Spotlight on Megha Agrawal Sood, Co-Director and Head of Climate at Doc Society
At Doc Society, Megha Agrawal Sood is helping reshape the climate narrative through storytelling that amplifies diverse voices and spurs action across the globe.
I’m excited to share another Climate Spotlight with Megha Agrawal Sood, the Co-Director of Doc Society.
I love Megha’s story for a few reasons:
Storytelling is key to climate action. Stories are what spur people to act. They help start movements. They change people’s minds. They can be the difference between deploying the technologies we have and letting them sit idly by.
Doc Society centers its stories on the people who are already being impacted by climate change in their day-to-day lives
While Megha lives in Boulder, Colorado, the reach of her impact is global, working with communities across the globe.
This interview was conducted on December 12th, 2024, and was edited for length and clarity.
Q: Briefly tell us about the Doc Society.
A: Doc Society is a nonprofit supporting independent storytellers worldwide who create stories free from government, corporate, or algorithmic influence. We provide direct funding along with editorial and impact support. Our field-building work focuses on ensuring citizens' access to public interest media and strengthening global media ecosystems. I'm one of five women co-directors who collectively lead the organization through a shared leadership model.
Q: You are the Head of the Climate Story Unit within Doc Society. What led you to start a Story Unit?
A: The Climate Story Unit emerged from our recognition that while we have the technology and business plans to address the climate crisis, we lack the human willpower to make it happen. That's where culture plays a crucial role – its power to change mental models and illuminate possibilities for a more just future.
About five years ago, we noticed mainstream climate stories followed predictable tropes: doom and gloom narratives, overly technical language, and perspectives dominated by white men from the Global North. To bring new people into the climate action conversation, we needed different narratives.
The Climate Story Unit operates across four main areas:
First, our Climate Story Labs focus on ecosystem building through regional gatherings. These labs bring together storytellers, journalists, leaders, comedians, advocates, and researchers to discuss important regional climate narratives. We've hosted 20 self-organized labs worldwide, from Amazonia to Lebanon, the Nordic region, and Southeast Asia.
Second, the Climate Story Fund provides up to $150,000 in grants to support both production and impact strategies for climate-themed stories. As the largest dedicated climate storytelling fund globally, we've distributed over $4 million in grants.
Third, we have "the Kitchen," our R&D space that adapts to current geopolitical and media industry needs. Recently, we've focused on distribution, particularly working with public broadcasters like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Nation Media Group in East and Central Africa.
Finally, we work on ecosystem-informed initiatives, which include encouraging storytellers to create innovative climate content and working with climate philanthropy to support cultural strategy. While climate philanthropy has grown, only a small portion focuses on culture and communications – an aspect we're working to change.
The Climate Story Unit is unique in that we support all mediums – from documentaries to podcasts, musical theater, and stand-up comedy – both fiction and non-fiction. This broad approach helps us reach diverse communities and new audiences.
Q: Can you share an example of climate storytelling you’ve funded and what impact that story went on to have?
A: Let me share two powerful examples. While I was working at Exposure Labs (Chasing Ice, Chasing Coral, The Social Dilemma) in Boulder, we partnered with an incredible advocacy organization, Conservation Voters of South Carolina, to organize strategic community screenings across the state, bringing together diverse audiences and elected officials from both parties. This effort contributed to unanimous legislative support for a landmark solar bill in 2017, even after the U.S. had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement.
Another example is "The Territory," the Emmy award-winning documentary that premiered at Sundance and was picked up by National Geographic and Disney+. The film follows the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community's fight against deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. During the film's European festival tour, advocacy organizations arranged a screening for 150 EU MPs days before a crucial deforestation bill vote. Many MPs cited the film as influential in their decision to support the legislation.
Q: How do you choose what stories and themes within climate change to invest in and work with? How has this changed over time (if at all)?
A: We intentionally keep the climate theme broad and intersectional. When we first launched the Climate Story Unit, we were amazed by the creative approaches people took - from climate-themed games to symphonies and musical theater. We prioritized moving away from extractive storytelling practices by centering frontline communities both in front of, and behind, the camera.
The field has evolved significantly over the past five years. Our latest global call received 650 applications from 100 countries in four languages, demonstrating the growing interest in climate storytelling. Currently, we're focusing on narratives that showcase visions of climate-just futures and highlight community-led solutions and leadership models.
Q: Could you share more about your background and how you came to do this work?
A: I fell into documentary filmmaking by accident. My background is in design and innovation - I worked at the design firm IDEO in San Francisco. Growing up with immigrant parents in Houston, Texas, I had limited exposure to the outdoors. That changed in the Bay Area, where friends introduced me to outdoor adventures, though I often felt excluded from the environmental movement.
After IDEO, I wanted to focus on creating a sense of belonging in environmental and climate initiatives. I knew Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Larissa Rhodes of Exposure Labs from our time at the Unreasonable Institute, and they had just premiered "Chasing Coral" at Sundance. They were expanding their team to focus on impact work - using storytelling to engage new audiences in climate conversations. It felt like the perfect bridge between my interests, allowing me to learn about the industry while applying my background in design. That was my entry point eight years ago.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges in your climate action efforts, and how can the community help?
A: The real magic happens when great storytelling partners with movement building, with each field leveraging its unique strengths. I've observed a consistent challenge: storytellers who excel at their craft and are passionate about climate issues often don't know how to connect with movements or maximize their story's impact. Conversely, advocacy organizations with decades of experience and strong networks sometimes struggle to integrate effective storytelling strategies, often spending significant resources without achieving their desired impact.
We need to bridge this gap. I'd love to connect with advocacy organizations interested in partnering with storytellers to create powerful organizing tools. There are endless possibilities for collaboration in this space.
Q: What is something climate or sustainability-related that you do outside of your work that you're passionate about?
A: Building on my personal journey with outdoor spaces, I'm passionate about creating inclusive outdoor experiences that celebrate different cultures. This is a priority both in how we introduce our kids to nature and in the community events we organize. I'm actively looking for more opportunities in Boulder and surrounding areas to connect young children with the outdoors.
Q: Where can people find some of the related work Doc Society has collaborated on?
A sampling of some of our projects include:
The Territory on Disney +
Greener Pastures on PBS
Drilled & Damages on Spotify
El Tema on YouTube
Collective Insipiration
Follow Megha on LinkedIn. You can learn more about her work at climatestoryunit.org. Megha also is on the board of Mountainfilm Festival, a documentary film festival in Telluride, Colorado, that inspires audiences to create a better world. Join them May 22 – 26, 2025, to watch climate and other impact films from around the globe - I highly recommend this film festival!