. So basically. Here's the way I would explain it. If you're an investigative reporter it's not that unusual for the person you're reporting on to sic private investigators on you. It's kind of a dirty business. It's unsavory but there's nothing technically illegal about it. Black Cube is a firm of a whole different order because what they try to do is manipulate. For example the woman who contacted me was she was kind of an actress and she was pretending to be somebody she wasn't. And so when the black cube story was first uncovered which was by Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker a few weeks after we published our initial Weinstein's story it was shocking. We actually saw that he had taken out a contract on our story. If we had failed to publish that initial story black cube would have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars as a kind of prize.

LL: Megan your book is full of these fascinating stories around getting your story into the paper and includes a visit by Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers to the New York Times office in the days before the publication. Tell me what happened.

MEGAN TWOHEY: There was a pretty dramatic moment where Weinstein barges into the New York Times, he's got Lisa Bloom by his side he's got Linda Fairstein, a former famed sex crimes prosecutor here in New York by his side and he's got folders of material of photos of some of his accusers in friendly poses with him and other information that he used to try to smear them in the eleventh hour to stop our investigation. Now obviously we weren't succumbing to any of those tactics and so we were also able to show how you know what it was like and that the final hour when when Weinstein realized that he was basically cornered and that we were in fact going to publish.

LL: That is a strange moment too because he's obsessed with whether you spoke to Gwyneth Paltrow.

MEGAN TWOHEY: Yes he was indeed obsessed with whether or not we had spoken to Gwyneth Paltrow and she had been, this is another thing that we were also able to bring to light and in our book: you know Gwyneth Paltrow played a really significant role in our investigation. She was when so many other top actresses were afraid to get on the phone and talk to us, she not only got on the phone and told us you know her own allegation of being sexually harassed by Weinstein when she was just young and starting off in the industry, but she also worked to get other people to to to talk to us. She really worked her network to try to provide as much assistance as she could to our investigation. And we now realize that that there was a reason that Harvey Weinstein was obsessed with whether or not she was going to go on the record and come forward about what she'd experienced at his hands. It's because after we broke the story there were so many other woman who came forward and said that when they were targeted by Weinstein that he had actually invoked Gwyneth Paltrow that that he had said listen if you succumb to me you're going to get what Gwyneth Paltrow had, suggesting that she had succumbed to him, that she had engaged in some sort of sexual relationship with him, which she had not. And so it was sort of like, once the truth was out about that, he would lose one of the tools of his alleged predation. And that's exactly what happened.

LL: Earlier this year we interviewed David McCraw, The Times' Deputy General Counsel. I want you to listen to what he told us about you and the Harvey Weinstein case.

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VOICE: I was very proud of the way the Weinstein story unfolded with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey because they found a way to try to cut through that. They'd found a way to try to make it not a he said she said, but to try to show that the allegations being made had some basis. They would go to friends, they would go to family. Did the victim complain about this at the time that it happened. Those kind of things help us know that the story has credibility.

LL: Jodi I'm wondering how did David McGraw handle these threats coming from Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers.

JODI KANTOR: With utter cool. With utter cool. I you know Megan and I both have young daughters and we often wonder how we're going to explain this whole thing to them when they're older and one of the things we really want to teach them about is how you confront a bully because that's something that everybody needs to know. And I hope to be able to introduce them to people like David McCraw and also some of our editors. Because McCraw was I should say David we call him McCraw around here, David was completely undeterred. Weinstein's team made a lot of legal noise, but ultimately the facts were on our side. And also this country laws were on our side. I mean we all live at a time when even just the nature of truth seems to be fracturing. But the United States still has the First Amendment and powerful laws that protect the press and I actually felt grateful today even and I also felt grateful to generations of New York Times journalists before us because they were the ones who had argued for example a famous Supreme Court case that was still protecting us all of these years later.

LL: And then it's published and you see the reaction and you start getting all these emails from other women and I'm wondering Jodi how surprised were you that this story helped kick off this worldwide phenomenon called the #MeToo movement.

