Lauren Bash is an environmentalist and storyteller who breaks down the complexities of climate change in an inspiring, accessible way. She empowers people with simple, actionable steps to create a healthier environment—and ultimately, a healthier world.
Lauren Bash is an environmentalist and storyteller who breaks down the complexities of climate change in an inspiring, accessible way. She empowers people with simple, actionable steps to create a healthier environment—and ultimately, a healthier world.
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Lauren Bash:
I think if you care about the outdoor spaces that you recreate in, if you surf or you ski, or you hike or you camp, whatever, you are bearing witness every time you are out there to the impacts of climate change on these natural places that you love.
Shelby Stanger:
Lauren Bash is an environmentalist and storyteller who loves teaching people about sustainability. Early on in the pandemic, she posted a simple clip online about cooking with ingredients from her mom's garden and it took off. These days, most of our videos are about environmentally friendly food, DIY projects and climate legislation. Lauren is a full-time content creator and has more than 240,000 followers on TikTok and over 160,000 followers on Instagram. Her goal is to empower people to understand climate change and give them actionable steps to create a healthier environment. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production brought to you by Capital One.
Growing up, Lauren Bash was deeply interested in conservation and sustainability. She inherited this trait from her mom, who taught Lauren and her sister how to compost, garden and use homemade cleaning products. As an adult, Lauren found a community of like-minded environmentalists in Los Angeles. With their encouragement, she made it her mission to teach other people how to become more eco-conscious.
Lauren Bash, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. I want to start with growing up in LA and how you got into the outdoors. Were you always outdoorsy?
Lauren Bash:
Okay. You know what? I feel like I still have imposter syndrome around being an outdoorsy person because I was a theater kid and I went to film school. And I feel like unfortunately there's this binary thinking when you think you can either be an artist or an athlete. And perhaps if you're an athlete you're more outdoorsy. And if you're an artist, it's like, oh no, I don't like the outdoors because I want to just be inside and make my art.
But yeah, I grew up here in the South Bay in LA and I was telling someone the other day that, this is pre-internet and pre-cell phones, my mom would drop us off at the ramp at RAT Beach in between Redondo and Torrance at 8:00 AM before she went to work in the mornings in the summer and say, girls be here at 5:00 PM. I don't care what you do between now and 5:00, but you are be here at 5:00 PM. No cell phone. And it was so trusting, but it's also just, yeah, that's how we would spend every day over the summer, just at the beach all day. So the ocean was definitely my first love with the natural world just because I grew up so close to it.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, tell me a little bit more about this theater side of you, I'm actually really interested in that. Some of the best guests have come from the background of theater, they can really tell a story. It's super important to be an activist, knowing how to tell a story.
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, I mean a great skill to have no matter what you're doing, being able to tell a story. Is there a cliffhanger? Are you building this up where there's some big climax and everyone's like, no way!? My mom's also Argentinian and I feel like we love the drama. It's all about storytelling at the dinner table and everything being very animated. But yeah, I went to my first theater camp when I was seven years old. My mom just signed us up for it and was like, I think you'll enjoy this. And I fell in love.
Shelby Stanger:
Did you study environmental science or how did you get interested in climate change, activism, being eco-conscious?
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, so I went to film school for undergrad. It was kind of an umbrella where you could do broadcast journalism, documentary or TV. I was in broadcast journalism. And what I loved about it is you just learned the basics of everything. You weren't getting really deep into anything. And I think because as a theater kid, I loved the reporting element of it as well, being on camera, telling stories on camera. Which makes sense now what I do now, it's essentially what I do, not as journalistic, but still telling stories from my point of view on camera.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, but use the truth to tell the stories, which is journalistic.
Lauren Bash:
True, true. That's true. And there's so much research. Especially with something like climate, there's so much research required, which does remind me of the days of broadcast journalism or journalism classes for sure. And then to be honest, the first seven years out of college, I went and worked for a big company and was producing short form and social content. So I didn't study environmental science. I understood the impacts of climate change as much as anyone in LA does. But after the presidential election of 2016, there was just so much uproar about all of the threats we were going to face as far as the climate crisis goes. And so the one in particular that made my ears go up was offshore oil drilling. And being someone who has so much love and affinity and respect for the ocean, I said, wait, they're going to put oil rigs along the coast of LA? And we have drilling in Ventura County, north of us and in Orange County, you're literally surfing in front of the oil rigs. And so that was my entry into the climate space.
