Loading summary
Transcript132 lines
- [00:01]
A
I was so depressed, and then I said, fuck it. I said, I'm gonna make a difference. It's on. It is on.
- [00:19]
B
Hi, everyone from New York magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is on with Kara Swisher. And I'm Kara Swisher. My guest today is legendary actor and activist Jane Fonda. Over the past five decades, Jane has fought for peace, civil rights, indigenous rights, women's rights, and the environment, among others. And Jane is fighting harder than ever. She recently relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment. She's been outspoken in her defense of democracy against the threat of Trumpist authoritarianism. And her political action committee, the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, has helped elect over 200 candidates across the country. I'm excited to talk to her because I'm exhausted and she's not, and therefore I can't be. One of the things about Jane Fonda is she was very right during Vietnam and she's very right now. She's always been on the cutting edge of things. And most importantly, as opposed to a lot of people from Hollywood, which you feel kind of is a mile wide and a foot deep, she really walks the talk and does do activism in a way that I think is very effective and is part of the broader culture of people in Hollywood and celebrities doing it. But she's incredibly effective. Our expert question comes from someone else. I really like Chelsea Handler, who? Jane did a solid for once, and you can hear about that soon. Jane isn't just a legend. She's an inspiration. Inspiration. So stick around.
- [01:47]
A
This episode is brought to you by On Investing, an original podcast from Charles Schwab.
- [01:52]
B
I'm Kathy Jones, Schwab's chief fixed income strategist. And I'm Liz Ann Saunders, Schwab's chief investment strategist. Between us, we have decades of experience studying the indicators that drive the economy and how they can have a direct impact on your investments. We know that investors have a lot of questions about the markets and the economy, and we're here to help. So download the latest episode and subscribe@schwab.com oninvesting or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:19]
A
Does the winter weather have you feeling tired? Antisocial? Sad? You may want to take a cue from our friends in Norway.
- [02:28]
B
Really? They tend to orient towards the things that they like about the season instead of just sort of seeing it as a time of year to endure.
- [02:37]
A
Embrace the winter. That's on the next. Explain it to me. New episodes every Sunday, wherever you get your podcasts. I got in the water in the very early morning before the sun had risen and the water was pitch black, I started swimming and I felt the water hollowing out around me and felt like something really big was swimming below.
- [03:02]
B
Fee Judge.
- [03:03]
A
I'm Phoebe Judge and this is Love, a show about the surprising things that.
- [03:08]
B
Love can make us do. More than 100 episodes available now on this Is Love.
- [03:17]
A
It is over.
- [03:20]
B
Jane, thanks for coming on on.
- [03:22]
A
Thank you for having me, Kara.
- [03:24]
B
It's an honor, obviously for lots of reasons, but we ran into each other in Aspen, I think, correct, in the airport. And we talked about this a long time ago.
- [03:31]
A
Yeah, I remember.
- [03:32]
B
So let's talk about what you're doing now. You've been an activist for much of your life. You got a lot of pushback for that. The National Security Agency spied on you. You spent your 82nd birthday in jail getting arrested for protesting in a climate change protest. Talk a little bit about what's happening now because now you've again, you've been, you've never stopped, but you've re engaged on these issues around Renee Goode and Alex Preddy and federal agents and all these arrests.
- [03:56]
A
Well, I'm going to step back to the macro view of it. I think basically globally, we face two existential crises, climate and democracy. And they're totally interrelated, interdependent, and they have to be solved together. And the clock is ticking on the climate crisis. So after the fire drill Fridays, which were the rallies that we had for about five months in D.C. in 2019 and then couple of years online during the COVID crisis, when that ended, me and my team looked at each other and said, you know, all of us collectively have been involved in decades of protest and civil disobedience and writing books and articles, et cetera, and we haven't gotten the legislation that we need that's commensurate with what science is saying. This is during the Biden administration, right? And so we said, and we know the reason. The reason is because so many of our elected officials take money from the fossil fuel industry. And so we decided to create the Jane Fonda Climate pac. And we decided strategically to focus down ballot. This was five years ago. This is what the Tea Party did. State legislators, city councils, boards of supervisors, school boards, public utilities, these positions have tremendous power when it comes to decision making on climate. You know, whether a toxic dump has to be taken away, whether a pipeline will come through the town. So we started and we have been very successful. You know, we had no, none of us had ever done anything like this before. Right. Gone on the local level or been this invested in electoral politics. We only support candidates who don't take money from the fossil fuel industry. And it's a pretty rigorous process that we put our candidates through. And we've had a lot of success. We have. Last year, we supported 79 candidates and 80% of them won in Virginia. Last year, we won all 22 races, including flipping nine GOP seats in Virginia. In Pennsylvania, we helped flip the coal mining region of Luzerne County Council. Very proud of that. And we have over 50,000 small donors and volunteers across the country, which is extraordinary. And I really, especially once Trump was reelected, it's become even more strategic in my mind. We're building a firewall. We're also creating a deep bench for the Democratic Party because some of the people that we supported early on are now in the Senate. And of course, this year, we are gearing up to help try to take back the House. We'll continue with our down ballot focus, but we will also help take back the House.