JODI KANTOR: We were staggered. We were completely staggered as our editor Matt Purdy said a few times during the investigation Harvey Weinstein was not that famous. Look we've believed for a long time that facts can drive social change. We live to report these stories in part because we hope and think they will mean something to other people. But we had never seen a reaction like this in our lives.

MEGAN TWOHEY: I think we also realized that this story wasn't even, this story went far beyond Harvey Weinstein. I mean this ultimately was an X-ray into abuse of power and the machinery that was in place to silence women and the individuals and institutions like Harvey Weinstein's own companies that became complicit. And so I think that one of the reasons that this story really resonated is that it went so far beyond one particular individual and into these broader questions of abuse of power and systemic failures that we're still grappling with today.

LL: Both of you, Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey, thank you very much. It's a great book, it's a great read, especially for us journalists who know what kind of work this takes. So thank you for coming and talking about it today.

MEGAN TWOHEY: Thanks for having us.

JODI KANTOR: Thank you.

LL: Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are Pulitzer Prize winning reporters with the New York Times. Their new book is, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite A Movement. Now we contacted Lisa Bloom's law firm for comment on her association with Harvey Weinstein and her memo to him that was read earlier in the interview on how to handle the scandal. And we were sent a statement. I just want to read part of it to you. Here we go. "I thank Jodi Kantor Megan Twohey and Ronin Farrow for forcing me to confront the colossal mistake I made in working for Weinstein two years ago. While painful I learned so much more from my mistakes than my successes. When the first woman went on record accusing him of sexual assault I immediately resigned and apologized.".

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LL: Coming up in our next half hour, Germany is transitioning to green energy in a big way. But not everyone is convinced it's an experiment that countries like Canada should follow. I'm Laura Lynch and you're listening to The Current.

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Can Germany regain its reputation as a climate change leader?

Guests: Kristin Nelson

LL: I'm Laura Lynch and you're listening to The Current.

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VOICE: Climate change poses a threat to our planet's natural resources.

LL: When German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered Harvard University's commencement speech in the spring, she made a point of addressing climate change.

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VOICE: We can and must do everything humanly possible to truly master this challenge to humankind.

LL: 20 years ago Germany was widely viewed as a leader when it came to climate protection. The country's energy transition was a model for the world as renewable energies took off in the 2000s. Today, windmills and solar panels dot the landscape with an impressive 40 percent of Germany's electricity demand being met by green energy sources. But getting there hasn't been cheap nor easy. After investing billions in renewables, Germany will miss its 2020 Paris emission reductions targets by a wide margin. Coal remains the second biggest source of electricity in the country. The autobahn rains and travelling by plane is often cheaper than train. Still earlier this year Chancellor Merkel appointed a climate cabinet. And this month her government revealed a new more ambitious climate protection plan. So what are the lessons from Germany? A cautionary tale or an example for Canada? This is the CBC's Kristin Nelson with her documentary, The Power Struggle.

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KRISTIN NELSON: Podelwitz is a small village in the eastern part of Germany. It sits on the edge of a vast open pit coal mine. The road into the village cuts across the mine where large machines work and a conveyor belt moves coal. But the mine feels far away when you're in the bucolic village with its small houses, central square, flowering gardens and thick tree canopy.

VOICE 1: Well this village it's totally old it's now some hundreds of years old. And so the people have to leave.

KRISTIN NELSON: For Catherine Henenberger villages like this across Germany are the clearest evidence of Germany's climate change contradictions.

VOICE 1: Under this village there's a lot of coal and a company want to use it too well to fire it up and to make money out of it. And the people they have to leave their old homes.

KRISTIN NELSON: Since the end of World War 2, dozens of German villages have been raised to make way for coal mines. Podelwitz is one of about a dozen more that will soon be gone.

VOICE 1: This village is getting destroyed from this coal miners should disappear.

KRISTIN NELSON: Ten years ago Podelwitz was home to 140 people. Slowly the mining company purchased most of the homes and only 26 residents remain. Those who have stayed fear that poodle that is transforming into a ghost town. There are signs posted on the empty homes that the company owns saying don't touch private land. But the villagers left aren't giving up.

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KRISTIN NELSON: Residents have invited Catherine Henenberger and hundreds of climate change activists to set up camp here and put events for the week. It's called Climate Camp.

