Why joy is a serious way to take action | Pattie Gonia

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While doom and gloom may wake people up, joy keeps them in the fight, says drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia. With humor, creativity and a dress made of thrifted shower curtains and upcycled pink flamingo pool floaties, Pattie shows why embracing fun might be the key to building a stronger, more inclusive climate movement.

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0:27.9	slash UK slash AI for people.
0:44.7	You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.
0:54.3	I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Paddygonia is a climate diva, a drag queen who tries to bring as many people as possible into the environmental movement.
0:59.2	In her 2024 talk, she shows us how the creativity and joy of drag can and should combine to chart a sustainable future collaboratively.
1:07.7	Hi, everybody. My name is Patty Gonia, and I am a drag queen, but I am not the only person here in drag today.
1:20.6	You are in drag, too. Yes, you are in TED drag. Yeah, I see you with your spunky business casual, with your glasses and tote bags that say, I absolutely donate to public radio. Uh-huh. Oh my gosh, I even see that some of you are wearing my merch. Yes, Patagonia vests are indeed very TED drag. You can't ask a drag queen to give a TED talk
1:49.8	and not roast y'all a little. But enough about you. How about me and my drag? Can we get a little
1:55.7	commotion for the dress? Thank you. Thank you. It is made of upcycled and thrifted shower curtains and pink
2:05.8	flamingo pool floaties because life in plastic, it's not fantastic. And climate change is a drag.
2:16.5	You see what I did there? But drag is about far more than what we wear to fit in
2:23.5	or stand out. Drag holds something more universal and more powerful for all of us. Because drag is an
2:31.8	invitation to build new futures through creativity and diversity and joy.
2:40.4	And the combination of these things, drag and climate, they seem ridiculous, right?
2:47.3	Well, I thought so too, but then six years ago on a backpacking trip in the middle of my quarter-life crisis, lost in the forest, I put on a pair of six-inch high-heel boots and strutted the trails for the first time as patty gonia.
3:10.3	Thank you so much.
3:12.2	My ankles hurt.
3:15.9	But if you would have told me then that six years later,
	...

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