
Loading summary
BetterHelp
BetterHelp online therapy bought this 30 second ad to remind you right now, wherever you are, to unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath in and out. Feels better, right? That's 15 seconds of self care. Imagine what you could do with more. Visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of therapy. No pressure, just help. But for now, just relax.
Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? Well, with LinkedIn ads you can know you're reaching the right decision makers. You can even target buyers by job title, industry company seniority skills. Wait, did I say job title yet? Get started today and see how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started at LinkedIn.com results terms and conditions apply. Quince believes that quality products shouldn't be a luxury. Whether It's a breathable 100% European linen shirt or effortless stretch cotton pants, all of their high end top quality pieces are about half the of similar brands. Yes, really. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quint gives you luxury pieces without the markup. Get the high end goods you deserve@quint.com upgrade for free shipping and 365 day returns.
Zibby Owens
Hi, this is Zibby Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling buzzies, four underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know. Get insider insights and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbemedia.com and follow me on Instagram ibioens Adam Met is the author of how to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action and Build a Better World. Adam seamlessly transitions between his roles as a musician, educator and advocate. As the bassist in the multi platinum band ajr, he has played for millions of fans worldwide. He is the co founder of the climate research and advocacy nonprofit Planet Reimagined and teaches about climate campaigning and policy at Columbia University. Welcome Adam. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Booked to talk about amplify how to Use the Power of Connection to Engage Take action and build a better world. Congrats.
Adam Met
Thank you so much, Libby. I'm really happy to be here.
Zibby Owens
Yay. So you told us in detail about how your whole path to life has been a bit unlikely, particularly being a musician, and then moving on to how you built your fan base and how we all can take what you've learned and apply it to the causes and things that we care about the most. Which is really great of you to share with us. So thank you for that. Why don't you tell listeners a little bit about your path to getting here and then we can go into the nuts and bolts of it.
Adam Met
Absolutely. That sounds great. So I am a musician. I'm in a band called ajr. And the band has been growing and growing for the last 18 years. And it was never one of those moments where we had a song that just blew up and we immediately had success. It wasn't that overnight success story. It was growing it day by day, fan by fan, playing the kinds of venues where we would play for 12 people and then 20 people and then 100 people. And then finally this past year, we reached arenas, and we played a bunch of sold out arenas across the United States, but it took 18 years to get here. So every step is something that we spent a lot of time and effort on and really understood how to grow a fan base from nothing all the way to being able to sell out arenas and having billions of streams on our music. And so as I was thinking about that, at the same time, I stayed in school for the last bunch of years, so I did my undergrad, my master's, and my PhD, and I worked a lot in the climate space. So I spent a lot of time in climate trying to figure out how to make it more accessible to younger people, how to work in policy. I worked a little bit with the Biden administration on their big climate initiative. I worked with the U.N. but the thing that kept coming up over and over again was fans coming up to me saying, I want to participate in something. I want to figure out what the thing is that I care about and I want to do more, but I just don't know how to do it. So this book was really to answer that question. I had done a little bit of problem solving by doing it with the band, but then realized that all of these strategies that the music industry is so freaking great at, those strategies can be applied really effectively to any movement you care about, whether it is the climate movement or if you're working in gun reform or immigration or healthcare Or LGBTQ rights, really, anything. All of these strategies from the music industry and entertainment industry more broadly can be applied. So that's how this book kind of was ideated to begin with.
Zibby Owens
Amazing. Wait, take me to the time in your life when you were like, should I get the PhD or not?
Adam Met
It's so funny, because as I was starting to work in policy, I would meet with mayors and governors and senators and members of Congress, and the conversation would be, I don't know, 60, 70% music, and then 30% policy. And then as soon as I got my PhD, it became 5% music, 95% policy. And so, not that I did it so I would be taken more seriously by the people that I was trying to kind of move legislation with. But also, at the same time, I have been obsessed with school. And when I was working with my PhD advisor who was amazing, she was saying, oh, do you want to go into academia? Do you want to teach? And I said, I just love being here. I love continuing to learn. And I ended up writing a PhD and that that book essentially is over 300 pages, and, like, three people read it. So I wanted to do something that was more accessible this time. And that's how we got to amplify.