VOICE 1: And now everywhere in the gardens they have little tents.

KRISTIN NELSON: Tents of various shapes and sizes are in clusters around the village. The activists have constructed temporary showers and sinks out of wooden two by fours. They're composting toilets. A kitchen tent serving vegan food and solar panels to provide electricity. Media loves to make photos of our solar pendants. They want to practice what they preach as they spend the week plotting how to push Germany's political agenda. Catherine Henenberger is spokesperson for an anti coal group called end of story.

VOICE 1: And there's a banner and this our main message, we want to exit from the coal right now.

KRISTIN NELSON: Earlier this year a government commission recommended phasing out coal power by 2038. But the activists here want Germany off of coal much earlier by next year.

VOICE 1: In the whole region there are a lot of people walking in the coal mine. And so we need a just transition. We need new jobs and clean energy.

VOICE 2: I came to Podelwitz cayse we had a meeting with all of the villages who are going to be destroyed for coal mining.

KRISTIN NELSON: David Dreason can relate to the villagers here. Though his home is hundreds of kilometres away in western Germany.

VOICE 2: I am coming from the village Kukum, home which is at another coal mine. And yes we are fighting in the union together.

KRISTIN NELSON: Dreason's village is bigger than Podelwitz and his family has roots there dating back to 1862.

VOICE 2: I am living on a farm which my grandfather built. And his grandfather bought the area we are living on so we are living our whole life in this village.

KRISTIN NELSON: He says some of the people in his village are content to be bought out by the company so they can buy a new house perhaps live a more urban life.

VOICE 2: But there are also many people who say no I want to stay in the old village and I like it to live on the landscape and we are doing a lot of farming and we have chickens and horses and cows and sheeps.

KRISTIN NELSON: His family knows they'll be forced to move from the village within the next decade.

VOICE 2: My grandfather has never been somewhere else and in the village she was the biggest city ever seen was Cologne which is not far away and he have been there twice in his life. And so for him it's it's a really big thing. I don't think it's possible cause he has dementia. And for him it's he's 82. He said to me sometimes that I'm not able to go, if I have to go, I would like to die.

KRISTIN NELSON: The prospect of being dislocated is especially hard to fathom given the government's pledge to phase out coal power.

VOICE 2: Yeah it's crazy cause in the same sentence that they we have to destroy villages for coal mining and to burn it, not the villages, the coal. But yeah for me it's I don't get it. I really don't get it because it makes no sense.

KRISTIN NELSON: He believes delaying the phase out till 2038 is wrongheaded.

VOICE 2: It's not good for the environment, it's not good for the climate, it's not good for the people. It's just good for the company.

KRISTIN NELSON: The company that runs the mine next to Dreasons village is RWE.

VOICE 3: And I grew up on the outskirts of Cologne in a village which is the site of a power station.

KRISTIN NELSON: Guido Stefan is a spokesperson with the company. He says underground mining is simply not possible in Germany. The only way to mine lignite coal is by open pit.

VOICE 3: So you have to kind of eradicate everything which is on the surface of course fields shrubs trees roads and also villages and the resettlement of people in the villages definitely is the kind of most complicated.

KRISTIN NELSON: Guido Stefan says that 40000 people have been successfully resettled since World War 2. His company RWE has already resettled 50 villages.

VOICE 3: This does not mean that a place like Cooke home is kind of wiped out but the central policy is that village finds another place where the new village is going to be built so you will find cook them on the maps, also in 50 years, but it won't be at its original place but a few kilometres north west of its present location.

KRISTIN NELSON: The most successful resettlements he says are when the community moves together to a new location. In David Dreason's case, he says the family has received multiple offers from RWE.

VOICE 3: It has tried to find a good compensation for people, a compensation that gives them a good livelihood at the new place. A new village for instance and whether they accept it or not it's their choice and David Dreason and his family seems to have said no we won't take that. We refuse and we want to stay where we are.

KRISTIN NELSON: Guido Stefan says the reasons are in the minority in Kukum. Two thirds of the roughly 600 families in the village have negotiated with the company and signed contracts to leave.