I literally Googled, Shelby, I Googled, how do you stop offshore oil drilling in Los Angeles? And from there I found the Surfrider Foundation because they had an entire campaign advocating against offshore oil drilling. And this story actually means a lot to me because this is back in the Facebook days of that's how community organizing was happening through Facebook. And I went and liked a chapter meeting. Like, yes, I'm interested in going to this chapter meeting. And a coworker of mine saw that I had liked it, and she sent me a Slack message and said, hey, I saw that you liked the meeting for Surfrider. I've been very active in this organization for a long time. Do you want to go to the meeting together? We can ride our bikes together after work.
And I feel like it's such a crucial part when we talk about climate community and the importance of championing new people and inviting them so they feel safe and included and welcomed because it can be really intimidating joining a group for the first time. And I think of all the people who want to do something but don't know where to start and feel really intimidated by entering a group who's been friends or community members for a long time. And so I always think of her and the way she approach me with such kindness and generosity to invite me into this group. She sat next to me at the first meeting. She introduced me to everyone. And from there I just felt like immediately welcomed and that just catapulted me into the climate space.
Shelby Stanger:
The Surfrider Foundation is a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to the protection of ocean waves and beaches, they host events, provide environmental education and lobby local and federal politicians. Through Surfrider, Lauren more about climate justice and became friends with a new group of people who were also passionate about the environment. They told Lauren about a sustainability certificate she could get through UCLA. She quickly signed up and completed the course in early 2020. Lauren had no idea that this course would be such an important foundation for the next step in her career.
How did you figure out, just start talking about it on social media, was there this aha moment where you're like, wow, people are listening to what I'm learning and I'm sharing it?
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, so I got my butt kicked in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. I had just quit my full-time job, thought I was going to go freelance and just go produce short form social commercial content. 2020, I am unemployed, I'm living with my mom. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do. Nobody is hiring. What am I going to do? And this is at the rise of TikTok and just the transition to short form video. And I'm like, well, I could do that. That's what I've done. I went to film school and I've been producing videos for the past seven years. I could do this.
And so I was living with my mom and she has this eco sanctuary of a home in Los Angeles, a huge urban farm. She has a gray water system, so the runoff from the house goes and waters the plants, a rainwater collection system. She's just amazing. You just feel the connection to the natural world when you're in her home. And I was like, well, I'm home. Everybody's stuck at home. I could just create videos of what my mom does that's sustainable and maybe it will inspire people. And so I started showing how I would go and pick my salad for lunch every day, and people were really resonating with that. And I was like, well, I guess I could show you how I make my toothpaste from baking soda and coconut oil. And I guess I could show you the low waste things we do the house to be mindful of our plastic pollution consumption. And just started doing that. And I think just the nature of people being home, stuck at home were like, wow, this is really cool. Show us more.
I was like, okay, well I could show you how I thrifted this top and I mended it to fit me better. And it really resonated with people. It was also an election year in 2020, and so obviously I was very passionate about voting for a candidate who wasn't going to permit more oil drilling around the country. And so I was very vocal about that as well and how important voting for the climate is. And then this is when I just plugged into the climate creator, climate communicator world and saw that so many people had been doing this for a long time and I was just new to the community.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you know that this could be also your career?
Lauren Bash:
I didn't. It was a accident-
Shelby Stanger:
When did you know it could be? When did you know don't have to go back and get a job?
Lauren Bash:
So I had a job through 2022. I was still freelancing and working for a few brands and I was making videos for anyone, anyone who needed an editor I would take a gig. And then in 2022 I was like, I don't want to make videos for organizations that I don't believe in. I was like, I'm going to take a bet on myself and truly empower people to take climate action and I think I can do this full time. So yeah, it's been two and a half years.
Shelby Stanger:
I think taking a bet on yourself is really big risk. How did you get over fear of failure, imposter syndrome, all of that?
Lauren Bash:
I don't know if we ever fully get over imposter syndrome. But the two things that keep me going, and I actually tell other people this who are getting into content creation or storytelling, is what do you need the world to know? Because that's what gets me out of bed. What do you need the world to know? Because I think that will be the only thing that sustains me is until we start to see global temperatures going down significantly, there is always something to talk about in regards to climate and protecting people and planet.
Shelby Stanger:
Lauren works full time as a content creator. Her videos get thousands, sometimes even millions of views. Her topics range from gardening tips to interviews with scientists to recipes and everything in between. She even records skits where she plays two different people having a conversation about sustainability, like a woman convincing her friend to drink from a reusable water bottle or a daughter talking to her mom who thinks that climate change is a hoax. Lauren loves the fun community feel of these platforms. She teaches people about ways they can live more sustainably and she learns a lot from the people that follow her too.
Do you have a story about one of the early posts you made that resonated with someone and maybe they contacted you about it?
Lauren Bash:
Okay, this is meaningful. It's climate adjacent, but it's really, really meaningful. So there's a celebration every year called Veganuary, and it started in the UK and it's an invitation for folks to eat a plant-based diet for a month and just see the impact, see the impacts on your body, on the planet, on animals. There's all sorts of reasons why people choose to eat plants. And my dad had had a lifetime, I mean as long as I can remember, just of poor health and a lot of them were diet-related diseases. So hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, which everything you read will just say eat less meat and you'll watch these things go down.
And so for the month of January in 2022, we did it. We did Veganuary together and I'm plant-based, I've been plant-based for over 10 years. And so we would meal prep together and we would take his blood pressure every day and he was still taking all of his meds, but I was like, let's just see if it actually works. And he did it, in 30 days he lowered his blood pressure by 50 points and his doctor was on track to cut his cholesterol medicine in half. It was so inspiring. I was like, you did it dad. We hear about these statistics, but you were living proof of this. And the amount of comments I would get from either young people who said, I want to do this with my parents because they're also experiencing these health-related issues or boomers themselves saying, wow, your dad is so inspiring and I also want to do this. He's giving me hope and he's reminding me that it's not too late.
And obviously food has a lot to do with climate, but I think this was one that was so wholesome and so beautiful because it was just my dad's story. And everybody eats and everybody cooks and it was something that was very relatable. And so that one obviously means the most to me.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that the change Lauren created was right in front of her. It's a perfect example of how we can shift our daily habits in a small way to make a big impact. Some of Lauren's most watch videos are about composting tricks, taking care of our stuff to make it last. And how something small like ordering a veggie burger for lunch can create meaningful change. She also has a popular video about how to turn hope into action, something that's really important to her. Lauren tries to provide an actionable takeaway in every video, whether it's how to sharpen your own knives or adding your name to a petition for reducing microplastics. When we come back, Lauren shares her green tips for getting outside, plus she talks about why she leads with joy instead of getting swallowed by the doom and gloom of climate change.
Climate storyteller Lauren Bash has hundreds of videos on TikTok and Instagram sharing how she lives a sustainable life and how all of us can too. Changing our unsustainable habits and understanding climate issues can be daunting. Lauren's goal is to share proactive solutions to climate issues and help make green habits feel more accessible. In her videos she breaks down complicated policies, gives out gardening and cooking hacks, and even offers tips and tricks to effectively and sustainably clean your outdoor gear.
I saw a video you did with REI about cleaning camping gear, which really excited me because I just went camping and we got home and I'm like, oh my gosh, how do we clean my sleeping bag? It's down. And I had to YouTube all this stuff. How do I clean our friend's tent that we borrowed? How do we clean our sleep pads? Tell me how you clean your camping gear.
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, so we're very fortunate. A lot of the camping gear we have is actually from my in-laws from the '80s, which is wild. It just shows you how things were made differently back then.
Shelby Stanger:
I have a camping stove from the '70s, so I get it. Coleman.
Lauren Bash:
No. That thing, there's two parts, right? There's the base and the pipe. That's it. And if one I guess shook out of place, you could probably really easily repair it. But those things are built to last literally forever. So because it's old and we didn't take care of it, our camping stove gave it a good scrub, which is also extremely satisfying.
Shelby Stanger:
Tell me how you cleaned your camping stove because this is also something that I didn't really realize until later in life that you don't need to buy oven cleaner, which is really toxic. You could just use baking soda and vinegar.
Lauren Bash:
Which however, this is what I love about being a creator on the internet, my comment section keeps me in check so much. So I thought baking soda and vinegar because of the bubbles is like surely something is happening that's like, that's the cleaning power. But apparently they cancel each other out, which I just learned that. So you would just use one at a time. So you would use baking soda first and scrub it and then you could wipe it off and then use vinegar and wipe it off. So the two cancel each other out. I haven't had that experience.
Shelby Stanger:
But it works.
Lauren Bash:
It works.
Shelby Stanger:
I don't know, it worked for me.
Lauren Bash:
Worked for me too. So yeah, I put baking soda on it and gave it a good scrub. And then I actually make my own lemon vinegar, which is another like DIY sustainable hack. But when you have citrus peels, there's so much good citric acid in the peels, that's a really powerful potent cleaning agent. And so you can soak citrus peels in a jar of vinegar for a couple weeks, strain it out, and then you have homemade citric vinegar cleaner, which is great. I'm learning, again, the comment section. It's not good for stone countertops, but everything else is great. So like glass, wood, your metal stove, things like that.