Zibby Owens
Amazing. I thought about getting a PhD in multiple subjects because I just like you. I'm like, I just want to stay in school. But then, of course, none of them, I got an mba, and I was like, that's enough.
Adam Met
MBA is great, though, because I like that idea because you get to touch on so many different things in business.
Zibby Owens
So, yeah, yeah, we all end up there.
Adam Met
Basically.
Zibby Owens
Life is just, how do we find our place now that school is over and we.
Adam Met
Yep.
Zibby Owens
Love it. Okay, so you have found a way to apply these principles of fandom to whatever we all care about, whether it's like you climate or like me, spreading literary world and the power of books and all of that. You know, for me, it's like one podcast at a time. And so tell us, what is the secret? What do people in the entertainment world get right so much that you wanted to write a whole book about it?
Adam Met
Yeah. So there are a couple of core principles, and then they're really interesting in different ways to apply it. So one of the core principles that I love is this idea of creating evangelizers. So when you first are starting a band or a movement, the key thing is to bring new people as close to you as possible and give them all the tools to be able to go out and be the evangelizers. Of the movement itself by having a really kind of strong corporate structure that doesn't work. So historically, movements have been built on this idea of a ladder. People take one action, they become part of the movement. They then attend a rally or a protest, they go and sit in a city council meeting, they do whatever it is, and they keep climbing up this ladder of engagement. That's the historic approach that doesn't work anymore with the way communities have been built. In the digital space and in the live space, it looks a lot more like a hurricane. And there's a whole chapter in the book about this. With a hurricane, it brings people in really close to the center. So with music, we bring our new fans in really close, give them the tools to be able to go out in the world. We give them first access to concert tickets, zoom sessions with us. We give them early listening to our music. They get really kind of first look things, then they take those and say, oh, I'm really excited about that. I want to share that with my friends, my friend, my family and my community. They go out into the world and they end up being part of the movement that is the music. And so if you think of it that way, it's more about different ways that you're treating different segments of the fan base in order to have them go and be the people who can help grow it for you. It's not just about the musician growing the thing, it's about the fan base as a whole. And so that same idea can be applied to movements. So this ladder of engagement doesn't work anymore. We're looking to build hurricanes, giving people the tools in order to go engage their communities towards collective action as opposed to focusing on the individual actions of participation.
Zibby Owens
So how do you make the evangelizers into an actual structured thing? Do they know they're evangelizers or is that your shorthand in the band?
Adam Met
That is the shorthand in the band. And I'll give you two examples of how we do this. So a handful of years ago, for one of our albums, we employed this gaming strategy. And again, there's a whole chapter on gamification in the book. So Taylor Swift does an amazing job with gamification with her fans, right? She puts her fans in competition with each other in order to solve puzzles, and it reveals new things. Competition, great strategy for gaming. Twenty one Pilots, Another artist uses a strategy called open world building, where like a video game, they keep expanding on this world album to album, and the fans get to explore, learn more about this world through the lore of it. But we tend to do something that's a little different from both of those. We do something that we call collaborative gaming. So what I propose with this is when we put out this album, what we did is we took the track list before we released it. We divided it up into 36 separate jigsaw puzzle pieces, and we put each piece in a different area of social media. One on Twitter, one on Facebook, one on Instagram, one on Discord, Reddit, to our text list, our email list. And we forced the fans from all of these different places to work together to create something. They then took this and shared what they had created across social media, unlike anything we had seen before, because they took ownership over it. They created the track list, they worked together, they made it, they posted it before we even did. And that kind of ownership they felt over the product allowed 10 times more eyeballs to see the content than if we were just going to post it ourselves. So this kind of gamification and ownership over the idea itself allows the fan base to grow in a much bigger and more organic way. That was one.
Zibby Owens
Who thought of that?