VOICE 3: Cases like these have been very very rare exception that people did not want to give their land or their homes to mining.

KRISTIN NELSON: In those cases the mining company can ask the government to expropriate the land because the company has the law on its side. In 1995 the state granted RWE a permit, giving it the legal right to mine coal within a certain area.

VOICE 3: At this time people in Cook home and surroundings knew they were on land with coal. Below that is going to be dark one day. They knew also the cause of the reasons grandparents knew that they would be hit by resettlement one day.

KRISTIN NELSON: He argues that the Government's plan to phase out coal doesn't change the reality facing villages like Kukum.

VOICE 3: Because we have a phase out plan which ends in 2038 and phasing out means that you have the zero at the end of the road and now you have a present situation where you still need the coal for Germany's energy provisions.

KRISTIN NELSON: And around 20000 Germans also have jobs in the coal sector. That's a fraction of the 340,000 jobs in renewable energy. But looming job losses are having political repercussions especially in parts of former East Germany where coal was once king. Several hundred people stand in the town square of a small city in eastern Germany. Bjorn Hocke is on the stage addressing the crowd who came to this rally in support of his party the far right Alternative for Germany or AFD. The AFD won second place in state elections here earlier this month. An impressive showing for a party that was only founded six years ago and the party has a message about climate change that resonates in this coal producing region.

VOICE 4: It's all about the energy, the coal.

KRISTIN NELSON: Damion Lor is founder of the AFDC youth wing. He attributes the party's recent success in the region to its position on climate change.

VOICE 4: The Green Party wants to destroy this. They want green energy and so we have many people without work in the future and that's not good for this area in Germany.

KRISTIN NELSON: About 8000 people work in the coal industry. The government has pledged billions of dollars to help workers with the transition away from coal. But for Damion Lor that's wasted money.

VOICE 4: The most of the pollution from China and India. It's not our fault. So I think we can't change the things the Chinese people and English people must change things and that's not the problem of Germany. It's a global problem.

KRISTIN NELSON: Like other populist parties in Europe the FTA is making headway in part by expressing skepticism about climate change and the kind of environmentalism embraced by what they see as elites.

[Protestors chanting]

KRISTIN NELSON: But on a national scale, polls show that climate change is the top concern for a majority of Germans. For the second year in a row this summer dry hot weather led to crop failures. Dying trees in the country's fabled forests and extremely low water levels in the Rhine River. And in July the country experienced the hottest day on record.

VOICE 5: Hi I'm Clara. I'm 18 years old and I have been striking since February I think, but Friday's future has been striking Germany since December.

KRISTIN NELSON: Clara Mayer is petite wearing a red sweater with her long brown hair braided like a crown on top of her head. She's carrying a bullhorn and ready to lead a crowd of striking school students. She speaks for the organization called Friday's for future Berlin.

VOICE 5: And we're just generally a group of a couple of thousand students but also older people like parents and even grandmas who just try to hold politicians around accountable to the things that they have already agreed to do so we're not like trying to invent anything new we're not demanding anything new we're just saying well keep to the promises you made in the last years.

KRISTIN NELSON: Promises like meeting their 2020 Paris targets. Claie Mayer says that she's seen environmental changes even in her lifetime and she has little patience for adults who ignore the problem and continue on with lifestyles that contribute to climate change.

VOICE 5: And that is actually where I think our movement can change something because we have the kids and the kids can go home and tell their parents wait no we're not flying this summer, we have to act and please vote a party that has sustainable policies and does something for basically again fighting climate change.

KRISTIN NELSON: Fridays For Future protests happen every week in dozens of locations throughout Germany and around the globe. The young people here have seized the attention of the German public. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that Germany's demonstrating school students have driven her to act faster.

VOICE 5: They have all realized that we are a strong force and that we can actually influence elections and they have been sweet talking us basically since months. They have been just saying oh we need the change they are not doing anything to support us and I think actually it's a huge cruelty to do nothing to keep this country and this earth alive. So what they're doing is in my opinion a moral crime and they should just start acting right now.