- [06:57]
B
So the through line to all this is you're like a Tea Party, but a different version of that. Correct. Rather than protests, are either of them more effective than the other from your perspective?
- [07:08]
A
Well, I think we need everything you have to look at what's strategic right now. You know, protests are important because they force us to see, oh, we're not a minority. We really. There's a lot of us. It's. Somebody described protesting as flossing the movement. It's important for that reason. But when you have someone in office on the federal level who can be pressured, then protests are really important right now. They're not going to change anything except make us feel good. So, you know, they're important because what we're facing has never happened here, at least to white people. We're facing an authoritarian regime who's broken through for the first time in American history to every sector of our government. And the theory of change right now is all governments, democratic or fascistic, are held up by pillars of support. And if the pillars of support become weakened, the regime is weakened. Pillars like the military, like the financial, like art professionals, et cetera and so forth.
- [08:19]
B
So let's talk about that threat, because you said in an interview last fall that it takes, quote, 18 to 22 months for an authoritarian to consolidate power. Once that happens, it's very hard to defend democracy. On my other podcast, Scott and I are publicizing a resist and unsubscribe move. And he's organized, as you call it. Non compliance. Do you think Americans are showing the required level of urgency to meet the moment?
- [08:41]
A
It's starting. But you know, what is not visible? It's like the re underground is organizing, is happening all across the country in all the pillars. And that should give us great hope. Also, there's been a major overstepping of red lines and people are really starting to wake up to what's happening. Which leads me to the second. I said two crises climate. And then there's the democracy crisis that we're talking about. This coming to power of an authoritarian regime. They have to be solved together, these two crises. You can't have a stable democracy without a stable climate. And you can't have a stable climate unless you have a democracy. I mean, what we're seeing now is worse and worse things happening vis a vis the climate. So when I won the lifetime achievement award at Screen Actors Guild, I did some research to find out what kind of resistance has been in existence in the entertainment industry. And I was reminded that in the late 40s and early 50s, the house on American Activities Committee, when it was, and then later McCarthy were destroying lives and careers in Hollywood, blaming people for accusing people of being friendly to communists or. Anyway, Hollywood created the Committee for the First Amendment. My dad was a part of it. And so in October, I thought, now's the time to recreate this. Because, you know, if you look at the history of authoritarianism, they always first go for art. They go after art and education because those are the sectors that affect how people feel, how they think. We're the storytellers. We can control the narrative to a large extent. So we come under attack right away. So we created this. We now have over 3,000 members and we're being trained in how do you confront authoritarianism? Because it's different. As you said, it's not just protest, it's non compliance. And what does that mean? It means what happened when Kimmel was threatened with being booted off his show and millions of Americans threatened to cancel their subscription to Disney. Whoa. When it affects pocketbooks, suddenly everything change. That is an example of non compliance. The reporters who had posts at the Pentagon and were told they couldn't report on things they were saying a mess. They turned in their badge, including Fox. Non compliance strikes, boycotts, boycotts, all those things are examples of non compliance. And ideally, they're things that can affect the economy of the country.
- [11:29]
B
There was a lot of opposition to ICE at the Grammys, for example. You also seen Celebrities Pull Back, for example, Jennifer Lawrence said she had Reconsidered her previously outspoken approach to politics and said, quote, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. And then you look at Bad Bunny at the super bowl, which I thought was very effective. He was doing all kinds of messaging that was very subtle but very clear.
- [11:51]
A
So beautiful.
- [11:52]
B
Beautiful, right? It's also joyful. It's fun.
- [11:54]
A
Yeah. I never cried at a halftime before, really, but it was the joy. It was the joy and the love.
- [12:00]
B
But there were tons of political messages in there, all over the place. So talk about, you know, this idea of, I guess it's celebrity activism, that's kind of discounting it. Talk about where it is now.
- [12:12]
A
I think the fact that we're attacked, I mean, it's proof that it matters. You know, if they didn't attack us the way they did, then I would think, well, maybe it really doesn't matter. We're called coastal elite, you know, why are you speaking out? What do you know about this? But the fact is, artists model courage. Courage is contagious. Also comics in particular, ridicule and humor are the best ways of confronting authoritarianism. They don't know what to do about it. The goal of the authoritarians is always to show we're impermeable, impenetrable. We are inevitable. There's nothing you can do about it. And then a kid comes along, a comic, and says, look at you with no clothes. Makes fun of the authoritarianism. It exposes their weakness. It's the last thing that authoritarians want. When we first formed October 1st and launched, and there was a lot of publicity.