Adam Met
You did, yes. Yeah. Yeah. So these kinds of strategies are my favorite things ever because they're a mix of psychology and business and creative. You can probably tell from the fact that I stayed in school forever while also doing music. While working in the climate space, I can't focus on one thing at a time. So these kinds of solutions that apply all of these different strategies at once are my favorite things to think of. And that's just one. There are dozens and dozens of strategies in the book. We do the same thing with the live space. How do we create a new kind of live space? In the movement world, you're either at a protest or you're at a gala where the food isn't very good. Right. It's always one of those two things. What if we created something in the middle where the live space was actually fun? What if it really was a dance party? What if it really was a concert kind of approach? What if it was something that had merch that you could take home with you? What if there was a way to participate in a much deeper way? And I kind of lay out how to do that in the live space in the book. So these kinds of strategies are the things that I find to be the most fun.
Zibby Owens
Wow. How willing is your whole team to experiment, are you? Just like, this is the ethos of how we do things, and let's just give it a shot.
Adam Met
Yeah. We've Always been a very outside the box band. We stayed independent for a really, really long time. And by doing that, we kind of wrote our own rules. And another one of the chapters in the book is about how to effectively break the rules without kind of stepping over the line. But breaking the rules is such a fun thing to do when you think about it as, okay, this hasn't been done before, why hasn't it been done before? And if there's a. If there's no good reason why it hasn't been done before, it's probably worth trying. So that kind of rule breaking is something that we do all the time. On our last tour last summer, we had all of these advocacy moments where people could actually register to vote, volunteer with nonprofits, sign petitions, and also phone bank and call their representatives on site asking for specific votes on local legislation. We had 35,000 fans take action on climate during our tour last summer. So this is actually working because they're doing it with their friends, with their family. The band is incentivizing them to do it. It's just this kind of great mix of energy all happening at the same time at these shows. And now we're expanding and doing it with a bunch of other artists this summer.
Zibby Owens
Amazing. So what if you believe strongly in a cause, but it's not your nonprofit like childhood mental health or just for an example, how can the individual participate more? Is it aligning closely with organizations that are already doing them? Is it trying to start new things? How can you take your energy and creativity without having to start your own thing?
Adam Met
Yeah, so there are two different. Well, I guess there are like 10 different answers to that question. But there are two kind of main categories. The first thing that I always advocate for is looking at what already exists out there. Because so many people have tried to jump into movements and say, I want to start an organization without looking around to see if there's something just like it. We don't want to repeat other people's work. We won't. We don't want to do unnecessary work. So the first thing is, you care about something, go see if there's an organization that you can volunteer with, participate with in your area, and that's great. And if there isn't really to make a case why it's necessary for this movement, this protest, this campaign, this organization to exist. And in chapter two of the book, it's all about all the different roles you can play. And not everybody needs to be a leader of a movement. Not everyone needs to go out in the Streets and March. Not everybody needs to do letter writing campaigns. Those are not the only things. I give a lot of talks at colleges to students about climate and so often they say to me, oh yeah, I want to do climate on the side, but I'm studying pre med and that has nothing to do with climate or I'm studying art and that has nothing to do with climate or poli sci or whatever it is. And I literally go around the room and explain to everybody how the work they're doing is related to climate. Your pre med. The amount of insect borne diseases that we have in the United States now have increased tremendously since the temperature has started to increase. Because as the temperature increases, these insects move from the equator further and further north and further and further south and we have more and more hospital related cases from insect borne diseases. That's a health issue. Immigration is a climate issue because we're going to have more and more climate refugees and immigrants as a result. And that's something that can be absolutely be addressed. Same thing with our food systems. If you're in farming, agriculture, pretty much every job, whether you're in construction or you work in water or whatever it is, you work in art, we need more climate communicators. Every role, everything that people do, that people do for jobs can be applied to the climate space. What I help people to do in this book is think about the things that they're good at and think about the things that they love doing. This model has been used before, but I also lay out a bunch of different philosophies. It's not just the things that you do, but it's the way that you think about things. Are you somebody who likes to bring people together who disagree with each other? Are you a convener of people? Do you like to listen in instead of participate in the conversation? What kind of person are you? And then we figure out how you all can contribute to the movement that you care about the most.
