Using Your Platform For Good with Ed Helms

Before he starred in hits like The Hangover trilogy and The Office, Ed Helms was an “Obie”—a kid from Georgia with talent for jazz guitar who found his way to Oberlin College. Since graduating in 1996, Ed has used his success and platform to open doors of opportunity for others and support causes he believes in.

Ed, now on the Board of Trustees of Oberlin College, joins Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar to talk about his time at the college, his work diversifying the writer’s room for his show Rutherford Falls, his new podcast SNAFU and how to use your platform to change the world (or even just a little slice of it).

Running to the Noise is a production of Oberlin College and is produced by University FM.

Our show music is composed and arranged by Bobby Ferrazza, Oberlin Conservatory professor of jazz guitar. Ferrazza is also director of the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble, the student group that performed the music. 

Episode Quotes:

On the diversity of Rutherford Falls’ writer’s room

14:38 - “Oberlin really helped me try to think and appreciate broader perspectives. And so, I felt like I had a solid understanding of that in this process on Rutherford Falls in getting deeper in a really casual and fun and oftentimes very funny setting, which was our writer's room, hearing and just being with the experiences of a lot of these writers from very different backgrounds and a lot of Native American writers … And so hearing them reflect to each other, reflect off of us, me, other writers from other backgrounds. It just deepened my appreciation and commitment to having different voices involved.”

How Ed’s exploring history with his podcast SNAFU 

26:51 - “There's so much history that is powerful and meaningful that has been lost or pushed aside, or just kind of maybe muddied because of whoever was the dominant storyteller at the time. And, you know, they say history's written by the winners. That's reductive, but true. And so it’s interesting to look, well, maybe the losers have some really powerful, meaningful stories.”

On finding mentors 

31:20 - “Just look for lots of people who are doing cool things around you, things that you admire, and then just study them a little bit. You don't have to know them. If you do, great, then you can ask them directly.”

Show Links:

• Represent Us
• Ed Helms: Gerrymandering is like…really bad
• SNAFU Podcast