“Don’t Look Up”: David Sirota on His Oscar Nod for Writing Blockbuster Climate Crisis & Media Satire

Democracy Now! speaks to longtime progressive journalist and 2020 Bernie Sanders adviser David Sirota, who was just nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay of the hit Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up” along with the film’s director, Adam McKay.

The satire of the fight to have climate change acknowledged, let alone acted upon by global leaders, follows the plight of astronomy professor Dr. Randall Mindy (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his graduate student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) as they fail to warn the planet of an impending comet that threatens to wipe out human existence.

The film shows audiences “how ridiculous and destructive our world has become when it comes to dealing constructively with science,” says Sirota. If corporate media tends to make light of serious issues, the film raises the larger question: “How do we actually make climate science salient in the political discourse?”

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