- [13:19]
B
This is the Committee for the First Amendment.
- [13:21]
A
The Committee for the First Amendment. I was stunned at the response that we got from movement leaders all around the country, from Europe, from all the major foundations. Wow. You know, if we don't matter, why is everybody so excited that this has happened?
- [13:40]
B
Right?
- [13:40]
A
And little by little, I began to understand it's because they're trying to organize other pillars and if celebrities and people in the arts pillar start to stand up and show courage, it's much easier for people in the banking pillar or in the, you know, the professional pillar to say, well, God, if he can do that, if she can do that, I can stand up and be brave. So it's, it's really, really important.
- [14:07]
B
Now you call it the Committee for the First Amendment. It was originally founded during the Red Scare, as you mentioned. Your father, Henry Fonda, was a member. Talk a little bit, because free speech, this idea of the First Amendment has been co opted by the right it's been co opted by the tech overlords, even if only superficially. You could also make the case less had abandoned it a little bit. Talk about what it means to you and why you thought it was important to revive this at this moment in time.
- [14:31]
A
Well, it's the cornerstone of democracy. It's also the cornerstone of art. I mean, you can't have art if you don't have free expression. But the first amendment isn't just free speech. It's the five freedoms. It's freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom to protest. And that means for anybody, you know, we have to recognize that. But a far right winger has all those same rights. And if you really believe in the first Amendment, you have to support her or his right, even if you don't agree with it. That's the strength of it. This is a nonpartisan issue. As I said on the Colbert show. This is not a question of left or right. It's a question of right or wrong.
- [15:18]
B
We'll be back in a minute. Support for this show comes from Quince. Style doesn't come from chasing new trends every season. Real style comes from slowly and intentionally cultivating a wardrobe filled with high quality staples that will last. And if you're on the lookout for a perfect addition to your closet, look no further than Quint's. You'll find organic cotton, cotton sweaters, polos for every occasion, light jackets that will help keep you warm as the seasons change year after year. Not to mention their famous 100% Mongolian cashmere. If there's anything better than cashmere, I'd love to hear it. Every Quince item is built for everyday wear and made with ethically sourced materials from top factories. And by partnering with manufacturers directly, Quince keeps things affordable. So you're only paying for the quality clothing and not the brand markup. I have finally bought new Quint's clothes. Not just just soft pants that I can wear when I do sports. I actually bought more of those. But I also bought a lovely cardigan that is so soft. I wear it all the time. I fell asleep in it the other day. I bought a beautiful jacket and I just love it. I have to say this, this cardigan I'm wearing is so comfortable. It's really good looking. The fabric, everything else, it feels richer than it was. And the same thing with the coat. It's really good looking and I really like wearing it again. Comfortable, simple and just lovely. I really, really like it. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince don't wait. Go to quince.comkara for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Quincara to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Kara K A R a support for on with Kara Swisher comes from Groons. If you're looking for a health goal that you can actually stick to, you might want to check out Groons Grooms is a simple daily habit that deliver real benefits with minimal effort. They're convenient, comprehensive formula packed into a snack pack of gummies a day. This isn't a multivitamin, a greens gummy or a prebiotic. It's all of those things and then some at a fraction of the price. And bonus, it tastes great. Grune's ingredients are backed by over 35,000 research publications, while generic multivitamins contain only seven to nine vitamins, have more than 20 vitamins and minerals, and 60 ingredients which include nutrient dense and whole foods. That includes 6 grams of prebiotic fiber, which is three times the amount of dietary fiber compared to the lean greens powders and more than two cups of broccoli. It's a daily snack pack because you can't fit the amount of nutrients Grunds does into just one gummy. Plus that makes it a fun treat to look forward to every day. Kick off the new year right and save up to 52% off with the code Karaons Ko that's code Kara K A R A at Groonsgruns co. Over the last several years, AI companies of all shapes and sizes have been desperately.
- [18:28]
A
Trying to get their hands on every bit of of available data to make their models better.
- [18:32]
B
This week on the Vergecast we have.
- [18:34]
A
The story of how Anthropic destroyed hundreds.
- [18:36]
B
Of thousands, maybe millions of books and.
- [18:39]
A
Fed them all to Claude.
- [18:40]
B
Plus we have information on who in tech is in the Epstein files, what's going on with Netflix, whether it's woke.
- [18:46]
A
Whether it's going to buy Warner Brothers.
- [18:48]
B
And whether Peloton is going to successfully sell you a treadmill ever again. All that on the Vergecast. Wherever you get podcasts. In the 1970s, during the Middle of the Vietnam War, you traveled to 80 cities in three months. You did an anti war slideshow about women in Vietnam. Talk about that time. And what did you learn that's relevant for today when everyone is living in algorithmically controlled media bubbles? As you know, the big problem now.
- [19:17]
A
Is that the the right has taken over all the media. They have their own media and They've been very, very smart in taking over the new. And so we have to become ubiquitous to the extent that we can. Back in the 70s and 80s, the 60s and 70s, that wasn't the case. And because we didn't have phones, we didn't have this. We had to talk to people. And that was the big difference. And that was both good and bad. It takes longer, it's harder, but when you get through, it's more meaningful. You've really made contact and you've changed, changed people. And so what we did starting in 1972, traveling to 80 cities in three months, two years in a row, we changed people. We went into the middle of the country and we talked to people where they were. We started at the Ohio State Fair and that was a huge learning.
- [20:26]
B
Well, tell me what you learned there.
- [20:28]
A
That it's important to talk to people, to not be partisan, to listen hard and then present all the facts. And it was very simple. That's what we did. We weren't people. You know, McGovern was campaigning. There were campaigns going on. We didn't take part in that. We just talked about what was really happening on the ground in Vietnam, which was contrary to what Nixon was saying. And it had an effect on people.
- [20:55]
B
So how do you do that today? How do you apply that today when you're doing this?
- [20:59]
A
Organizers are on the ground in a way that the Democratic Party hasn't been. I think a lot of what's happening today is because the Democratic Party got in bed with its donors and stopped talking to people. Especially in the middle of the country. People used to see the party come in and put money into a community here, $10,000. Organize your community. That kind of thing isn't happening anymore. And you can'. You can't organize with this. You can rally, but you can't organize. And we have to get back to the organizing. Mamdani's big success was cause he talked to people, he listened. It was local. And I think that that needs to happen again.
- [21:46]
B
You said that the Democratic Party leaders not good enough and they aren't doing what they need to do to stand up to authoritarianism. They are not in power right now too, at the same time. But are there any Democrats like Mamdani bucking the trend and impress? Do you see it around the country as you go around on down ballot.
- [22:03]
A
Levels and in Congress? Some of the people that we've gotten, I mean, Greg Ksar, for example, in.
- [22:09]
B
Texas, I've interviewed him. He's very impressive.
- [22:12]
A
Yeah. And he was like the very first year that we formed the pac, he was one of our candidates. There are people like him. Now everybody say who you're going to vote for president, it's too soon. We don't know what's going to happen between now and 28. And also the president is already telling us that he's prepared to mess with the midterms. And we can see signs of that. Trying to do away with mail in ballot all kinds of ways in which they're trying to get in the way of a really fair election in the midterms. And what this means is that registering voters and inspiring people to vote is an organizing tool. We have to put all of our energy now into inspiring people to vote. Not even so much to do with who the candidate is. This is a tool that we still have. And if we don't use it now, it's not gonna be there later. I mean, this is a real case of use it or lose it.
- [23:11]
B
Right? Right. Absolutely.
- [23:12]
A
Yeah. So exercise democracy.
- [23:15]
B
So one of the things you talk about is the ability for, you know, you're a well known person and one of the things you've also been doing. You just talked about mainstream media being taken over also.
- [23:25]
A
And the new media too.
- [23:26]
B
And the new media. Now you've been speaking out against Netflix proposed purchase of Warner Brothers disc. You haven't minced your words in opposition. I'm going to read part of the statement you put out. Today's news that Warner Brothers discovery has accepted a purchase bid is an alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry. The Democratic public it serves in the First Amendment. Make no mistake, this is not just a catastrophic business deal that could destroy our creative industry. It's a constitutional crisis exacerbated by the administration's demonstrated disregard for the law. On the other hand, the other bidder is Larry Ellison and the Paramount folks who have their own agendas, let's just say. So talk about what you would like to see happen. Because if you're talking about the arts as a cultural important pillar of these changes and in speaking out, what happens in these kind of consolidations, the Committee.
- [24:16]
A
For the First Amendment isn't taking sides in terms of which party that's trying to merge is better than the other. We're opposed to mergers because a, a lot of people lose jobs. We have less bargaining power, we have fewer studios to go to to negotiate. And because Trump has taken over, I can't remember what it's called merger control. He has say so now over who gets to merge, he is imposing limits on the First Amendment. He's saying, you have to do this. You can't hire this. You can't say these things in our major cultural and media institutions. We have to stop that.
- [25:00]
B
So whichever merger you think, because the traditional business model is under strain, ticket sales are down more than 20% since 2019. We're recording this on Monday, just after SAG. AFTRA is about to again enter negotiations with the studios. There'll be issues over AI compensation, creative control, given the damage caused by the last strike and diminishing demand for the product. Talk about the moment that Hollywood is in then, if they're going to be someone that's gonna defend the First Amendment. The business is under enormous strain.
- [25:31]
A
There've been a lot of mergers that were. Including just towards the end of my marriage to Ted Turner, there was so much pressure on him to merge with AOL and Time Warner and then all those other mergers that happened after that. You know, it's interesting because I said to Ted, why, you know, you have such a. A successful business? He said, because I'm paraphrasing. He said, if I don't become part of a bigger institution, I'm going to get eaten. This is capitalism. You have to keep getting bigger. And it turned out very badly for Zazlov and for Warner Brothers. So I am not.
- [26:16]
B
It was Jerry Levin for that one. I wrote a whole book on it. That was Jerry Levit. Yeah.
- [26:22]
A
There were a lot of people saying to do, you know, John Malone? And a lot of really smart people. Mike Milken were telling him to do this, and Ted didn't. He didn't feel good about it.
- [26:33]
B
It was the wrong deal. You had the correct instincts on that one.
- [26:37]
A
Yeah, Ted had the correct instincts.
- [26:39]
B
Yeah. Yeah. So when you look at today, what do you say to them? Given they've got pressure from tech, they've got pressure from the audiences who are. Are rushing towards technology faster than they're and running away from Hollywood. And AI obviously plays an enormous part.
- [26:56]
A
I can't pretend to have answers to that. I don't know. I've asked a lot of people in the entertainment business, people in the entertainment industry. If Warner Brothers studio can't it really stand on its own? And they all say, yeah, it can. And so then why not just leave that there remaining as it is, this great historic movie factory? And maybe the smaller things go to other entities, I don't know. But the major mergers that absorb all these studios, I mean, there were so many more studios when I started out it's bad for us and the industry is hurting enough to then restrict even more is going to, really. It's so hard right now to have a middle class life if you're. Unless you're a, you know, above the line, a list actor. It's sad and I don't know what the future is. I don't think the mergers are the solution, though.
- [27:58]
B
No, I think they just like to merge. So you've been a mentor to women in Hollywood for decades, too, and every episode we get an expert to send us a question. So same for you. We've got an expert who's been on the right receiving end of your kindness. Comedian Chelsea Handler. Let's listen. Jane Fonda took me, like, to school one day, invited me to her house, and basically told me that my behavior had been terrible at one of her parties at her house. Like, she, like, took me to town and in the most gentle, loving way. And I wrote a chapter in my book about it, and it's the story of her doing that and how that changed my life forever. Because she was like, your behavior was awful. And like, the fact that she took the time to say that to me was huge. You know, most people would be like, just, I'm not gonna talk to that person again. Because nobody has those difficult conversations. You know what I mean? People are so avoidant, especially in Hollywood. And it was really, like, it made me realize the type of woman that I wanted to be. Why did you go out of your way to help Chelsea talk about that like, you've done that quite a bit. Why are you doing this now? Like, everyone's like, jane Fonda doesn't have to do any more work. She did a lot. So it's much easier to walk away.
- [29:01]
A
Just that philosophy. I don't. I don't relate to it at all. Like, there's some point in life where you stop getting better or stop trying to get better or stop mattering.
- [29:14]
B
No.
- [29:16]
A
I love Chelsea Handler. She is an extraordinary human being. Not many people are able to say, ooh, I don't like that about myself. I'm going to change, and then actually do it. She has changed.
- [29:34]
B
She has.
- [29:34]
A
And she's the only other person besides me that I know that has done that, because I've done that and it can be done. And I just respect her tremendously for that. I don't do that with everybody. Just a few people.
- [29:49]
B
Just a few people. But what is the impetus for you in doing that? When people are looking, I often point to you when they were like, Oh, I don't know if I can do anything. I'm like, look at James fucking Fonda. Like, look over there. Because she.
- [30:02]
A
Everybody always has fucking Fonda.
- [30:04]
B
I don't know why it just goes together with you. Sorry, apologies. Excuse me.
- [30:08]
A
No problem. It's common, though, anyway. So what is the question?
- [30:12]
B
It's a compliment, I believe. Thank you. When you have that impetus, when people do feel hopeless, what is your. Do you ever feel that way and what do you tell people when they feel like they don't have a say? Because being small is a good way to stop people. Making them feel small is a good way to stop people from activism or their best instincts.
- [30:33]
A
For example, I am part of a long line of very depressed people. And for a good part of my life, I was a glass half empty kind of gal. Okay? So it doesn't come naturally to me, but I remember there was a time when it was about 112 degrees in Los Angeles and there were wildfires. And I stepped out and I looked at the sky. It was brown, orange, apocalyptic. I read that birds were falling dead out of the sky. I'm a birder. I was so depressed, I got a bird feeder, I got a bird bath and went to bed. And it was hard to move. And then I said, fuck it. I said, I'm gonna make a difference. And I knew I wasn't doing enough. And so I called a woman who at the time was the director of Greenpeace usa, Annie Leonard. I said, I want to come and make a difference. I want to come to D.C. and make a difference. I want to raise a ruckus. What can I do? Do? And together with her, we created Fire Drill Fridays. And the minute I did that, my depression lifted. Then I heard Greta Thunberg say, you know, everybody goes looking for hope. Look for action, and hope will come. Hope is very different than optimism. You know, optimism is everything's going to be fine and you don't do anything about it. Hope is a muscle. Hope is. When you fight, hope can be rage filled. Breaking down the door with a battering ram. Baklav Havel was in prison in 1984. 85. By the Communists in Czechoslovakia. He was the famous playwright.
- [32:13]
B
Yes, of course.
- [32:14]
A
Czech playwright.
- [32:14]
B
Amazing playwright, too.
- [32:15]
A
Yeah. And I'm paraphrasing, but in prison, he said, you know, hope is not about fighting for something because you think it's going to succeed. Hope is about fighting because it's right. And then was president of the country. We never know what the future holds, but it's within that unknowing that hope can grow.
- [32:41]
B
I've been in that in California during one of those periods. What got you moving? Cause I want to talk about this foundational work as an activist right now, the environmentalism. But what got you moving to that?
- [32:53]
A
Well, because I know I have a platform and I knew that I wasn't using it fully enough, and I just made the decision that I was gonna do it no matter what, I was gonna step up. I'd been an activist for decades, but I knew that it wasn't enough right now.
- [33:11]
B
Right.
- [33:12]
A
And so I'm gonna do it. And I just made the decision. And the minute I did that, I became hopeful. And I've remained hopeful ever since. Even now I am.
- [33:23]
B
We'll be back in a minute. So the Jane funded climate PAC, it's helped elect over 200 candidates. And just for people who don't know, the stated goal is to unseat politicians in the pocket of big oil and replace them with climate champions. And you talked about your down ballot strategy and the deep bench. Can I have more details about those plans for the midterms? What is the strategy from your perspective that you can talk about?
- [33:57]
A
We want to elect as many people as we can to the House. So my team is small, but they have a great deal of expertise and they're looking at which are the winnable seats all around the country. And then in some instances, we just give money. In some instances, I go there. That's always. Cause we triple the amount of money they can raise. We quadruple the amount of volunteers they can get. We also train and we help in many ways besides just giving money.
- [34:31]
B
So when you think about that, when you give these young activists, climate activists advice, do you try to focus their pressure? Cause there's the courts, the elections, the tech companies for right now are building these data centers. How do you resist that? Given here you are trying to stop one climate thing with cars and then it moves to AI data centers and then it moves, et cetera.
- [34:53]
A
Right. At our last PAC board meeting, we had a presentation from experts on data centers. They can be less destructive, they can be run on alternative energy, which of course the Trump administration is opposing. But we decided as a board to now we not only won't support anybody that's in favor of expanding fossil fuels, but we don't support people that are in favor of Data Centers or SMRs, small modular reactors. I've done quite a bit of research into these.
- [35:32]
B
Oh, good for you to know about that.
- [35:33]
A
You know, they're Being touted as, this is the solution to climate. They take just as long to build, which means that we go beyond the. The red line for climate. You know, 10 years, 20 years is too late. That's how long it takes for them to get online, even the small ones. Another really bad thing is the radioactive waste from SMRS is different chemically than from a traditional reactor. It's exotic chemicals. They can't be mixed together. So now we're talking about. We haven't even solved the problem of the traditional waste. Now we have a whole new set of radioactive waste that we have to try to figure out. Also the use of water and the amount of money it costs, which taxpayers. I didn't realize it. Taxpayers end up paying the bulk of the costs of nuclear reactors, even if they never go online.
- [36:27]
B
Yeah. And they're also paying a lot of the data center costs and things like that, which is interesting when you think about.
- [36:34]
A
So it's SMRs, it's data centers and it's fossil fuels. These things are crazy critical.
- [36:42]
B
Yeah. Does it feel like you're still in the China Syndrome? That was a million. When was that? That was like so long ago when that was.
- [36:50]
A
Early 80s maybe.
- [36:51]
B
Yeah. I interviewed Oliver Stone and he said, Jane Fond has done more damage to nuclear energy than anyone else. I said, well, I guess we can't put it at her feet, but fine, whatever. Because, you know, as you know, he's four. He's four. Nuclear energy, as you know. What do you make of some leaders? Like Elon Musk used to be a climate change supporter. Right. Meaning deal with it. He's now gone the other direction in a direction none of us quite understand. And at the same time, he's talking about leaving Earth, going to Mars today or yesterday. He said he's building a moon city so he can get to Mars. Now he's sort of the personification of villainous tech, essentially wanting to get off the planet. How do you look at people like that, where that's their solution? It's like we're not gonna deal with climate change. Instead we're just gonna leave for Mars, which is not a very nice place to live, by the way. Neither is the moon.
- [37:43]
A
Well, I mean, I think all of them change because of money. I think it's based on greed. I can't think of any other reason why he's made such a switch. Maybe he was always that way, but he covered it up because he was getting so popular, because he had a little sense of humor and he had all the electric cars and everything. I don't know.
- [38:06]
B
What would you say to someone like him or some of these tech overlords?
- [38:09]
A
I would try to reason with them. I would try to explain that we have to have soil and diversity and wildlife and trees and plants and air and water so that human beings can continue to live here. Because you're never going to remove everybody from here to some other planet. How dare we consider ourselves so much more important than the other sentient things that are on this planet that we could just dismiss them and assume that a few of us will get up there somehow? You know, is this how you want to be remembered? Even that is a stupid thing to say, because who's going to remember at that point?
- [38:49]
B
Yeah, that's true. That's a good point. Right. Because it's all over unless they bring the books that they're interested in. So when people are thinking about these issues, I have two more questions. How do you keep them? You seem like a very. I know you said you, you know, had some depression, everything else. But how do you keep people hopeful? Because people feel, I do feel there's energy returned within some of the movements. You can feel it after Minnesota. Or, you know, even Don Lemon of all people, really, like, went out there and did stuff right. Like someone who was an anchor at a traditional cnn.
- [39:21]
A
What do you.
- [39:22]
B
What advice do you give to people to keep going? Because people do have a hopelessness to them. And yet you see these, these seedlings of hope.
- [39:31]
A
People are ready. People are saying, tell me what to do. And right now what to do is get trained. It's called Freedom Trainers. They do non cooperation 101. I've had them done both on the east and west coast for members of the Committee for the First Amendment. Get ready, understand authoritarianism and how it can be defeated, and learn how to be safe. Develop a community that can help each other. One of the reasons that the resistance in Minneapolis has been so robust is because they were organized. They were trained to know what to do. Who's going to be in charge of medical, who's going to be in charge of food. They knew how to de. Escalate. We all have to become like Minneapolis and it can be done again. Freedom Trainers is one example of a. They're training people, hundreds of thousands of people all across the country.
- [40:26]
B
You know, one of the things I'm wrapping up a documentary series for CNN about longevity, and it was inspired by all these tech billionaires that want to live forever, which I think is enormously narcissistic. But there are all these. Well, I'm sure you agree, right?
- [40:41]
A
Yes, I do.
- [40:43]
B
And at the same time, my feeling is that mortality gives us creativity, it gives us impetus to do things. Right.
- [40:50]
A
It makes sense of life.
- [40:51]
B
That's correct. That is correct.
- [40:53]
A
And unless you embrace and understand and kind of are okay with death, life has no meaning.
- [41:00]
B
That's right. Right. And there's actually studies showing if you ignore it death, you become hateful. And if you accept it, you become community based, which is really interesting. There's all these scientific studies showing it.
- [41:11]
A
When I was 60, I did the smartest thing in my whole life. I realized, okay, I'm not scared of dying. I'm scared of getting to the end with a lot of regrets when it's too late to do anything about it.
- [41:25]
B
It.
- [41:25]
A
So that means, because I was confused, how am I supposed to live my last act? How I'm supposed to live my last act is so I'll be okay when the end comes. Obviously none of us know when the end is going to be, but you have to make a vision of how you want. I want to die at home in my bed. I want to be surrounded by loved ones. That means between now and then I got to be sure people love me. I have to be sure I deserve love. I'd like to be able to have a few wise things, figure out how you want to be at the end, even if you know you don't have any control over it. And then that informs how you're going to live between now and then. And it's made all the difference in my life. I've gone into therapy at 82 years old, never too late to figure it out.
- [42:13]
B
Did you find anything really good out?
- [42:15]
A
Yeah, but it takes too long on this.
- [42:18]
B
I'm teasing you. I'm teasing you. But when you think about that idea of living your best life right, and you show no signs of slowing down, do you have. I know it sounds crazy, but a secret. I'm not talking about your skin regimen, which your skin is excellent by the way, but when you think about what the kind of things you can put into it now, when you were doing your career, when you were in 30s, you took a great risk and turned out to be right. But at the time you got attacked relentlessly.
- [42:47]
A
Right.
- [42:48]
B
What you're doing now, you're certainly getting more celebrated for. Obviously your activism is more celebrated. But I think one of the things, the reasons I wanted to talk to you is because I want people to feel, feel they don't have to be Jane fonda to do this right, you don't have to have. You don't have to be you, essentially. So do you have a secret or anything else or not just getting up or.
- [43:10]
A
I meditate and I meditate to keep myself hopeful, to keep myself grounded and to keep myself present. Also, sometimes when I'm meditating, problems arise and get solved. So interesting. And I've started on substack recently and I just began. And people loved. I took them on a meditation with me and the reaction was so positive that I'm going to do it every time. So that's one thing. Another thing is sleep. Getting enough sleep so that I have energy because I get very depressed if I don't get enough sleep, then maybe as important or more don't be alone. You're vulnerable. When you're alone, you're vulnerable to depression. You're also vulnerable to danger, to ice, to all kinds of things, to being not impactful. You know, all of us, those of us who are alive right now are blessed because we have the chance to turn everything around. I feel so lucky to be born right now. And in order to do it right, I gotta do it with other people and make sure that what we're doing is the right thing to do, that it's not just frivolous or it doesn't really make any difference. And what got me to be smart was pulling on smart people to help me, to guide me. And I now have a team around me that is very experienced and totally strategic and very connected to the entire ecosystem of movement across the country. So, you know, okay, so not everybody can do that necessarily, but you can join a local indivisible, you can organize your neighborhood, these local pods of people who will help each other when not only the authoritarianism shit hits the fan, but when the climate shit. We have to harden our communities and make them resilient in all kinds of ways, including security. And you can't do that alone. Get to know your neighbors, know their phone numbers and emails, talk about who's going to do what if this happens or that happens. And being in the training helps you think in those kind of ways, right?
- [45:28]
B
Absolutely.
- [45:29]
A
Know things like if you risk going into an area where there's tear gas, take out your contacts, you know, good to know. Whistle. Good to know.
- [45:37]
B
Thank you for that piece of advice, Jane. Podcast. So one of the things, when you did your original activism during Vietnam, obviously Nixon was your foe, right? In the larger scheme of things, yeah. Today it's Trump. What would you say to him right now? Do you think you can change his mind?
- [45:57]
A
Here's what I couldn't. I tried. I wanted to. I know him. I've met him. He used to really like and admire Ted, my ex husband, Ted Turner. And I feel because I spent a decade with Ted Turner, I understand Trump a little bit because they have certain things in common. Early trauma at the hands of the father, et cetera. And in my mind, sometimes when I lie in bed, I have conversations with him and I want to say to him, you know, I. I feel like I understand something about. Because I lived with ted Turner for 10 years, you have things in common. Do you understand what's happening? I would try to touch his heart. There was one when he first got elected in 2017, I wanted to go and meet with him with a bunch of really brilliant, sexy women and kneel at his feet. Cause I thought, well, this would work with Ted and tell him he could be a global hero if he saved the plan. And Pamela Anderson was willing to go with me and then Ivanka and Jared, it didn't happen. It was no help getting there. It's important to understand what he does and what he says. The behavior is the language of the traumatized, and you have to see through it. You can hate what the behavior, but you have to see through it to the traumatized person and not hate them. Because if you hate them, then it's your. It brings you down. I don't hate him. I don't. Troy Behar got really mad at me on the View when I said that. But I feel better. I view all these guys and Musk and the others, they're just, just. They're not. Well, it's the not wellness that we see acted out. I'm so sorry that this happened to them in their lives. And I would try to touch that early trump, but I don't think I'd succeed.
- [48:17]
B
Yeah, if you could get to it. I don't think you can. At some point. There is one point. I said one time to one of these tech moguls. I'm so sorry your parents didn't hug you enough as a child, but you need to stop. And they looked at me and I go, I gotcha.
- [48:32]
A
But you need to stop.
- [48:34]
B
They're dead. Like, you need to move on.
- [48:36]
A
There's a statute of limitation.
- [48:38]
B
Yes. Get some help.
- [48:39]
A
And now move. See, this is what happened with Ted Turner. There was a point in his life where he intentionally moved towards the light, moved to the side of the angel. He decided, and he changed himself. God bless him.
- [48:56]
B
God bless him. Anyway. Jane Fonda, thank you so much.
- [48:59]
A
Thank you very much.
- [49:05]
B
Today's show was produced by Christian Castor Russell, Michelle Eloy, Megan Burney and Kalyn Lynch. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Special thanks to Annika Robbins. Our engineers are Fernando Arruda and Rick Kwan, and our theme music is by Trackademics. If you're already following the show, you deserve love. If not, go meditate on why you haven't subscribed. Go over your listen to podcasts, search for on with Kara Swisher, and hit follow. Thanks for listening to on with Kara Swisher from Podium Media, New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and us. We'll be back on Monday with more.