Zibby Owens
Today's episode is sponsored by quints. With summer in full swing, I feel that familiar urge to refresh my closet. But I'm not trying to waste money on pieces I'll only wear once or for just one season. That's where quints comes in. Their clothes are timeless, feel luxurious, look elevated, and the quality is way beyond what you'd expect for the price. It's the kind of wardrobe upgrade that just clicks. Think 100% European linen tops starting at $30, washable silk dresses and skirts and soft cotton sweaters. Versatile warm weather pieces you'll reach for again and again. The best part? Everything with Quince is half the cost of similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury without the markup. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. I love Quince. I love the sweaters, in particular the oversized cotton sweater for summer. And I can't recommend this anymore. I'm totally obsessed. Give your summer closet an upgrade with Quince. Go to Quince.com Zibby for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com Zy to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Zibby.
BetterHelp
Better Help Online Therapy bought this 30 second ad to remind you right now, wherever you are, to unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath in and out. Feels better, right? That's 15 seconds of self care. Imagine what you could do with more visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of therapy. No pressure, just help. But for now, just relax.
McDonald's
The Snack Wrap is Back this episode of Giggly Squad is brought to you by McDonald's and I'm so excited to tell you that the Snack Wrap, featuring juicy white meat, chicken, shredded lettuce, melty cheese, creamy ranch. Sorry, I'm drooling on the microphone right now, all wrapped in a soft tortilla, is back on the menu. They have it in ranch or spicy, a spicy pepper sauce. If you're feeling frisky, try the Snack Wrap that broke the Internet at a McDonald's near you.
Zibby Owens
Are you going to be launching Amplify Consulting for different clients?
Adam Met
I mean, I have not thought of that, but you know, you heard it here first. And maybe this is the beginning of Amplify Consulting. Thank you for the idea. I'll cut you in.
Zibby Owens
Oh great. Fabulous. What does the layperson need to know about climate these days? I follow the news, I read the papers, blah blah blah. But what you have an inside scoop, if you will. What should we know and what is the most helpful thing we can do?
Adam Met
Yeah, so everybody is in this kind of doom and gloom moment when it comes to climate because a lot of the climate legislation that has actually moved forward over the last four years is being rolled back or has been rolled back by the current administration. Now at the federal level, a lot of climate action can be taken, but so much more climate action can be taken at the local level, community boards, state legislators, mayors, they determine where petrochemical plants are built, what waste systems look like, farming protocols. All of these things are decided at the local level community boards. There are many, many across the country where these elections have been decided by less than 10 votes. Your vote at the local level is thousands of times more powerful than your vote at the federal level. So my call to action for people on climate, because it is everything like we were talking about before, is to go look up when your next local election is. So I'm in New York City. We have a primary for our mayor, and that's happening at the end of June. But in pretty much every city, every state, there are local elections that are happening at some point during a year. Go look it up. Take the time. Go look it up and see what the profiles are of the people that are running. See where they are on climate or any other issue that you care about, and commit to going to vote in a primary and a local election. That is the number one most important thing that you can do to have a real impact. Because like I said, your vote could literally be the deciding vote in that election.
Zibby Owens
Have you thought about running for office?
Adam Met
I've been asked that question before, and I have been asked to run for office. And at this moment in my life, because so much of my work is bipartisan and nonpartisan from the ground up, I think that my role is to stay outside of political office because I can work with Republicans, I can work with Democrats and bring them together effectively over certain issues. And as soon as I run on a ticket, I lose that ability. And I think that I, at the moment, am meant to focus on the nonpartisanship and bipartisanship side. So who knows, maybe in the future. But at the moment, I'm going to stick where I am.
Zibby Owens
I mean, it would be so cool to have a president who's also a musician, employ all of these skills to getting people to vote. I don't know. It feels like it's in the bag.
Adam Met
I appreciate that. I mean, Bill Clinton played the saxophone.
Zibby Owens
That's true. That's true.
Adam Met
That's true.
Zibby Owens
Sorry, I forgot. Of course, all those images of that. Of course.