Shelby Stanger:
It probably smells really good too.
Lauren Bash:
Oh yeah, smells delicious.
Shelby Stanger:
What about food tips? Do you have any environmentally friendly food tips that you can share, especially when we're hiking and camping?
Lauren Bash:
I mean, I'm plant-based. So I will always advocate for a plant-forward or a plant-rich diet. A lot of plants don't have to be refrigerated, so therefore makes it a much easier camping food. I'm also a big fan of composting when you're camping, so I always bring a resealable baggie, and then that's our compost baggie. So if you do coffee grounds when you're camping, throw it in there. Any peels from citrus, you throw it in there. We always do fajita night when we do camping at a proper campground. So onion butts or pepper tops or any of that can all go in there.
Shelby Stanger:
Well, how can we be more sustainable when we purchase outdoor equipment and apparel? Because that whole industry, it's not perfect either.
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, I think it goes back to what we were talking about, taking care of what we have and slowing down and using less. The same principles we have with fashion on what we choose on a day-to-day basis, of borrowing, of renting, of mending, of swapping, all of these things apply to outdoor recreational clothing or equipment as well. The beautiful thing about camping equipment, outdoor equipment, is that it is made to last. A lot of these things are made to be extremely durable, especially the higher quality things. So take advantage of the repair programs that an outlet like REI has, or even the manufacturer itself, you could send it back in to get it repaired and truly make this last for as long as possible. And then a lot of this stuff, if you're just going to use it once, borrow it from a friend or rent it.
Another story just about sharing in general and just giving more flowers to my mom. So she just started a tool library in the city of Compton and it's that for tools. And so they have everything from wheelbarrows and ladders and shovels to power tools like drills and saws and everything. They have every tool you could think of. But these tools are really expensive. And so she created this so the community and surrounding communities could have access to these tools when they need them and help them start a business or help them renovate their homes or whatever. And now I'm like, mom, we should have hubs in every city of just the Share Shack. And it could be like, yeah, a cooler, A cooler just lives in the Share Shack and when you need it, you check it out and when you don't, you put it back.
Shelby Stanger:
I love these ideas of community libraries and if you make that your next business, I would be really excited and you come back on and talk about this. But I do think that there's something really powerful in community share libraries. It's really cool.
Lauren Bash:
Yeah, fewer resources shared with more people.
Shelby Stanger:
Lauren, I'm so sorry. I have a little kid at the door.
Lauren Bash:
You're good. You're good.
Shelby Stanger:
I got to go handle them. I'm so sorry. Hold on.
Lauren Bash:
You're good. You're good.
Shelby Stanger:
Hey guys, I'm just in the middle of a podcast.
Speaker 3:
Oh my God.
Shelby Stanger:
That's okay. Do you need something?
Speaker 3:
[inaudible 00:20:46]
Shelby Stanger:
Just leave it. I got to keep going. Okay. Love you.
Well, what do you know? That was my-
Lauren Bash:
That was so wholesome. That was so wholesome.
Shelby Stanger:
No, it was okay. Wholesome. Normally the little kids come over, but actually that was a little kid bringing over some pillows and camping gear that we lent them for their camping trip.
Lauren Bash:
Stop, full circle moment.
Shelby Stanger:
There you go. Outdoor gear library is coming through.
In addition to making educational videos, Lauren is also very politically active. She's now the chair of her local Surfrider chapter and regularly works with other members to lobby for policies that protect the environment. Of course, there's no guarantee that she'll see this effort come to fruition. Fighting for climate change can be brutal, but Lauren has learned a lot from her community about how to deal with both the wins and the losses.
Lauren Bash:
I was at another lobbying day in DC last year, and there was an elder from the community. It was the same week that the Willow Project had got approved, which is an awful drilling project in the Arctic. And it was such a weird experience because we were celebrating the success of this amazing week of lobbying and then getting the news that in the same offices or I guess lateral offices, a huge project like this could get approved. And I asked the elder, I was like, how do you stay optimistic? And he was like, oh, young one, welcome to the movement. And you could tell he's like, I've been knocked down too many times to count. But if I'm going to let that be an indicator of my persistence in this fight, then I've given up too soon. We are going to face so much defeat, but we are going to face so many wins. And this is just part of it. This is the resilience required to actually see change.
