Rollie Williams

Announcing: Climate Town @ SF Sketchfest 2025

Hey Patreon,

Whelp, a few months ago we applied to do a show at San Francisco's annual Sketchfest Comedy Festival and against all odds, they booked us! So now we've gotta get our act together so we can host an absolute banger of a live Climate Town Town Hall on Thursday, January 23rd at The Gateway Theater.

The venue seats about 190 people, so consider this the early Patreon announcement for anyone on here who wants to grab a ticket. If you live in the Bay Area or whereabouts, com...

One Week Down

Dear Patreon,

There's two ways about it, the election didn't go the way I was hoping. If the past week of political appointments and posturing is any indication, the next few years are going to be pretty rough at the federal level.

To everyone who went out and canvassed and knocked on doors and talked to their friends and voted, thank you very much for the effort. I'm sorry it wasn't enough this time around.

I'm not sure where you're at emotionally, but a few people have me...

October Town Hall(oween) - TODAY at 3pm EDT

Hey Patreon,

Join us today at 3pm EDT for a very haunting 5th installment of our monthly Patreon Town Hall series.

We'll be catching you up on all our thoughts going into next week's election, answering questions, and running through some last minute ways to encourage your family and friends to get out and vote.

Costumes are encouraged but not mandatory, and as always, feel free to have your cameras and microphones on or off, and to participate as much as you'd like. If you...

iOS Billing Update (don't worry, we have a workaround)

Hi Future Patrons!

The delightful overlords at Apple have decided that starting in November, all new memberships purchased through the iOS Patreon App will be charged an additional 30% App Store fee in addition to the cost of your selected tier.

This only applies to NEW memberships. If you’re a current patron, this change won't affect you. You can ignore this message and navigate to one of the many fun internet sites the world wide web has to offer.

If you�...

This Thursday: October Town Hall(oween)

There's nothing spookier than the week leading up to election day and what better way to address that elephant (graveyard) in the (haunted) room than with a terrorfying end-of-the-month October Town Hall(oween) Event.

We'll be catching you up on the topics that are front of our mind this season, answering questions, and for those who didn't get to catch last week's livestream (or came during the last 10 minutes when Rollie was being held captive by his own team), we'll be running throug...

Behind the Scenes: The 2000 Election Video

Hey Patreon,

Happy Halloween/fingers crossed for the voters of the United States. Here are some behind-the-scenes moments from the latest episode all about the 2000 Bush v. Gore election, and its implications in future elections. It's mostly just a supercut of the MANY times I'm singing about whatever I happen to be looking at. Speaking of, check out the actual 2000 election video if you want the BT...

This Thursday 10/24: Texting Our Exes Livestream

Hey Patreon,

We're hosting something a little funky tomorrow - a YouTube livestream hour of swing state voter outreach. Join Rollie as we text our exes (and uncles, and old college roommates) who live in key voter swing states. According to several voter turnout groups, this the most effective way to get more people to the polls this November 5th, so we're gonna do it!

Texting Our Exes Livestream: http...

Behind The Scenes of the 2000 Election Vid

Hey Patreon!

Thank you all for watching our newest episode about hanging chads, the electoral college, and the importance of voting for the planet this November. For those who have not yet double-checked your personal ability to vote, I want to once again emphasize the importance of checking your voter registration status and ensuring you're ready for the poll booths: 2024-10-07 17:58:21 +0000 UTC View Post

September MEGA Town Hall/Q&A - TODAY at 3pm EDT

<TRUMPET BLARES>

Hello Patreon!

Join us today at 3pm EDT for our 4th installment of our monthly Patreon Town Hall series. We're excited to chat more about A) the topics of this week's episode or B) Something else. It's a veritable choose your own adventure. We'll also be sharing some ways to take action this election season, and answering the absolute molasses out of any questions.

As always, feel free to have your cameras and microphones on or off, and to participate...

This Friday: September MEGA Town Hall & Q&A

When it rains it pours, we're closing out NY Climate Week right with our September Town Hall AND ALSO Q&A Session this Friday at 3PM EDT.

We’ll be diving deeper into this week’s episode, answering your questions (episode related or otherwise!), and talking about ways to take climate action this election season. It'll be very open format, come on down and leave immediately if you hate it.

See ya Friday & look out for our link post Friday morning for all the event detail...

New Episode Premiere Today!

Hey Patreon!

We've got a hot one for you and it's going live at 12:15pm EDT!