KRISTIN NELSON: But there are some in Germany who doubt the wisdom of the country's transition to renewable energy and question the feasibility of a large industrial country relying solely on wind and solar power. I'm meeting one of those critics here at the famous hotel Adlen, just steps from one of the most iconic places in Germany, The Brandenburg Gate. Bjorn Peters is a physicist by training. For 16 years he worked for a large German bank doing power plant financing. We sit down in the hotel's impressive lobby that evokes Germany's colonial past. There's a man dressed in a tuxedo playing the piano. Bjorn Peters is in Berlin to meet with potential investors in his nuclear power startup.

VOICE 6: This dream of having a clean energy society with solar and wind energy, I believe it simply won't work.

KRISTIN NELSON: He says he came to this conclusion reluctantly.

VOICE 6: So I certainly spent my younger days very much into in renewable energies and I supported this and endorsed it. When I learned that we won't save the world with solar and wind energy.

KRISTIN NELSON: Bjorn Peters believes Germany's renewable energy transition is a failure on multiple levels.

VOICE 6: We have the most expensive power system in Europe. It drives our industry out of the country. The energy transition the energy vendor is a pet project of of wealthy urban people. And who pays the price. It's industrial workers we have with that with a bill. It's that the poor ones.

KRISTIN NELSON: Today 40 percent of Germany's energy comes from renewable energy. And the goal is to get to a CO2 emissions free economy by 2050. That will mean doubling the country's renewable energy capacity to 80 percent. But achieving that goal will require overcoming big technical challenges.

VOICE 6: I really don't see it because 80 percent is practically impossible without storage and the storage is nowhere yet and has no business case. So we should try to make energy cheap but clean and that is why I am promoting nuclear.

KRISTIN NELSON: Last year he co-founded a European group called nuclear pride with the goal of overcoming what he sees as a taboo against talking about nuclear power.

VOICE 6: And that is very interesting. It is difficult. It is a very much an uphill battle to be pro nuclear in this country.

KRISTIN NELSON: Not easy because people here remember well the nuclear buildup during the Cold War and the Chernobyl accident of 1986. And after the Fukushima incident in 2010, Angela Merkel pledged to decommission all of Germany's nuclear plants by 2022. Bjorn Peters thinks that was a mistake.

VOICE 6: Experience proves that you don't replace nuclear energy with solar and wind, but you've replaced it with coal. And if you are really concerned about climate change this is the way we should explore.

KRISTIN NELSON: He argues that the next generation of nuclear power has addressed the lingering concerns about safety and the storage of nuclear waste. But it's a hard position to sell in Germany.

VOICE 7: To say nuclear is safe is easy is cheap, it is completely wrong.

KRISTIN NELSON: Hans-Josef Fell has been called the father of Germany's energy transition. He blames Merkel's government for letting the country's climate leadership slip and he warns against listening to carefully to the naysayers.

VOICE 7: The managers of the old system see only problems. They think only in the old strategies and therefore they do not find a solution and that dominates the public debate.

KRISTIN NELSON: He's used to vigorous arguments being made against renewable energy.

VOICE 7: First it's renewables would be too expensive. Completely wrong. Renewable are the cheapest option of energy and the second argument is renewables would lead to blackouts and our grids cannot be stable. Completely wrong. Both arguments.

KRISTIN NELSON: In the early 2000s Hans-Josef Fell helped to revolutionize green energy when he was part of a government that introduced the world's first feed in tariff laws at a national level. People were paid a premium for adding renewable energy to the power grid and they did just that in droves.

VOICE 7: From 2000 until 2010. We had them massive investing of the whole population in Germany into renewables with a feed in tariff law. 30 percentage of the existing power bought using were taken from reactors. Millions of people by boat people with solar rooftops farmers tourism bio gas station or a big power station, coal powered is very important. They created wind farms and hydro power stations and plenty of those though it wasn't a real success story and this in 10 years. Even in the time when it was expensive they took 30 percent from the monopolists in creating power.

KRISTIN NELSON: For this reason Fell still believes Germany is a model.

VOICE 7: It shows this experience that we can come within 10 years worldwide to 100 percent renewables to include people to make some able to produce it and they have plenty benefits.

KRISTIN NELSON: Perhaps the best ways in Germany to illustrate Hans-Josef Fells' point is the neighborhood or eco district of Vauban.

VOICE 8: Now we are heading for the main part of the district.

KRISTIN NELSON: Astrid Mayer crosses the sidewalk stepping over tram rails. Vauban is a neighborhood in Freiburg, a city of about 220,000 nestled on the edge of the rolling hills of the Black Forest in southwest Germany.

VOICE 8: We come from the solar settlement. I think the first settlement of the size in the world that was built about 20 years ago. She's lived in this neighborhood for 10 years. We came here from Paris and I love Paris so I don't want to we came here with two children that were small then still because the German French school is near. Not because we wanted to have an ecodistrict and then I discovered the life quality and began to write about it.

KRISTIN NELSON: Astrid Mayer wrote a book about Vauban and is now director of a group called Freiburg Future Lab.

VOICE 8: So this is the first multifamily passive house in the world. It doesn't look like very special, but this is a house that is consuming very very few energy and they have solar panels for hot water.

KRISTIN NELSON: Freiburg has been dubbed Europe's Solar City and Vauban consumes about half the energy of a typical district and more recent eco districts in the city consume zero energy or even plus energy, adding surplus power onto the grid.

VOICE 8: Well this is where the children play in the streets.

KRISTIN NELSON: Vauban's streets are quiet and virtually car free.

VOICE 8: Cars are banned from about two thirds of the districts on the streets. They are not banned totally, they only I'm not allowed to be parked more than half an hour. And then they have to leave and to get into the collective garages that are in the entrance of the district.

KRISTIN NELSON: Housing is high density and smaller. And the biggest apartment is a hundred and ten meters, even for a family. But she says this kind of living doesn't just happen. It takes citizen involvement and it won't necessarily be profitable.

VOICE 8: It brings quality of life, but it doesn't bring money. So you have to have political will.

KRISTIN NELSON: Astrid Mayers three bedroom townhouse is plus energy, producing more than it consumes.

VOICE 8: My house is made of wood and I love the scent and I love the aesthetics and there are no drafts in wintertime. It's cozy and I have this tiny garden that is just the right size. I have a bit of green, but not too much work and I have nice neighbours.

KRISTIN NELSON: She points to a recent survey of people living in Freiburg's 48 districts or neighbourhoods.

VOICE 8: People in the two eco districts, the most important thing for them was the good relationship with the neighbours and the good friends they had in the district. They didn't talk about energy efficiency or mobility, but about the quality of their relationships to others.

KRISTIN NELSON: And yet Astrid Mayer is reluctant to say that Vauban is a model for other places.

VOICE 8: I think it's very difficult to say what is a model now because you have very different conditions in different places, so it can't be a model. It can be an inspiration for certain things, but in every spot in the world it will mean something different.

KRISTIN NELSON: The dilemma perhaps facing people and politicians across the planet.

LL: We've been listening to the documentary, The Power Struggle. It was produced by the CBC's Kristin Nelson and The Current's documentary editor Joan Webber. That's our program for today. Stay tuned to Radio One for Q. Today, Bruce Coburn is in the studio with songs from his new instrumental album. And speaking of Q, we're teaming up with them for a live show next week in Toronto. We're going to speak with voters, artists and thinkers about why it's important to engage in this election. And if you're in the Toronto area, we would love to have you come and join us. We know our democracy isn't perfect, so make your voice heard and celebrate your right to vote. It's happening Tuesday, October 1st at 7 p.m. at Glenn Gould Studio, here at the CBC in Toronto. Free tickets are available at cbc.ca/thecurrent. Join me, Tom Power, Rick Mercer and our musical guest, The Weather Station, for a night of music and conversation. Again, reserve your free tickets at cbc.ca/thecurrent. Earlier in the show we were talking about young people around the world demanding action on climate change. Some young musicians are joining in. Artists like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran all lent their voices to a project by rapper Lil Dicky. Here is their song, "Earth." I'm Laura Lynch. Thanks for listening to The Current.

[Song: "Earth" by Lil Dicky]

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Sept. 23, 2019 episode transcript

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