BONUS: Art is Change Ep 160: METRA - A Climate Revolution With Songs

Hey, Metra listeners! We're so pleased to bring you this conversation that Metra co-creators Ned and Emily recently had with Bill Cleveland on the Art is Change podcast. We talk about the 7-year journey to create the show, our approach to tackling climate catastrophe as a subject matter, the power of music, and much more. Bill is a stellar interviewer, and he also weaves the show through with other delightful pieces of art and inspiration. We hope you'll enjoy!What if a Musical Could Help us Tell the Truth About Climate Change?In this episode, Bill Cleveland sits down with theater director Emily Hartford and composer–storyteller Ned Hardford to explore Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs—a nine-episode musical audio drama that reimagines an ancient Greek myth as a near-future climate story.What starts as a conversation about craft opens into deeper territory: imagination as resistance, music as pedagogy, and why genuinely new stories don’t come from algorithms—they come from people doing long, human work together.In it, we explore three big questions at the heart of Metra and the moment we’re living in now:How music, story, and the human voice reach places that facts, lectures, and policy arguments can’tWhat it looks like to tell a climate story without fear-mongering or “disaster porn,”How artists can build work that others can actually use,—turning art-making into cultural infrastructure rather than a one-off production.Listen in to discover how art, music, and story can help us practice a different future—and why Metra just might be the kind of narrative infrastructure we need right now.Art is Change website