This episode is a throwback to the 2000 presidential election, a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of the electoral college, what happens when vote counts boil down to the margins, and maybe even some takeaways?

If you have some free time today, drop into the premiere (or just play it in the background as a market signal to the algorithm robots that run YouTube). If you miss the premiere, the video...

An assistant editor in the edit bay

Hey Patreon,

I've got a hot one coming out either tomorrow or Wednesday, and it covers a topic I've been thinking about for like 5 years. I won't spoil anything, but the song "Who Let The Dogs Out" makes a few appearances.

AND speaking of dogs, here is some footage of my dog Howdy being a critical part of the production on this video. While she'll probably be uncredited, she was hard at work doing the important tasks of ripping all the stuffing out of her dog bed, shredding up nap...

Patreon August Town Hall - Tomorrow at 5pm EST

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

We're hosting our monthly town hall tomorrow at 5pm EST and it's going to be ... VAGUELY ELECTION THEMED! We've been preparing some US Election-related content for the fall and are excited to hear from all of you! Are there resources you're looking for? Do you need somewhere to volunteer? Are you worried about how climate policy will or won't play into the election? International Patrons, don't worry, we want to hear from you too -- the United States isn't the only coun...

Water Episode Q&A - Thurs 8/15 at 2pm EST

Hey Patreon,

We're gonna have our post-episode live Q&A Thurs 8/15 at 2pm EST about the video we just dropped all about water use in animal agriculture. Give this new ep a watch and come to the virtual Q&A tomorrow if you're around. This will be open to anyone in a tier, so if you're not in a tier and you wanna see this, hop into one.

We'll post the link tomorrow morning!

See ya ...

New Episode Premiere! Water & Animal Agriculture

Helloooo Patreon!

We've got a brand new episode coming out today, and you're never gonna believe this, but I actually made this one specially for you. It's going live at 12:30pm EST today.

This episode is about water and animal agriculture and MAN did I think it was gonna be 20 minutes shorter than it ended up. We're also planning like 3 more animal agriculture videos, but this one is the first!

We filmed this episode on some of the hottest days in New York and one extreme...

FRIDAY 8/9 5-7pm EST - Call Rollie on the Climate Town Landline

Hey Patreon!

The rotary dial phone works like a charm, and it'll be plugged in and active for a little Friday happy hour. Call in tomorrow Friday 5-7pm with any and all questions, comments, suggestions, or even crank calls. Hit me up on the number above and let's chat. I'll turn my chair backwards like a cool youth pastor and we can really get into it.

Best,
Rollie

P.S. feel free to call and leave a message, outside normal calling hours.

A(nother) Video From Chicago

Hi Patreon,

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We've got not one, not three, but TWO videos in the edit bay right now, including a very fun collaboration video we just filmed with our new friend and S-tier commentary YouTuber Danny Gonzalez. It's all about the dark underbelly of online shopping, and we got to film most of it in a warehouse full to the brim with online shopping returns. It was real...

The Sweatiest Episode On Record

Hey Patreon,

I hope all is well. Lately we've been cranking through another 35+ minute episode about animal agriculture through the lens of water usage in the American West. Animal ag was one of the most requested episode topics, and we're breaking it up into discrete pieces so I don't spend 2 years on a 6-hour video that destroys my psyche.

The problem with filming a video about the American west in the middle of the summer is that it gets so hot I started to sweat from new place...

Join Us Monday for Monthly Patreon Town Hall #2

Hey Patreon,

I hope all is well on this (insert day you're reading this). For me it's a Saturday afternoon and it just went from hot rain to unbearably sunny and humid. Brooklyn is a delightful place.

ANYWAYZ, we're doing the second installment of our Monthly Town Hall, and this time it's Monday, July 15th at 5pm Eastern. Come on down and say hello, meet our whole Climate Town team, and just hang out for an hour. This is available to all patrons in the $5 and above tiers, so ...

The Climate Town Landline Is Open

UPDATE: I'm heading out of the office! Thanks for the calls today - I be answering intermittently this week, but feel free to leave a message!

We've got a working prototype of the Climate Town Landline. Feel free to give me a call when you have a second - if I don't answer or am already talking to someone, you can leave a message or call back another time. This is not the permanent number, I'm just trying it out.

TTYL,

Rollie

The Climate Town Phone Line Has Arrived

The deadline to get to 5,000 Patrons is over! Did we make it? Sort of!

Our goal was 5,000 paid patrons. We got to 4300, and ... I ROUNDED UP!

So we now have a rotary dial phone in our office. I'm hooking it up with a number, and by next week the line should be open for your calls.

Haters have already declared it "a massive waste of everyone's time" but the tactile sensation of a rotary dial has already made the $25 price tag and the bicycle trip to south Brooklyn worth it.<...

A mutiny on set and a shout out

Hey Patreon,

I hope all is well - we finished our fast fashion/merch video but we shot a quick on-set check in and a shout out to a thrift store and I wanted to drop that footy here on Patreon.

1) If you're ever in the Brooklyn area, run don't walk to a thrift store called 10 Foot Single - it's over on 285 N 6th St and it's got literal tons of high quality clothing crammed into a little wooden store over by the highway. The hundreds and hundreds of shirts hanging from the rafters ...

Join us TODAY for a live chat episode premiere on our Patron-only Discord channel

Hey Climate Town fam!

Just wanted to give you a heads-up that we're premiering a brand new episode today (at ~1:30pm Eastern), and for the first time ever, we'll be doing a live chat in Discord during the premiere! All tiers are welcome to join in the fun.

*To join our Patron-only Discord channel:*

• Make sure you've linked your Patreon and Discord accounts. If you haven't done this yet, no worries - it's pretty easy to do! For a step by step guide, check out ...

  2024-05-23 00:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Video Premiere, Merch link & Live Discord Chat

Hey Patreon!

We've got a hot one for you going live at 2:15pm EST. This one is all about how fast fashion has made the merch industry into a real (in some cases literal) trash fire. It's kind of a sequel to our first fast fashion video, and also an exploration in trying to make merch in even a remotely sustainable way. Spoiler alert: we were able to do a run of 846 shirts that we feel pretty good about, but you'll have to watch the video to see if you agree.

And I don't think we'l...

Filming the desk shots of the newest video

Hey patreon,

I hope all is well! This week is a big editing week for me (the upcoming video drops next week and is currently clocking in at a very responsible 26 minutes and change). We had to grab some pickup shots at the desk for the outro, and executive producer Ben Boult's dog Goose jumped up onto a chair and sorta looked like he might be trying to give me some important acting notes.

Goose leaned way in and looked all cute so I leaned over to pretend li...

CUT FOR TIME: Jacked Movie Stars

Hey Patreon,

I hope you're having a great Friday, and that your weekend is full of possibilities and closeup magic. <Dove flies out of your screen>

OKAY, so I've got the new episode in the edit bay, but while you're waiting, I wanted to drop a quick section from the previous video that ended up getting cut for time. The natural gas video clocks in at 40 minutes on the button (though sometimes...

Monthly Patreon Town Hall #1

Dear Patreon,

I hope you've been enjoying the extra patreon stuff we've been dropping since we revamped our page. Fingers crossed for the official climate town hotline. We've got more coming today, but I just wanted to announce the first Monthly Patreon Town Hall this upcoming Tuesday, May 7th. Anyone in the URBAN PLANNER tier and above will get a link on Tuesday morning.

What can I expect from the Town Hall? Wow, that's an excellent question. We'll have a basic agenda and then wi...

The final Inconvenient Talk Show

Hey Patreon!

Okay, I got clearance to post some photos, so here goes: I got to do a comedy show in character as Al Gore with actual Al Gore as the special guest. It was part of the Climate Reality Project's leadership training in New York last weekend. It was SO fun, but more importantly, it has a fun multi-year arc to it that you may enjoy if you're unfamiliar.

1) In 2016, I wrote a show about Al Gore going on an I-Told-You-So tour of America. I think there were 3 people in ...

A big week at the Climate Town offices

Hey Patreon!

I hope all is well. Last week was quite possibly the craziest week in Climate Town history, and I've gotta get clearance to post a bunch of stuff from one of the events, so that will be its own post. IN ANY CASE, here's a quick breakdown for you to read at your leisure.

1) We spent all of Monday with Climate Town hero Amy Westervelt. She is the powerhouse behind the podcast 'Drilled' as well as the founder...

The first post-release Q&A

Hey Patreon,

The new-and-improved page is officially launched and this coming Wednesday (April 3) at 4pm Eastern, the Climate Town team will be hosting our first ever live Post-Episode-Release Patreon Q&A™. It’s already being called “the event of the decade” by that guy who just woke up from a 20-year coma. 

We'll be talking about our latest episode, Natural Gas Is Scamming America, and answering...