Napheesa Collier and Kamala Harris at “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation”
Credit: Lindsay Rosenberg
“Reasonable people adapt to the world, the unreasonable ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable people.”
This is a quote from George Bernard Shaw and served as the mantra for A Day of Unreasonable Conversation, held recently at The Getty Center in Los Angeles.
The event is an invitation-only gathering designed to equip culture makers, including television writers, producers, executives, artists, and digital storytellers, for the year ahead.
The gathering is intentionally non-partisan and solution-oriented, focusing on issues of broad public salience, such as public health, climate, education, and navigating disagreements between those with differing perspectives.
Now in its fourth year, A Day of Unreasonable Conversation has become one of the entertainment industry’s most trusted convenings where Hollywood’s storytellers and public leaders meet to listen. This year’s convening featured more than 500 television creators and 150 top digital storytellers, alongside leaders in philanthropy, advocacy, and government.
The program was hosted by Atsuko Okatsuka and included conversations with Kerry Washington, Paul “Triple H”, Jay Shetty, W. Kamau Bell, Phil Rosenthal, Sara Gilbert, Terry Crews, Eddie Huang, Karine Jean-Pierre, Mara Brock Akil, Adam Kinzinger, Greg Berlanti, Todd Rose, Don Cheadle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and more, plus performances by Ruby Ibarra and Linda Perry.
Each segment of the event posed a question, such as “What If We’re Learning All the Wrong Lessons,” “What If No News Is Good News,” and “What If Hope is Not an Illusion” among them.
The day was capped off by a discussion entitled, “What If We Could Write the Next Chapter,” that featured a conversation about resilience between WNBA player and advocate Napheesa Collier and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
In addressing the gathered creatives, Harris remarked that right now, “There is a powerful intention and force to divide the communities and the country, and make people feel alone. There is an agenda at play that is causing people to feel very disempowered. And my feeling, and I feel this very strongly, is you can never let anyone take your power from you. And this is a room full of extraordinary, creative people who are opinion leaders. You have a pen, you have a voice, you have a platform.”
The 49th Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, speaking at “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation”
Credit: Lindsay Rosenberg
She went on to say, “And you, as storytellers, are living this. You’re not passive observers. You know that. You’re living it, and I would ask you that all the emotions that we are feeling. Give those emotions, gift that experience, to those people that you are writing about and writing for.”
Leaning a little forward in her chair, she said, “It gets back to my point about helping people, even if it doesn’t change the circumstance. Because there’s so much about this moment that is trying to make people feel like they’ve lost their mind. When, in fact, these motherfuckers are crazy,” which elicited a laugh from the crowd, which Harris joined.
The 2024 Presidential contender, in discussing losing the election, seemingly made a personal call to action to the audience, saying, “I said it at the end of every rally, ‘I believe when we fight we win.’ I believe that. Deeply,” however, she added, “Sometimes the fight takes a while.”
Kerry Washingon leading a discussion at “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation.”
Credit: Lindsay Rosenberg
Opening the day, Okatsuka said that organizers of the event genuinely hoped that participants would simply give consideration to opposing views and contemplate with the idea that, “Dang, I never thought of things that way.”
Repeated throughout the day was the concept that the best way to change culture is through storytelling.
This was reiterated by Todd Rose, an American scientist and social entrepreneur, speaking about collective illusions, who said, “There’s no more powerful form of social proof on the planet than storytelling. Even when you know you’re watching fiction, your brain treats those character as your in-group.”
He points to the 1980’s series Cheers which introduced the concept of the Designated Driver simply using a background actor who simply said, ‘nothing for me, I’m the designated driver.’
“By putting something like that in the background, it gives people permission by lowering the cost of courage,” explained Rose.
Berlanti, a prolific writer/director of multiple TV shows and films, including Arrow, The Flash and The Green Lantern, among others, participated in the panel “What If We Can’t Have Heroes?”
In a perfect example of the theme of the day — that storytelling can not only inform but evoke strong feelings as well — Berlanti began his comments on the topic… by telling the opening of a story, that he concluded as the panel wrapped up.
He also remarked that, “Stories have a way of helping shape the world through the unconscious and not just through the intellect. One of the ways you can offer light with both your characters and your own actions, is just to create something that feels true and truthful.”
Greg Berlanti, (center) with Anthony Breznican and Sharmen Obaid-Chinoy, discussing heroes during “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation.”
Credit: Lindsay Rosenberg
After coming off stage, he said that he participated in the day’s event because, “Anything that gets people talking about issues that they might be too intimidated to talk about is helpful, especially at this time. It’s very easy for a lot of individuals to just not take on hard topics and the more we can encourage people, especially writers and showrunners, to do that from multiple perspectives, the better it is for the audience.”
Bell, who hosted the documentary series United Shades of America for seven seasons, told the crowd during the “What If American Isn’t Divided – Just Exhausted” segment, “I’ve got bad news for you; it’s on you to stop fascism in America. I mean each and every one of you. But you’re like, ‘I’m not ready!’ You’re in entertainment, you know the hero is never ready! Luke Skywalker wasn’t ready, Harry Potter wasn’t ready, Jesus Christ wasn’t ready. Figure out how you can be better at your job as creators to get the message in the content that your bosses don’t want.”
Of the many creatives in the audience taking in the panels, was Jenji Kohan, creator and showrunner of many series including Weeds and Orange is the New Black. She said that while she couldn’t pinpoint how she’d use the information presented that day in her creative endeavors going forward, everything she’d heard throughout was, “certainly food for thought.”
A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is a program of Propper Daley | BPI in partnership with Invisible Hand, and presented by Imaginable Futures in partnership with Omidyar Network, Stand Together, and Imagine Entertainment, with additional support from New America, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Knight Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Elevate Prize Foundation, and others.
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