Adam Met
Yes, yes.
Zibby Owens
In addition to everything, you are now a writer, right? How can you employ all of your strategies and smart thinking to releasing a book?
Adam Met
Great question. So we have done some of these similar ideas, as in building the AJR fan base in order to release this book. So engaging deeply with fans who are kind of close to us, giving them the tools to go out and spread the word about the book. The book tour is something much more than a traditional book tour. We're not going to bookshops and signing. What I'm doing is I'm going to all of these different cities and basically putting on a show. There are musical moments. There are special guests. We're doing all of these kind of gamified things. There are advocacy moments in the show where all together, everybody in the audience is taking a local advocacy action that's being sent to their local representative. And it's different each night. So it's meant to be a more fun advocacy experience. Again, not the protest and not the sitting in a gala. But this is where action can happen, when people are in community, in spaces where they're having fun. That's built around entertainment. So we're using as much of the strategy, as much of the strategy as we can on this tour.
Zibby Owens
Do you feel like readers are as receptive?
Adam Met
We'll see.
Zibby Owens
I mean, this may be a new model. Everybody who publishes a book is always looking for the next way to break that.
Adam Met
I hope so. I'm happy to share any insights that I have after I finish this tour with any authors. Because that sounds so much more fun, right, than sitting in a Barnes and Noble or an indie bookstore, whatever it is, and just signing book after book. Wouldn't it be great if you got to talk about it with a guest that's different in every city and you actually played games and had all of these different things in order to promote your book? Sounds fun.
Zibby Owens
It does sound fun. I'm gonna have to stop in on your tour. Are you going all over the place?
Adam Met
All over the place? All over the U.S. amazing.
Zibby Owens
I'm sure we'll put it in our show notes for where to find you on tour. What do you like to read when you're not reading about climate and devising your own theories?
Adam Met
It's funny. I listen to a lot of nonfiction, and I tend to read more fiction, so I listen to nonfiction because I feel like I need to stay up to date on all of the stuff that's happening. So I don't tell anybody, but I put it on, like, 1.5 or double speed in order to listen to like people do when they're in school. But. Oh, there's a book. So this is probably the last fiction book I read that I really, really enjoyed called Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I'm sure. Yeah, it is really excellent. It's a story about three students and building video games. And I'm not a big video game person, but it was really interesting to learn about that industry through the lens of these three fronts. It's really excellent.
BetterHelp
Yes.
Zibby Owens
And into your to your gamify point too. That is on brand for you. I like.
Adam Met
Wow.
Zibby Owens
1.5. I've tried that. I can't go past 1.2, but I can read really quickly, but I can't listen quickly.
Adam Met
Got it. Okay.
Zibby Owens
I'll have to. Did you train yourself? Did you work your way up?
Adam Met
I did. And even with each new book, I start at 1 and then I go up to 1.2 and then 1.5 and then 1.7. So I need to get used to the author and their voice.
Zibby Owens
And when do you how do you divide the time in your day? What is a typical day for you look like?
Adam Met
Yeah, so nowadays it's mostly working on my climate nonprofit, which is called Planet Reimagined. And we've grown tremendously over the last year. About a year ago we were five people or so, and now we're more than 30 people working in it. So that takes up a good chunk of my time. Now I'm all book promo all the time, and this summer we're doing a tour with the band. So that's going to take up more of my time over the summer and. But I really try and divide my life in a way that makes me happy. I also teach climate policy and campaigning at Columbia University, so I'll be jumping back into that in the fall once the book tour and summer tour is over.
Zibby Owens
How have you found things to be at Columbia?
Adam Met
What a loaded question. I just. Funny, I just gave the commencement speech at the graduation for the Columbia Climate School, and I think it's impossible not to speak truth when you're giving, when you're put in a position like that. And so I have a lot of problems with the way the administration of the school has failed to stand up to authoritarianism. And I think it has been a massive slight on the school itself. And the students feel it and the professors feel it. And at the same time, the curriculum in places like the Climate School and the International Affairs School where I'm teaching, really focus on making and preparing the students to go out and actually do the work. The framing of the speech really was we have all the what's to solve climate change. We could solve climate change today if we wanted to. We know what the what's are, but the hows are the things that we need to be focusing on. So the students need to take everything they learned and figure out what implementation looks like. And that's not something that you teach so much in school. That's something that you need in the real world. So I love Columbia. I went there as an undergrad. I went and did a fellowship there while I was doing my PhD. I now teach there. And I really hope that things are going to improve very soon.
