ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: In WBUR's new podcast, "The Midnight Rebellion," a young girl named Joule Watts-Green discovers a mysterious machine in her mom's laboratory. Before she knows it, she's swept off to a watery world where the sea has risen.
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JETT DINH: (As Buggy Banal) And it's not just that. Most of the canals - that's what we call the old flooded streets - most are toxic. People fight over food. The Sac's a mess.
BASMA AYATTE: (As Joule Watts-Green) The Sac?
DINH: (As Buggy Banal) No one's called it Boston in forever. Now, it's Intertidal Sacrifice Zone 617.
SCHMITZ: Boston has become the Sac. Over 26 episodes, Joule will try to make friends, find our way home, even save the world. And that's where you - yes, you - the listener comes in because every chapter ends with a choice, and each of your choices shapes the story. Dean Russell is co-creator and writer of the show, and he joins me now to tell us more about it. Hey, Dean.
DEAN RUSSELL: Thanks for having me.
SCHMITZ: So tell me a little bit more about what "Midnight Rebellion" is about.
RUSSELL: This is an adventure. Joule, a normal kid, finds herself sucked into a world where the climate's gone haywire, the very worst future scientists have warned about has come to pass, and Joule has to find her way home. And it's on this journey that she's sort of confronted with both manifestations of the climate crisis - so sea level rise and food shortages and social breakdown - but also the forces most responsible for it. So, like, in this case, it's represented by this evil, polluting Bright Corporation with its army of energy-hungry tin robots and gas-guzzling armored boats. Take a listen.
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AYATTE: (As Joule Watts-Green) That sounds bad.
DINH: (As Buggy Banal) Duck boats.
ERIK RANSOM: (As narrator) Duck boats, Bright's amphibious monstrosities.
SCHMITZ: Duck boats. What?
RUSSELL: Duck boats.
SCHMITZ: Explain, please.
RUSSELL: We couldn't get enough Boston references in there. So if you ever come to Boston, take a duck boat. They are more friendly than described in the future.
SCHMITZ: OK. So as I mentioned earlier, at the end of each episode, listeners here are given a choice, and there will be 82 possible paths. This sounds like a choose-your-own-adventure book. I grew up in the '80s, so I know this stuff. But this is a podcast, so I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.
RUSSELL: You and everyone else, you and everyone else. It is very much like those choose-your-own-adventure books, which I also grew up on. Joule - you know, she'll find herself in a predicament, and then you, the listener, you're given options. So, like, do you follow the drone? Select Chapter 7. Do you...
SCHMITZ: Wow.
RUSSELL: ...Chase the mangy stranger kid? You play Chapter 4. And underlying most of the choices are these key ideas of climate action, know the facts...
SCHMITZ: Interesting.
RUSSELL: ...Speak up when it's hard, make sacrifices. It's really about exploring many different universes and paths.
SCHMITZ: I remember sometimes you would choose a certain path, and then the next page, it would be like, you have died.
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SCHMITZ: So you don't have an episode where it just ends, right?
RUSSELL: Oh, we have dead end.
SCHMITZ: Oh, you do?
RUSSELL: You got to be careful with your choices. We've got dead ends.
SCHMITZ: Ah, there are real consequences here.
RUSSELL: Oh, yeah, for sure.
SCHMITZ: OK, so what about this choose-your-own-adventure format made it a good way for children to explore climate change?
RUSSELL: The best part about those books and really this format in general is really that you have this sense of agency, right?
SCHMITZ: Right.
RUSSELL: And one thing that I think a lot of us struggle with regarding the climate is feeling too small to change the story.
SCHMITZ: Oh, thtt's interesting.
RUSSELL: So this is kind of a chance to show listeners, show kids, that the decisions you make big or small - they matter, right? Make a poor choice, not all is lost, but you might have to work a little harder. You know, it's not about giving kids hope with this perfectly manicured story. It's about letting them create their own hope by taking charge.
SCHMITZ: So how do you approach setting up the stakes, the real stakes - right? - of climate change for a younger audience without, you know, terrifying them into not doing anything, right? This is a tricky balance to take, even when you're talking about, you know, climate change with adults.
RUSSELL: This question has kept me awake for the last five years. And I think part of it is the world, right? It very much feels like a sci-fi fantasy setting. It is built on scientific predictions, and that can be scary. But we have characters moving through the world, and there's no time for them to despair. And so there's this fantastic inertia for the listener. And then the other part of this is just, great adventures - they don't happen in spite of great evil, right?
SCHMITZ: Right.
RUSSELL: But because of it. You take the challenge you're given. And I think "The Midnight Rebellion," at least what we try to do is reframe what is rightly called a crisis as a challenge, an adventure. And it starts with choosing to act.
SCHMITZ: Right. You are taking the challenge you're given, and you have to do something with that. What part of this podcast can you give us, like, a sneak peek into? I don't want this to be a spoiler.
RUSSELL: Fair.
SCHMITZ: But can you give us a little taste?
RUSSELL: Well, as we go, I'm really excited for listeners to get beyond the water world 'cause there's an even stranger place where decisions become harder and a lot lot bigger.
SCHMITZ: Ooh, that was good, Dean.
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SCHMITZ: All right, we've been talking with Dean Russell, co-creator of WBUR's new choose-your-own-adventure podcast "The Midnight Rebellion." Thanks so much for breaking this down for us.
RUSSELL: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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