It's the same as I'm learning the similarities of running and climate activism right now. If you have one bad run or one bad race, are you going to stop running? Absolutely not. Get back, you train harder, you get a new coach, you get on a nutrition plan, you join a run community, you sign up for your next race. It's the same thing with climate activism. You can't be defeated by one mishap. You stay resilient.
Shelby Stanger:
How does outdoor adventure and climate change activism go hand in hand?
Lauren Bash:
I think it's pretty obvious. I think if you care about the outdoor spaces that you recreate in, if you surf or you ski or you hike or you camp, whatever, you are bearing witness every time you are out there to the impacts of climate change on these natural places that you love. So if anything, outdoor enthusiasts should be at the front lines of the climate movement because these places that you love and respect and recreate on being hit really hard.
There's no snow. How many ski resorts in Europe closed because there was no snow? So skiers better be at the front of the climate movement saying, hey, we enjoy these beautiful places. We know that there are solutions to cool the planet down, which would bring back normal weather patterns to bring back snow. So I think it's the easiest invitation to get outdoor recreational folks to care about the climate crisis because the places that we love and cherish are being under attack.
Shelby Stanger:
You're trying to motivate people with joy and fun, and you're inviting them to come along with you as you learn and make mistakes, which I think is really beautiful. Talk to me about the intention behind that.
Lauren Bash:
I learned at the beginning of last year who I was talking to. I think the beautiful opportunity about anyone speaking to an audience is you get to understand there's a dialogue here, it's not just you talking at them. But because of social media, they get to engage back. So I really listen, like who's listening to me here? Who am I talking to? And I learned that it's predominantly Gen Z and millennial women identifying folks and a lot of them are perhaps just getting started on this climate journey. And I think that's too because I'm not a climate expert who's talking about really specific science terminology or even really robust or even intricate climate solutions. I'm just like, hey, this is in your every day. This is how we can take climate action every day.
And so I wanted everything to be really relatable because maybe I had this moment of I'm creating the content that I wish I had when I was just getting started in 2017. I think the wake-up call I had was like, the system is broken, it is impossible to live without plastic. And if you can do that, that's great, but then you also have to talk about privilege and access because not everyone has that same privilege and access. And so I was like, okay, well then how can I make it the most... I want my message to be so relatable to everyone to do your best with what you have, where you are. Where no one feels an ounce of shame or judgment, but that we're doing our best and we're advocating for the rest. We're advocating for systems to change so that plastic won't exist on the shelf anymore. There won't be gas stations because we've collectively said we don't want any more pollution. And I'm going to do my best and I'm going to advocate for systems change.
Shelby Stanger:
Would you say your mission then is to make climate activism joyful?
Lauren Bash:
My overall mission is in my lifetime I would love to see the planet cool down. And I wrote that down one time and I was like, that's it. That's ultimately what I want to see. This insane heat wave we're in right now I hope this wakes people up to say, this will be the new norm. It will only get hotter unless we get our crap together and demand that things are different. And not just demand, that we make sure that things are different.
So I'm 32. We'll see if I live to be 100. Let's see what will happen in 70 years. The statistic that brought me so much optimism was if we stop this, if we stop carbon emissions, if we stop greenhouse gas emissions, we could see regeneration, we can see things cool down and things come back to life in four years, that's all it'll take. So that gives me so much hope of if we stop putting all of this junk in the air that is causing the warming you're telling me in four years, in the time I got my college degree, things will cool down and things will start to re-wild and grow back. Yes, that is where probably that optimism and joy comes from is because I believe in it.
Shelby Stanger:
I love Lauren's optimism. We don't need to be perfect in order to make the earth healthier. Lauren is focused on the small, achievable things we can do to help us preserve our beautiful planet. If you want to check out some of Lauren's videos, you can check her out on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at ReLauren, that's R-E-L-A-U-R-E-N. You can also find some of her videos on REI's Instagram page, which you can find at REI. If you like this episode, you'll also enjoy our interview with glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and our interview with alpinist and climate activist, Graham Zimmerman. We'll link those episodes in our show notes.
Also, just a side note, an important one, in the spirit of Climate Week, I wanted to let you know that our producers over at Puddle Creative have a new original podcast. It's called We Are Not Doomed. It focuses on how to be optimistic in the face of climate change. We'll link to that in the show notes as well.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producers are Jenny Barber and Hannah Boyd. Our executive producers are Palo Motila and Joe Crosby.
As always, we love it when you fall the show, take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.