Zibby Owens
That was a good answer. I mean, you know.
Adam Met
Maybe people can listen to the. Listen to the subtext.
Zibby Owens
Oh, my gosh. What have you learned from one of your students?
Adam Met
Oh, well, it's funny. Two of my students I've ended up hiring for the nonprofit because I'm just so inspired then by them. I love teaching in the International affairs school because the last semester that I taught, pretty much every student was from a different country and from a different background and brought something different to the table. And when you're working in campaigning, to have that diversity of ideas is so key because everyone brings something completely different. And when students from Southeast Asia are talking about social media approaches to campaigning there, as opposed to what's happening in the US Or South America, I learn new things every day about campaigning, about how to reach people, about the language to use, about how to engage celebrities, about how to give speeches, things like that. And so the most impactful things are when students disagree with each other. And it's really because they're coming from such different backgrounds. And what I love talking to students about is how to find your audience, because an audience is not one thing, and an audience is not stagnant. It is this ethereal, amorphous thing that ebbs and flows, and there are audiences within audiences. And I mean, I thought about that in writing of this book, but it happens in campaigning all the time. So I think that's probably the thing I learned most from my students is how to expand my definition of audience.
Zibby Owens
Love it. Any advice for aspiring authors?
Adam Met
Yeah. So I was very lucky I found somebody to partner with on this book. I have a co writer, and her name is Heather Landy. She's an incredible journalist. And what I learned from writing this book with her is that for me, collaboration is key. I love working with people that will push back against me, that will make me think harder. I also did a lot of interviews for this book, and some of them made it in, and some of them just the ideas made it in, not the interviews themselves. But engaging people along the way as you're telling these stories is vital because you might have a lot of amazing ideas, but they're not going to resonate unless you test them out with other people and let other people who you trust be the shapers of your ideas. That was kind of key for me. There are multiple chapters that didn't end up making it in the book because it wasn't resonating with people in the right way for me.
Zibby Owens
What's one chapter you cut out that there was something really good in it and you're like, ugh, if only.
Adam Met
So there was a whole chapter about digital and instead of having a separate chapter about digital, I took different pieces of it and wove it through the rest of the book because I realized that digital doesn't live in a silo anymore. It's a tool that's working across the live space and the rule breaking and gamification and building a bigger tent and how you tell stories and all of these different pieces. So instead of it being its own silo, it now kind of lives as this horizontal piece in each chapter.
Zibby Owens
And do you have any tips on working with family?
Adam Met
Oh, working with family. It can be incredible and it can be tough. And I think that family needs to come first and the work needs to come second no matter what.
Zibby Owens
Excellent, Adam. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for helping us all amplify and collectively change the world.
BetterHelp
Thank you.
Adam Met
It's so nice. Thank you so much for having me. Zibby. This was great.
Zibby Owens
Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review. Follow me on Instagram ippyowens and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh and buy the books.
Quince believes that quality products shouldn't be a luxury. Whether It's a breathable 100% European linen shirt or effortless stretch cotton pants. All of their high end top quality pieces are about half the cost of similar brands. Yes, really. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quints gives you luxury pieces without the markup. Get the high end goods you deserve@quint.com upgrade for free shipping and 365 day returns.
McDonald's
The snack Wrap is back. This episode of Giggly Squad is brought to you by McDonald's and I'm so excited to tell you that the snack wrap featuring juicy white meat chicken, shredded lettuce, melty cheese, creamy ranch. Sorry I'm drooling on the microphone right now. All wrapped in a soft tortilla and is back on the menu. They have it in ranch or spicy, a spicy pepper sauce if you're feeling frisky Try the snack wrap that broke the Internet at a McDonald's near you.
Life is a workout, and Smoothie King is here to help you power through. Whether you're grinding out bicep curls or muscling the couch across the living room, crushing morning miles, or sprinting through back to back back meetings, Smoothie King has fuel to help you maximize your workouts, own your recovery and elevate your game. Give your body the energy, protein and power it needs with a lineup of delicious smoothies made to help you conquer your goals. Only at Smoothie King.
Podcast: Totally Booked with Zibby
Host: Zibby Owens
Guest: Adam Met, PhD
Release Date: July 24, 2025
In this insightful episode of Totally Booked with Zibby, host Zibby Owens welcomes Adam Met, a multifaceted individual who seamlessly blends his passions for music, education, and climate advocacy. Adam, known as the bassist for the multi-platinum band AJR, is also the co-founder of the climate research and advocacy nonprofit Planet Reimagined and an educator at Columbia University. He discusses his new book, AMPLIFY: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World, which explores leveraging strategies from the entertainment industry to bolster social movements.
Adam Met shares his unique path, highlighting the intersection of his musical career and academic pursuits:
Building a Fan Base Over 18 Years: Adam emphasizes the gradual growth of AJR, moving from intimate venues to sold-out arenas, a journey that instilled in him a deep understanding of fan engagement.
"It took 18 years to get here. Every step is something that we spent a lot of time and effort on and really understood how to grow a fan base from nothing all the way to being able to sell out arenas..." (03:36).
Academic Pursuits: Simultaneously, Adam pursued higher education, earning a PhD and engaging extensively in the climate space. This dual focus allowed him to bridge the gap between entertainment and advocacy.
"I worked a little bit with the Biden administration on their big climate initiative. I worked with the U.N..." (04:18).
Responding to fans' desires to engage more deeply with causes they care about, Adam was inspired to write AMPLIFY to adapt successful strategies from the music industry to various social movements.
"...those strategies from the music industry and entertainment industry more broadly can be applied really effectively to any movement you care about..." (05:35).
Adam introduces the concept of "evangelizers" as pivotal to modern movements:
Beyond the Traditional Ladder: Traditionally, movements relied on a hierarchical engagement ladder, which Adam likens to an outdated model. Instead, he proposes a more dynamic, hurricane-like approach where individuals are empowered to spread the movement organically.
"It's more about different ways that you're treating different segments of the fan base in order to have them go and be the people who can help grow it for you." (09:31).
Empowering Fans: Drawing parallels with AJR's strategies, Adam explains how providing fans with exclusive access and interactive experiences can transform them into active advocates.
"They take ownership over it. They created the track list, they worked together, they made it, they posted it before we even did. And that kind of ownership they felt over the product allowed 10 times more eyeballs to see the content..." (11:32).
Adam delves into gamification as a tool for increasing engagement:
Collaborative Gaming: Unlike competitive or open-world strategies employed by artists like Taylor Swift and Twenty One Pilots, Adam's approach with AJR involves collaborative efforts across various social media platforms to engage fans in meaningful ways.
"We put each piece in a different area of social media. One on Twitter, one on Facebook, one on Instagram... they worked together to create something." (11:34).
Interactive Live Spaces: Transforming live events from traditional protests or galas into enjoyable, action-oriented experiences aligns with Adam's vision of fun advocacy.
"What if the live space was actually fun? What if it really was a dance party?" (12:36).
Adam offers actionable strategies for individuals passionate about causes:
Leverage Existing Organizations: He advises aligning with established groups to avoid duplicating efforts and to amplify impact.
"If you care about something, go see if there's an organization that you can volunteer with, participate with in your area..." (14:22).
Integrate Diverse Skills: Recognizing that every profession can contribute to movements like climate change, Adam encourages individuals to find intersections between their careers and advocacy work.
"Every role, everything that people do... can be applied to the climate space." (16:00).
Highlighting the significant impact of local governance, Adam underscores the importance of voting:
Local Impact Over Federal: Local elections often have a more immediate and tangible effect on climate policy.
"Your vote at the local level is thousands of times more powerful than your vote at the federal level." (20:32).
Call to Action: He urges listeners to participate in upcoming local elections, emphasizing that individual votes can be decisive.
"Your vote could literally be the deciding vote in that election." (20:32).
Adam shares his experiences and challenges within academic institutions:
Curriculum vs. Implementation: He critiques the focus on theoretical knowledge over practical application in climate education.
"We know what the what's are, but the hows are the things that we need to be focusing on." (27:19).
Diverse Perspectives: Highlighting the value of diversity among students, Adam illustrates how different backgrounds contribute to innovative campaigning strategies.
"The most impactful things are when students disagree with each other. Because they're coming from such different backgrounds." (28:37).
Adam emphasizes the importance of collaboration in writing:
Partnering with Heather Landy: Co-authoring with a journalist like Heather Landy brought a critical perspective that enriched the book.
"Collaboration is key. I love working with people that will push back against me, that will make me think harder." (30:19).
Feedback and Refinement: Engaging with others helped refine ideas, ensuring they resonated effectively with the intended audience.
"They're not going to resonate unless you test them out with other people and let other people who you trust be the shapers of your ideas." (30:19).
Adam describes a novel approach to promoting his book AMPLIFY by integrating entertainment with advocacy:
Interactive Shows: Instead of traditional book tours, he plans events that combine musical performances with interactive, gamified activities encouraging audience participation in advocacy actions.
"We're going to all of these different cities and basically putting on a show... playing games and had all of these different things in order to promote your book." (23:24).
Advocacy Moments: Each show includes moments where the audience engages in local advocacy, such as contacting representatives, thereby merging entertainment with meaningful action.
"There are advocacy moments in the show where all together, everybody in the audience is taking a local advocacy action..." (23:24).
Adam shares his preferences in literature, balancing fiction and nonfiction to stay informed:
Nonfiction for Knowledge: He listens to nonfiction to stay updated on current affairs, though he also enjoys fiction during leisure.
"I listen to a lot of nonfiction... but I tend to read more fiction." (25:22).
Favorite Fiction: One standout fiction book he enjoyed is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which explores the video game industry through a narrative lens.
"It's a story about three students and building video games... it's really excellent." (25:22).
Balancing multiple roles, Adam outlines his typical day:
Nonprofit Leadership: Leading Planet Reimagined consumes a significant portion of his time, especially with its recent expansion.
"About a year ago we were five people... now we're more than 30 people working in it." (26:38).
Teaching and Touring: He also dedicates time to teaching at Columbia University and preparing for his book and summer tours.
"I also teach climate policy and campaigning at Columbia University... once the book tour and summer tour is over." (26:38).
Adam offers practical tips for new writers:
Embrace Collaboration: Partnering with others can enhance the depth and resonance of your work.
"Collaboration is key. I love working with people that will push back against me..." (30:19).
Be Open to Feedback: Allowing trusted individuals to shape your ideas ensures your message effectively reaches and impacts your audience.
"Let other people who you trust be the shapers of your ideas." (30:19).
Recognizing the challenges, Adam advises prioritizing family over work when working with loved ones:
“Family needs to come first and the work needs to come second no matter what.” (31:57).
Adam Met's conversation with Zibby Owens sheds light on innovative strategies to engage communities and amplify social movements by drawing parallels from the entertainment industry. Through his book AMPLIFY and ongoing advocacy efforts, Adam provides a blueprint for leveraging connection and creativity to drive meaningful change. Listeners are encouraged to take actionable steps in their local communities, collaborate across diverse fields, and embrace new models of engagement to build a better world.
Notable Quotes:
"Your vote at the local level is thousands of times more powerful than your vote at the federal level." — Adam Met (20:32)
"Collaboration is key. I love working with people that will push back against me, that will make me think harder." — Adam Met (30:19)
"We could solve climate change today if we wanted to. We know what the what's are, but the hows are the things that we need to be focusing on." — Adam Met (27:19)
Stay connected with Zibby Owens and explore more award-winning episodes on zibbymedia.com. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens.