July 17, 2023 • 33 mins
Actress and activist Piper Perabo joins to highlight the unique power of storytelling and narrative as a tool for organizing and bringing about change. Together, we discuss Piper's passion for promoting safe storage on film and television sets, as well as how fighting for gun violence prevention is itself an intersectional act. From sharing safety concerns with families to sparking conversations around firearm safety, join Piper and hosts Kelly and JJ as we explore the influence of media, the importance of safety consciousness, and the potential for positive change.
Further reading:
Hollywood Actors, Directors, Creators Discuss Gun Safety (Brady)
Gun Guidelines for the Media (Hollywood Health and Society)
'Yellowstone' and Hollywood's Quiet Pivot to Showing Gun Safety Onscreen (the Ankler)
Adam Brody, Piper Perabo and More Call for Less Gun Violence on Screen at White House Roundtable: ‘Hollywood Has Been Due for a Reckoning’ (Variety)
Wrap Roundtable: Adam Brody Calls Out Onscreen Gun Violence as Big Part of the Problem – ‘American as Apple Pie’ (the Wrap)
Law & Order: SVU Changed the TV Landscape. It Also Changed How People Think About Sexual Assault (Time)
For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.
Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.
Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, my name is Piper Paribault and I'm an actor
and activist, and I'm currentlyworking on the TV shows
Yellowstone and Billions, and Irecently met with the Brady
campaign to Washington to talkabout the Show Your Safety
campaign.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And what brought you to working with Brady and the
Show Your Safety campaign.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, i'll say this for all the, for all the
negative things you can sayabout social media, especially
the Dumpster Fire that isTwitter.
Right now, chris Brown reachedout to me over DMs on Twitter
And I follow Brady because Ifeel like you guys are really in
(00:44):
a place that a lot of Americanscan get on board.
There's a lot of common senselegislation that you support and
common sense norms that youwant to establish, and I feel
like I look to Brady to sort ofget that point of view that
people can agree on.
And so I follow Chris Brown too, and she reached out to me to
(01:05):
tell me about the campaign andsay you are going to Washington
And I was like can I come?
I'll say this my DMs are sopositive, like I really use
Twitter.
when I first started, i wasinvolved with the International
Rescue Committee before Trumpbecame president, but even
(01:27):
before then, but especiallyafter then, i use Twitter as a
way to reach out toorganizations and people that I
think are smart, and there areso many activists and leaders,
even members of Congress, that Ihave interviewed, like I follow
them and they follow me, andthen I'll write them like a
little knowing And see, you knowwhat I mean, see if we can
(01:50):
start a relationship, and then Ialways try to then meet in real
life, because I think that'swhere real trust and
relationship are built.
But yeah, my Twitter DMs it'sbeen really useful.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, I will say social media has been really
great for grassroots organizing.
I will give it a huge upliftfor that.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I think that what I've learned as I've sort of
listened these past seven yearsis that we make the most
progress and the best progresswhen we work intersectionally.
And so when I first started inactivism, there was this
mentality of like choose thesubject you care about most Is
it water?
Is it, you know, education Andthen just focus on that.
(02:42):
And I was like I kind of likethe parties that like have a lot
of different people at them.
You know what I mean.
So I've always been kind ofwanting to bring the whole, the
whole show at once.
And what was exciting to meabout the show your safety
campaign was that I have workedon a lot of shows that have
firearms And I think that Ithink it's so smart what Brady
(03:04):
is doing of trying to changesocial norms, like we did with
designated drivers, or buckle upwith seatbelts to talk about
safe storage of firearms.
And we can normalize thatpartly by showing it on
television.
If we show responsible gunowners who unload their firearm
and put it in a lockbox whenthey get home, and we just
(03:25):
constantly do that, it becomes anorm.
And there I think about thiswith grassroots organizing, you
know, and television, it's likeI can't knock on every door in
Wisconsin, but I can be on everyTV in Wisconsin And I think you
can, even with cigarettes.
You know, all of a sudden theleading heroes didn't have
(03:46):
cigarettes in their mouthanymore And it started to change
the culture.
And I think we can do that withsafe storage And I think
responsible gun owners believein safe storage And I.
There are so many things aboutit that I think we can move the
needle on without.
It's not a substitute forlegislation.
Obviously, legislation is whatI'm hoping for, but this is
something that my community, theentertainment community, can do
(04:07):
to help be part of a solution.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think that's a really important insight.
When you talked about how,rather than thinking about oh, i
have to focus on just one issueYou sort of thought about
things intersectionally, becauseone of the things we've done on
this podcast is try to bring inthe intersection between gun
violence and environmentaljustice, or gun violence and
race, or gun violence andeducation, and you name it.
So that's hugely importantbecause it touches so many areas
(04:33):
And in your area, in you knowthe television and film, i'm
wondering, since you've gotteninvolved in the show, your
safety campaign, what, how hasit sort of impacted the way
you've been thinking about yourprojects Or your work and sort
of your daily life?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, i'll tell you this.
Last night I was watching ashow I'm not going to name them
because I don't want to blameand shame, but I was watching
this really good show Youprobably heard of it And a woman
who is a law enforcementofficer takes a gut, she goes,
she wakes up in the night.
She hears a sound, she gets onthe bed, she goes to the closet.
(05:11):
There was a safe with a lock onAnd I was like my husband was
sitting right next to me.
I was like, ah, safe storage,safe storage.
And she, under the lock, tookout the weapon loaded it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I was like she started unloading.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was like maybe we're going to be fine.
She goes down the stairs.
She sees that it's her partnerlike her, you know, emotional
partner coming through the doorand relationship partner not
work partner, and and he waslike whoa and has this sort of
moment.
And then she's like I'm sorry,i didn't know you were coming
over.
And she apologizes And justwhen I was getting ready to
(05:47):
celebrate, she opens the kitchendrawer, puts the loaded weapon
in the drawer, closes it andsays can I make you an omelet?
And I was like an omelet.
There's a lot of weapons in thekitchen.
But we were halfway there, youknow, and I thought, oh, i'm
going to see who I know on thatshow and reach out and say yo
(06:08):
guys, great job on the safestorage, but you can't leave the
loaded weapon in the kitchendrawer.
So we can do it.
And it was part of the tensionand it all worked for the story.
We're just not.
We're just not there yet.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I know exactly what show, because I had the same
journey, the emotional, sameemotional journey throughout
that scene.
Wow, yes.
And then I was like wait, no,no, no, no, no, yeah.
I was like you could just Yeah,yeah, i was like just one more
step, you had it.
So, yeah, i Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
We were talking about in Washington.
We went with Brady and a bunchof different show runners who
are basically in televisionthat's the people who create and
sort of head the writer's roomof a show And we had guys from
writers from SWAT and rookieYellowstone and they were
talking about you know how wecan implement this idea
(07:17):
throughout production And not sothat it has to be a PSA or
preachy.
But one thing somebody said wasyou know, if you're the prop
master, if you're a head ofprops on a TV show, they're like
greatest fear is that you'regoing to go like oh, don't you
have a blank in the prop truck.
They want you to have likeevery magical Chinese food
container box of Cheerios.
You know whatever boat anchor,but there is a certain kit
(07:41):
that's kept in a prop truck.
There are certain standardthings that are always there, so
that you always have a Chinesefood container and whatnot.
And somebody said why don't wejust put like three different
styles of lock boxes in all theprop kits so that at least at
the last possible opportunity toshow safe storage, the prop
master has a lock box on theprop truck?
(08:02):
So at least because it shouldhold, the good intention would
be for it to come from the, fromthe writers, so that it's
crafted within the story.
It makes sense, it buildstension, but at the very least
let's have a way to do safestorage if we haven't caught it
anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I'm wondering too .
You mentioned part of whatinspired you to do this was
thinking about the ways that youmight not be able to be in
every door, but you can be onTVs across the country.
And I'm wondering if someonewere like, well, isn't that
censorship, isn't that keepingyou from expressing yourself or
(08:41):
being, you know, creative inyour field?
I'm wondering how?
how does this impact the craft?
Or do you feel constrained atall?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I mean, you know, i think we're not talking about
making it law in the writer'sguild that you have to have
weapons stored safely.
We're talking about raisingawareness.
And, like I was like you and Ijust said you know, because I've
got it in my brain right nowbecause of Brady, i was watching
(09:13):
that show And when she put thegun in the kitchen cabinet I was
like, why not?
Because it's right on my frontburner.
And I think if we, what we weretalking about with Brady was
raising the awareness at alllevels of production so that
we're not dictating you know gunsafety before story.
But what we're saying is let'sjust think about, let's just
(09:35):
think about where the gun camefrom.
Let's just think about whatsomeone does when they take
their gun off their person.
Because I've been on loads ofsets for many years where it
never occurred to me I'm guiltyof it It never occurred to me,
where my character even got thegun.
They said, oh, just pull thegun out of your pocket and then
you write it.
And I'm like, okay, you've gotso many things going on and so
many things to be aware of And Ithink, because of the gun
(09:56):
violence nightmare that'shappening in this country.
Let's raise the awareness rightto the front.
So if there's an opportunity tonormalize safe storage, we can
do that, but I don't think iteven gets near the censorship
question, because we're nottalking about a mandate.
(10:24):
I don't think we're going to, idon't think we could avoid it,
even if we wanted to.
Guns are so front and center inAmerica right now and the fear
of every parent, every person,all of a sudden, everybody knows
what a soft target is and it'sso in our national consciousness
.
It's going to be reflected inthe storytelling, whether we
(10:45):
want to or not, and I reallyhope that, as you were
mentioning, it's not just themass shootings that are what's
in the storytelling, but it'sreally the children getting
access to unlocked firearms inthis country by firearm, there's
a lot of domestic violence,there's a lot of things that are
(11:10):
going on that I think should bein our storytelling, and I
think it will be, because we'reall experiencing it.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And one of the interesting factors about
talking about American media isthat it's global right, like
we're everywhere.
We're one of the biggest mediamarkets and we export a lot, but
the gun violence problem thatwe see is sort of unique to us,
even if other people arewatching our shows and our
movies.
So I'm wondering how does thatplay into the way that you're
(11:47):
thinking about this campaign ordepicting guns on screen?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I mean, i think that the fact that America, that our
media has put out all over theworld, but it's only America
that has this horrible gunviolence problem, shows you that
, at least to me, it says thatthe media is not responsible.
It's the lack of legislationthat's responsible, because
these TV shows and movies andvideo games are in many places
(12:15):
that don't have this problem Andit needs to be addressed
legislatively if we're going tofix it.
It's the guns.
(12:35):
It's pretty clear To me.
It's pretty clear what theproblem is.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And that was kind of my goal, as I was like I just
want to be friends with smarterpeople And so I forced them into
my orbit.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I learned my way into the podcast, but that's a whole
other story.
I was like I'm obsessed withpodcasts And I made that known
to the whole staff, so I foundmy way in.
I'm wondering too you've done alot of work around refugees And
I'm wondering, given that gunviolence is so intersectional,
do you see any links betweenthat work and the work that
(13:11):
you've been stepping into aroundgun violence prevention?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I'll say when I first started working with the
International Rescue Committee,i was predominantly working
overseas I was going to.
At the time that I started wasthe beginning of the war in
Syria, and so there wererefugees coming out of Syria
into Southern Europe and Lebanon, and so I was always thinking
(13:37):
about these issues as not athome.
And gun violence is such apersonal issue because it
happens right here at home, andso it's heartbreaking to think
that there are problems thisterrifying that are happening
(13:58):
right here at home.
But I'll say, like the refugeework, that intersectionality not
only gives us strength but, tome, gives me joy.
There are.
When I see trans activists showup at a refugee march or gun
(14:18):
violence activists showing upwith the climate kids, i'm like
not only does it make ournumbers bigger, but it's more
fun.
It's more fun to work together.
And I think when I think aboutreaching out to other actors to
say, can we get your voiceinvolved in this?
Some actors, because of whothey are, what their heritage or
their experiences, they'reasked like I'll use Ruffalo as
(14:41):
an example.
Like everybody asks Ruffalo todo water.
Like he loves water, he workson water, he cares about water.
If you want to talk about water.
You go get Ruffalo, but it'skind of fun to ask him to come
and do trans rights or gunviolence legislation.
There's, like you know, it's alighter lift when it's not
something that you're dealingwith the trauma of every day, so
(15:03):
that intersectionalrelationship and support can be
a real energy boost and joy tothis work.
I think I feel like I mean, as aperson who supports many causes
(15:34):
but it's not my profession Isee the exhaustion in leadership
and how this work can wear onsomeone, and so when the Biden
Harris administration passed theBipartisan, the Safer
Communities Act, i was like I'malways the one in the room who's
like.
When do we party?
(15:55):
When do we celebrate?
Like I don't know.
Like who makes cake?
What do you guys like?
Like tacos, something, becauseI feel like in activism there's
always more work to do.
It's such a long road that evennot even something as big as
the Bipartisan Safer CommunitiesAct, but like even small things
, i think it's so important tocelebrate even the small
(16:17):
victories, because this work isso exhausting that you know
getting together and havingtacos and like patting each
other on the back and tellingeach other a great job and that
was a step forward is soimportant.
I am super fun at a party, yeah, that whole like shut up and
(17:12):
dribble argument.
I mean I've never been theperson that you're like.
You can change the channel, youknow what I mean.
But like, guess what?
Like we are citizens of theUnited States and I have my
First Amendment rights to speakand I am a voter And I also vote
with my money.
You know, i put my money incauses and people and businesses
(17:35):
that I believe have bestpractices, and one of the great
things about this country is ourfreedom of speech, and part of
my work is to be a storyteller.
But part of my personhood andpart of my citizenship and part
of my humanity is that I'm goingto speak about the things I
(17:58):
care about And, for whateverreason, people in entertainment
have a larger platform in thiscountry and like this country
did that, like I didn't say Ididn't become an actress so I
could have, like a big Twitterthing.
I wasn't even Twitter.
So if people are going tolisten and that's a tool that I
(18:20):
have to make change for thebetter for all of us I'm not
going to not use that tool.
If I was a restaurant owner,then maybe I would use my
restaurant to hold a fundraiserfor Brady, you know.
Or I would say, when I'mtalking with older friends of
mine, i'm like I know you'regoing to talking on the phone
And so like, let's get you, youknow, to call donors.
(18:43):
Like we all have something thatwe can give to participate, and
it's just a matter of figuringout what that is.
And I happen to have thisplatform and like I'm not really
going to tell you what I'mhaving for lunch on my Instagram
, i'm going to tell you aboutBrady.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, we really appreciate it And I think too,
having you know, having you andother people in entertainment,
also just kind of drives homethe point that gun violence is
unfortunately something that youcan't really like, you know,
buy your way out of or poweryour way out of.
We all have a stake in it, andso it's just a way of showing
(19:19):
that, like, if you're in theUnited States, you have a stake
in this.
It's really a real thing thatall of us, you know, we have
people we love, we like to goplaces, like you said, freedom
of speech, and so all of thesethings are sort of part of it.
And I'm wondering, you know,where would you in your wildest
dreams if, if you could see somechanges sort of take place in
(19:42):
Hollywood around the depictionof guns, like, where would you
love for it to go?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I mean there's so much we could do.
I heard one idea that ashowrunner brought up when we
were in Washington this pastweek about could we take the
guns off the posters, and Ithought like, oh, that feels
concrete, actionable, we couldagree on it.
We're not saying there aren'tguns in America, we're just
(20:09):
going to take the guns off theposters because we can't control
who sees those posters.
You know, some kid walks pastthat poster every day on their
way to school and there's plentyof ways for me to understand
who John Wick is.
I don't need to see the gun onthe poster.
So I thought that was kind ofan interesting idea.
I also someone brought up anidea that I thought was really
cool.
You know, when you're watchinga TV show, before it begins
(20:31):
there's like a card that sayslike warning violent or adult
language, nudity They warned youfor the nudity.
They don't want you for the guns.
I was like who makes that card?
And one of the showrunners saidoh, the networks are in charge
of the cards on their network.
Their legal decides what goeson that card.
What will constitute that?
(20:51):
And I said I wonder if we canreach out to networks and talk
about, could we say on the card,warning, adult language, nudity
, unsafe gun use.
Because it just puts it on thefront, it just raises that
awareness.
It's not even a you know, it'snot a story giveaway, it's not.
(21:12):
I guess it's a judgment.
But we're just saying we'rekind of naming it before you see
it in a show like the nudity,you know, if you don't want to
see a naked person, like getready to cover your eyes for
some part of the show or changeit.
But I think bringing thatawareness at the top of the show
might be helpful.
(21:35):
And I would love to see thenetworks have to grapple with
where do we put that label?
I thought that was kind of agood idea It reminds me of.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I mean, they put drug use Right Or a lot of.
I'm used to seeing that and itkind of tees you up to it where
you're like, okay, this ishappening, they also put unsafe
treatment of animals beforecertain shows.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They're like a lot of you know, and I think I'm not
sure if unsafe gun use is theright phrase.
But you know, in thespitballing of the idea I was
like that's a really interestingidea.
If writers knew that that labelmight go on the show they might
(22:35):
just think a tiny bit couplemore seconds about how the there
was a showrunner in Washingtonthis weekend who was saying a
lot of times a gun is a littlebit of a lazy cliche.
It's being used like anexclamation point And it was so
used to it being pulled by acharacter on a TV show that
we're almost completely unawareof it, except to say like it's
(22:57):
basically saying like listen tome or do what I say.
But maybe we could not be so wecould just think a little bit
more.
If that's the right way ofdoing the storytelling, we're
better storytelling.
Frankly, I did a television showfor Fox like two years ago and
(23:40):
my character had breast cancerAnd I said to the showrunner
could we put up a thing toremind women to get?
because it was the pandemic hadjust happened and women weren't
going in for their mammogramsbecause they didn't want to.
Women are so generous and youknow they don't want to take up
room in the hospital with theiryou know mammogram, in case
somebody.
But there had been a sharpdecline in women getting their
(24:03):
regularly scheduled mammogramsduring the pandemic And I said
that because my character hadbreast cancer.
This is a great opportunity toremind everybody to go get your
mammogram or think of the womanin your life that you love your
mom, your aunt, your sister,your wife, whatever and and say
remind them, remind them to dothat.
And they the show is like thewriter was a woman.
(24:24):
She was like that's, that'scool, that's who do we call?
I was like I don't know, it'syour show.
I said I'll call the executiveproducer and she was like oh,
that's a great idea.
Here's who you should call, andI couldn't believe that we could
just call it up the chain andwe did it.
So I think there's there's realopportunities for that, and I
think, especially after rightafter you've seen a very
(24:45):
meaningful story that might hityou emotionally, you are more
apt to consider the idea andmaybe even make a change.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And for listeners who , who you know, maybe, if you're
not a big consumer of media oryou're unfamiliar with like
American media and you're like,I don't see like this changing
that much.
Like when law and order SVUstarted airing, the number of
folks who were comfortablesuddenly disclosing their
assaults like skyrocketed ReallyAfter after the show aired.
Yeah, people would call becausesuddenly, you know, maybe they
(25:22):
felt that their local lawenforcement wouldn't respond.
But here was a in particular,like Mariska Hargitay.
Like people would I know, evenlike write to her.
But like people were likehere's a detective who cares
that I see on my TV screen.
Here's what I can say, here arethe procedures I can follow.
So, even without somethingformally set up, like media
changes the way that peoplerespond to things that they're
seeing.
Yeah in their life.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I think storytelling does that, because we can't all
have had all the experiences,but if you see a well-told story
, it can connect and sort oflead you somewhere.
Mariska is like an incredible,incredible powerhouse for work
on getting rid of the backlog ofrape kids because she
encountered that when she wasdoing the show.
(26:04):
she sort of learned about itand then started working on it.
She's one of those people thatI marvel marvel at.
She's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Thinking to to your point about unsafe gun use,
especially given that a lot ofpeople who own guns want to be
responsible.
They want to protect theirfamilies, And so I could imagine
a situation where maybe yourkid who you're, you've tried to
teach not to play with guns andthings like that is watching a
(26:35):
show and you see that it hasthat on there.
Maybe that reminds you.
Oh, I should probably have aconversation with my child about
what they saw, what's right,like the questions to ask as
well, rather than not evenknowing that your child is
seeing all sorts of stuff andthen going out into the world.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I totally agree I think there's a whole slew of
responsible gun owners thatdon't have their guns in the
locked storage situation that ifa card was put at the end of a
show that said make sure youstore your firearms locked and
unloaded to protect your kids, Iwonder how many people would
consider taking action.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I think, especially if maybe the person modeling it
is someone who is shown as avery responsible and competent
gun owner on TV, totally Or evenjust a hero of any kind.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
It doesn't even.
I think there's a pretty wideswath of stories that have
characters that are socompelling.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, it can be.
I mean to identify myself as anelder millennial.
I don't think there was a TVshow on television that was
geared towards my age groupgrowing up that didn't have a do
not drink and drive on promnight or homecoming episode.
I think we got it from everytype of conceivable story, from
the schmaltzy after school typestuff to the really serious teen
(27:58):
dramas.
They all dealt with it and theyall, i think, had the angle of
the really pretty popular girlor the really cool girl that you
wanted to be Didn't engage inthat behavior.
The one you wanted to be wasn'tgoing to be the one causing
like harm to someone else, andthat was helpful like it was.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It was a good work And we're not, you know,
touching anyone's secondamendment, right?
We're not getting into adiscussion about even
legislation, we're justnormalizing safe storage.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Which trickles down, hopefully, in a good way,
definitely, definitely.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I mean, especially given the suicide, just the
burden of suicide that thiscountry is facing every year,
and a lot of that has to do withsafe storage too.
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It's impressive that you guys do this work every day.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I see, for me, i'm really impressed whenever folks
come into it to work in thisspace, who like that this isn't
your every day, right, if thatmakes sense.
Especially folks who don't havea tie to it, who aren't
survivors.
Like if you're choosing to bein this space and like to give
of your time and like And it'snot what, like you went to
(29:18):
school for that you do daily,like I actually think that
that's really impressive becauseit's a it's a hard thing to
select into, right?
I don't know if I'marticulating that well, kelly,
but I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
It's especially, i mean we're talking earlier about
, i'm not We know how for a lotof people, this can be a third
rail, and I think part of whatthat means is that when you step
into it, you're sort ofengaging in something that's
controversial even though itshouldn't be, which is why I
think this campaign is so cool,because it's sort of getting,
(29:53):
it's not going on the you know,the floral Congress or something
like that.
It's simply like tellingstories and working with people
in that way, which is soimportant because it shouldn't
be a third rail And for a lot ofpeople in their private lives
it's not, but it can percolateup to being this issue that
becomes.
(30:14):
I mean, people want, they don'twant their family to die.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, and I think I think I totally agree with you
And I think the gun violenceepidemic is so big We can't sort
of tackle it with one solution.
This is a huge issue in ourcountry And we need to separate
out these different groups.
You know responsible gun owners.
That's a really different groupthan certain other people, and
(30:39):
so the solutions are not just aone size fits all.
And let's talk about having asafer community And who wants to
be a part of that, and I thinkthat's you know we can broadly
agree as a large number of thepopulation that we would like to
have safe communities.
So let's start, you know,spreading that instead of trying
to deal with it all in onething and thinking it has to be
(31:01):
all or nothing or, you know, geton the floor of Congress.
We can each sort of find a wayto participate in having a safer
community and country.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And I think, too, what it goes to is, again, as
Kelly, as you mentioned, likethe power of storytelling,
because one of the things we'velearned from this podcast is
that we can present all theacademic information in the
world And we can distill it tobe as clear as possible, but
what actually tends to have animpact on electives and then on
allowing folks to feel like theycan engage directly, or when
people come on and say, likethis is my story, this is what
(31:33):
happened to me.
So if you're saying that thisisn't true, you're talking about
me, you're talking about my kid, you're talking about my dad,
and so I think having thosestories, as you said, modeled
like I can't knock, like wecan't knock on every single door
in Wisconsin and say here's areally important true story that
happened, but you can modelthose stories In every house-
(31:54):
and I think there are questionsthat people have that they're
afraid to ask, like I was sayingto two friends of mine who have
little kids.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I said what's the language you use when you drop
your kid off for a play date toask if there are Firearms in the
house and if they're storedsafely?
you like locked.
And they were like, oh, i don'task that.
And I was like, oh, okay, but Iwas like maybe we could find a
way to ask that and like not forit to be weird or an affront,
(32:22):
but if there was a normal,normalised way to say like, hey,
you know, i'll be back in fouro'clock.
Are there any unlocked firearmsin the house?
Like can we just normalize howto do that as parents so that we
have some?
you know, i mean, a televisionis a great way to do that kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
What allergies do you have?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I Always tell people to roll it in in the same
questions I asked my Dannyabout.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Like hey, it's so nice that like Oh no, this is
what I really wanted to know.
Come back, JJ.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Hopefully, jj.
Let's see She doesn't look likeshe got dropped off, so that's
good.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Also squad cast.
I think, oh, she'll, she'llcome back.
The cool thing about squad castis that it actually will keep
recording.
Oh, that's cool.
So like, let's say, she wastalking if she was talking, but
we can hear it, they willcapture the audio, be safe.
Yeah which is why this is areally good platform for For
podcasting, because it like willkeep going just why wasn't that
(33:32):
happening on that audition?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I was telling you I.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah, no, we started with zoom and like, when we had
to go, you know, into quarantineright me, i started with zoom
and then we switched to podcastfor that reason, because it it's
like sending things to thecloud, right that way.
Yeah, i'm not as tech savvy asJJ, i'm midway, i'm moderate.
(34:03):
Okay but yeah, she didn't pingher, just to make sure she's
okay.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We should have battery tires.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
We'll see We'll see.
It could have just been Oh,she's typing, she's alive.
Oh, she said, the internet justwent.
(34:41):
Oh, so, which makes sense in away, because I think the way, i
think it's pretty windy outside.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Where are you guys?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So I'm in DC and she's in like northern Virginia.
Look right outside.
Cool, She says she's gettingback on.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay is it nicer today?
It was raining here all weekendin New York.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Um, it is Nicer than it was.
It was raining here all weekendtoo, but it's still not like
great great to me.
I want to be 72 sunny.
No, I feel like we're almostthere.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It was sunny this morning in New York when I went
out to get a coffee and I waslike, oh, thank goodness.
Yeah little sunshine goes a lotwith me.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, friday was miserable here.
It was like blustery, rainy andI had to go to the dentist like
at the end of the day, and Iremember I walked over um,
because it was like this awkwarddistance where Walking was
about the same and I got thisand I was just soaking and I was
like And you're the dentist.
(35:48):
Yeah, it was quite the.
It was a Rockin Friday nightfor me.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Hi, I made it back.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I'm so sorry What you were saying about how you think
, how to model Asking when youdrop up your kid if there are
weapons in the house.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, i literally like a transformer went and I
was like They don't want me toshare my nanny stories.
Um, no, wait, yeah.
So um, how, how I thinkmodeling it tends to work and
how I've been telling people todo it Is when you do that
initial like first ever playdate or have people over, is
I've always like, hey, there'sjust a few like safety things.
You know, any food Needs orrequests, any medications?
(36:25):
Do you have a pool?
Are there any firearms in thehouse, like kind of the?
I mean I'm from Pittsburgh, sothe pool question as much
doesn't come up, but I feel likeLA probably.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I like the pool question though, because it kind
of is like I'm just a safetyconscious parent And I'm worried
about pools too.
You know what I mean.
Like you kind of just sandwichthe Difficult one in there with
the kind of more mundane ones,and it kind of.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And I think mixing it together right, because then it
feels less targeted, it's lesslike.
well, why are they asking meabout a firearm?
Do they think I'm?
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I just care about safety.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, i, just I.
He can't have nuts, we don't.
You know we keep, we keep halalin our home, and also like he
needs floaties and sunscreen.
And if you have a firearm inyour house and you don't store
it locked and loaded, separateammunition, maybe that's a
conversation that me and myfamily need to have about, like
if we can have play dates atyour house Or not that.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I love that answer.
I love that.
I would love to see someone Dothat checklist of yours.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Right, like have a nice.
I want to see, like some pta,like Conversation happen about
it, like of who gets to go to abirthday party, who doesn't like
.
I think, because I think thoseare real conversations that are
happening.
But, as you mentioned, i think,like I, i know that I still,
when people ask what I do for aliving, one never want to tell
people your podcaster.
It's like telling people you'rea writer.
(37:50):
It's a bad, it's either, it'sit's gonna be an awkward
interaction.
But then to follow that withyou know I work for a gun
violence prevention org.
When I'm out in the world, likeI don't necessarily know if
someone's going to take thatWith grace or in an exciting way
, or if they're going to youknow if this is immediately
Kelly, i think, even more so foryou right, because I'm walking
(38:11):
or something where you'retrapped.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
And I have, like I walk through the role as with,
with white lady protection,right, so that's, but like is so
is someone gonna make this areally uncomfortable interaction
?
Um, that maybe, like I don'twant to have what, i'm just
trying to get coffee or go tothe airport, um, but the more it
gets modeled Right, the theless awkward that interaction
(38:36):
has to get, because the morepeople get used to it.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I'm the safer we all are so.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I'm gonna whisper that this conversation to um
some writers who write showsthat have like Children and
parents, but I would love to seethat too.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
We, we did have.
We have like magnets and thingswe sent out for ask day, which
is a day that Brady helpedsupport um, that maybe I can
connect you with through Reneeto like send out If you actually
want, like the pamphlets andthings.
But it included like have youasked your friends and family
today?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
That's cool.
What does?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
the magnet say.
I think it's just like have youasked like it's a, it's a, it's
a checklist, sort of thing?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I like that a lot.
That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
It's useful, i'll.
I'll connect with you on thatand this part, the magnet part,
i will cut, but It's just, it'sjust nice because it's again
I've wondered it like when COVIDopened up and you're going into
family members houses again for, like, dinner parties and
things like that, like What'saround, what's in the house,
(39:37):
well, and I think I want to berespectful of your time.
So, kelly, do you want to goahead?
What did you say, kelly?
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Um, i was saying even you know same thing with pets,
like there's so many differentways, and I'm actually gonna.
I was looking for the links Icould drop it in the chat.
Oh cool, my internet's beingkind of weird, let's see, it's
just going a little slow.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
That's funny.
Seems like it's the day I know.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
So while we're dropping it, kelly Piper, we'll
ask you the final question.
So this is the part where wepivot to you and put, kind of
our guests in the hot seat.
So we always ask folks whenyou're asked to come on a gun
violence prevention podcast,besides being like, yay, this is
the best, is there anythingthat you were like I absolutely
want to discuss?
I really hope that they bringup or that you really wanted to
(40:31):
mention that we didn't covertoday.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Thanks, kelly, i see that you just linked that.
Yeah, i think and I sort ofpreempted your end because what
I really one of the things thatI really want to know is what's
a good way to ask when you'redropping your kids off for a
play date, if there are firearmsin the house.
And I really liked how youtalked about it, jj, how you say
, like, okay, just a few quicksafety things.
He can't have nuts, is there apool, are there any pets?
(40:58):
Do you have any firearms in thehouse?
Like that kind of sandwichingamong other normal safety
concerns.
I think is a great way to do it.
Great way to do it And alsosaying, you know, when people
drop their kids off at yourhouse, to say, hey, just so you
know we don't have any firearmsin the house.
(41:19):
Or we do have firearms andthey're unloaded and locked and
the kids cannot get to them.
The pool has a fence around itand my dog is so old he doesn't
have any teeth.
Like, let's just like put it inthe safety group and like, as
parents, we can normalize thisSo it doesn't have to be an
awkward question and we canprotect all our kids, which is,
you know, something we all careabout.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Phenomenal, thank you .
And so, piper, where can folksfind you If, after listening to
this, they're like I want tosupport her in everything And
also I want to see her shows,show, safe storage appropriately
and everything else?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I right now I am on the season of Yellowstone and
this season of billion spoileralert, and you can find me on
social media, at Piper caribou,on Instagram and Twitter, but
only DM nice things.
If you DM me a not nice thing,you're going to be blocked from
(42:16):
subscribing into the web forever.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Well, there we go.
All right, all right.
Well, i think I'm going to go.
Well, my name is Piper Paribault and I'm an actor
and activist, and I'm currentlyworking on the TV shows
Yellowstone and Billions, and Irecently met with the Brady
campaign to Washington to talkabout the Show Your Safety
campaign.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
And what brought you to working with Brady and the
Show Your Safety campaign.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, i'll say this for all the, for all the
negative things you can sayabout social media, especially
the Dumpster Fire that isTwitter.
Right now, chris Brown reachedout to me over DMs on Twitter
And I follow Brady because Ifeel like you guys are really in
(00:44):
a place that a lot of Americanscan get on board.
There's a lot of common senselegislation that you support and
common sense norms that youwant to establish, and I feel
like I look to Brady to sort ofget that point of view that
people can agree on.
And so I follow Chris Brown too, and she reached out to me to
(01:05):
tell me about the campaign andsay you are going to Washington
And I was like can I come?
I'll say this my DMs are sopositive, like I really use
Twitter.
when I first started, i wasinvolved with the International
Rescue Committee before Trumpbecame president, but even
(01:27):
before then, but especiallyafter then, i use Twitter as a
way to reach out toorganizations and people that I
think are smart, and there areso many activists and leaders,
even members of Congress, that Ihave interviewed, like I follow
them and they follow me, andthen I'll write them like a
little knowing And see, you knowwhat I mean, see if we can
(01:50):
start a relationship, and then Ialways try to then meet in real
life, because I think that'swhere real trust and
relationship are built.
But yeah, my Twitter DMs it'sbeen really useful.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, I will say social media has been really
great for grassroots organizing.
I will give it a huge upliftfor that.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I think that what I've learned as I've sort of
listened these past seven yearsis that we make the most
progress and the best progresswhen we work intersectionally.
And so when I first started inactivism, there was this
mentality of like choose thesubject you care about most Is
it water?
Is it, you know, education Andthen just focus on that.
(02:42):
And I was like I kind of likethe parties that like have a lot
of different people at them.
You know what I mean.
So I've always been kind ofwanting to bring the whole, the
whole show at once.
And what was exciting to meabout the show your safety
campaign was that I have workedon a lot of shows that have
firearms And I think that Ithink it's so smart what Brady
(03:04):
is doing of trying to changesocial norms, like we did with
designated drivers, or buckle upwith seatbelts to talk about
safe storage of firearms.
And we can normalize thatpartly by showing it on
television.
If we show responsible gunowners who unload their firearm
and put it in a lockbox whenthey get home, and we just
(03:25):
constantly do that, it becomes anorm.
And there I think about thiswith grassroots organizing, you
know, and television, it's likeI can't knock on every door in
Wisconsin, but I can be on everyTV in Wisconsin And I think you
can, even with cigarettes.
You know, all of a sudden theleading heroes didn't have
(03:46):
cigarettes in their mouthanymore And it started to change
the culture.
And I think we can do that withsafe storage And I think
responsible gun owners believein safe storage And I.
There are so many things aboutit that I think we can move the
needle on without.
It's not a substitute forlegislation.
Obviously, legislation is whatI'm hoping for, but this is
something that my community, theentertainment community, can do
(04:07):
to help be part of a solution.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think that's a really important insight.
When you talked about how,rather than thinking about oh, i
have to focus on just one issueYou sort of thought about
things intersectionally, becauseone of the things we've done on
this podcast is try to bring inthe intersection between gun
violence and environmentaljustice, or gun violence and
race, or gun violence andeducation, and you name it.
So that's hugely importantbecause it touches so many areas
(04:33):
And in your area, in you knowthe television and film, i'm
wondering, since you've gotteninvolved in the show, your
safety campaign, what, how hasit sort of impacted the way
you've been thinking about yourprojects Or your work and sort
of your daily life?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, i'll tell you this.
Last night I was watching ashow I'm not going to name them
because I don't want to blameand shame, but I was watching
this really good show Youprobably heard of it And a woman
who is a law enforcementofficer takes a gut, she goes,
she wakes up in the night.
She hears a sound, she gets onthe bed, she goes to the closet.
(05:11):
There was a safe with a lock onAnd I was like my husband was
sitting right next to me.
I was like, ah, safe storage,safe storage.
And she, under the lock, tookout the weapon loaded it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I was like she started unloading.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was like maybe we're going to be fine.
She goes down the stairs.
She sees that it's her partnerlike her, you know, emotional
partner coming through the doorand relationship partner not
work partner, and and he waslike whoa and has this sort of
moment.
And then she's like I'm sorry,i didn't know you were coming
over.
And she apologizes And justwhen I was getting ready to
(05:47):
celebrate, she opens the kitchendrawer, puts the loaded weapon
in the drawer, closes it andsays can I make you an omelet?
And I was like an omelet.
There's a lot of weapons in thekitchen.
But we were halfway there, youknow, and I thought, oh, i'm
going to see who I know on thatshow and reach out and say yo
(06:08):
guys, great job on the safestorage, but you can't leave the
loaded weapon in the kitchendrawer.
So we can do it.
And it was part of the tensionand it all worked for the story.
We're just not.
We're just not there yet.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I know exactly what show, because I had the same
journey, the emotional, sameemotional journey throughout
that scene.
Wow, yes.
And then I was like wait, no,no, no, no, no, yeah.
I was like you could just Yeah,yeah, i was like just one more
step, you had it.
So, yeah, i Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
We were talking about in Washington.
We went with Brady and a bunchof different show runners who
are basically in televisionthat's the people who create and
sort of head the writer's roomof a show And we had guys from
writers from SWAT and rookieYellowstone and they were
talking about you know how wecan implement this idea
(07:17):
throughout production And not sothat it has to be a PSA or
preachy.
But one thing somebody said wasyou know, if you're the prop
master, if you're a head ofprops on a TV show, they're like
greatest fear is that you'regoing to go like oh, don't you
have a blank in the prop truck.
They want you to have likeevery magical Chinese food
container box of Cheerios.
You know whatever boat anchor,but there is a certain kit
(07:41):
that's kept in a prop truck.
There are certain standardthings that are always there, so
that you always have a Chinesefood container and whatnot.
And somebody said why don't wejust put like three different
styles of lock boxes in all theprop kits so that at least at
the last possible opportunity toshow safe storage, the prop
master has a lock box on theprop truck?
(08:02):
So at least because it shouldhold, the good intention would
be for it to come from the, fromthe writers, so that it's
crafted within the story.
It makes sense, it buildstension, but at the very least
let's have a way to do safestorage if we haven't caught it
anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I'm wondering too .
You mentioned part of whatinspired you to do this was
thinking about the ways that youmight not be able to be in
every door, but you can be onTVs across the country.
And I'm wondering if someonewere like, well, isn't that
censorship, isn't that keepingyou from expressing yourself or
(08:41):
being, you know, creative inyour field?
I'm wondering how?
how does this impact the craft?
Or do you feel constrained atall?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I mean, you know, i think we're not talking about
making it law in the writer'sguild that you have to have
weapons stored safely.
We're talking about raisingawareness.
And, like I was like you and Ijust said you know, because I've
got it in my brain right nowbecause of Brady, i was watching
(09:13):
that show And when she put thegun in the kitchen cabinet I was
like, why not?
Because it's right on my frontburner.
And I think if we, what we weretalking about with Brady was
raising the awareness at alllevels of production so that
we're not dictating you know gunsafety before story.
But what we're saying is let'sjust think about, let's just
(09:35):
think about where the gun camefrom.
Let's just think about whatsomeone does when they take
their gun off their person.
Because I've been on loads ofsets for many years where it
never occurred to me I'm guiltyof it It never occurred to me,
where my character even got thegun.
They said, oh, just pull thegun out of your pocket and then
you write it.
And I'm like, okay, you've gotso many things going on and so
many things to be aware of And Ithink, because of the gun
(09:56):
violence nightmare that'shappening in this country.
Let's raise the awareness rightto the front.
So if there's an opportunity tonormalize safe storage, we can
do that, but I don't think iteven gets near the censorship
question, because we're nottalking about a mandate.
(10:24):
I don't think we're going to, idon't think we could avoid it,
even if we wanted to.
Guns are so front and center inAmerica right now and the fear
of every parent, every person,all of a sudden, everybody knows
what a soft target is and it'sso in our national consciousness
.
It's going to be reflected inthe storytelling, whether we
(10:45):
want to or not, and I reallyhope that, as you were
mentioning, it's not just themass shootings that are what's
in the storytelling, but it'sreally the children getting
access to unlocked firearms inthis country by firearm, there's
a lot of domestic violence,there's a lot of things that are
(11:10):
going on that I think should bein our storytelling, and I
think it will be, because we'reall experiencing it.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And one of the interesting factors about
talking about American media isthat it's global right, like
we're everywhere.
We're one of the biggest mediamarkets and we export a lot, but
the gun violence problem thatwe see is sort of unique to us,
even if other people arewatching our shows and our
movies.
So I'm wondering how does thatplay into the way that you're
(11:47):
thinking about this campaign ordepicting guns on screen?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
I mean, i think that the fact that America, that our
media has put out all over theworld, but it's only America
that has this horrible gunviolence problem, shows you that
, at least to me, it says thatthe media is not responsible.
It's the lack of legislationthat's responsible, because
these TV shows and movies andvideo games are in many places
(12:15):
that don't have this problem Andit needs to be addressed
legislatively if we're going tofix it.
It's the guns.
(12:35):
It's pretty clear To me.
It's pretty clear what theproblem is.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And that was kind of my goal, as I was like I just
want to be friends with smarterpeople And so I forced them into
my orbit.
That's great.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I learned my way into the podcast, but that's a whole
other story.
I was like I'm obsessed withpodcasts And I made that known
to the whole staff, so I foundmy way in.
I'm wondering too you've done alot of work around refugees And
I'm wondering, given that gunviolence is so intersectional,
do you see any links betweenthat work and the work that
(13:11):
you've been stepping into aroundgun violence prevention?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I'll say when I first started working with the
International Rescue Committee,i was predominantly working
overseas I was going to.
At the time that I started wasthe beginning of the war in
Syria, and so there wererefugees coming out of Syria
into Southern Europe and Lebanon, and so I was always thinking
(13:37):
about these issues as not athome.
And gun violence is such apersonal issue because it
happens right here at home, andso it's heartbreaking to think
that there are problems thisterrifying that are happening
(13:58):
right here at home.
But I'll say, like the refugeework, that intersectionality not
only gives us strength but, tome, gives me joy.
There are.
When I see trans activists showup at a refugee march or gun
(14:18):
violence activists showing upwith the climate kids, i'm like
not only does it make ournumbers bigger, but it's more
fun.
It's more fun to work together.
And I think when I think aboutreaching out to other actors to
say, can we get your voiceinvolved in this?
Some actors, because of whothey are, what their heritage or
their experiences, they'reasked like I'll use Ruffalo as
(14:41):
an example.
Like everybody asks Ruffalo todo water.
Like he loves water, he workson water, he cares about water.
If you want to talk about water.
You go get Ruffalo, but it'skind of fun to ask him to come
and do trans rights or gunviolence legislation.
There's, like you know, it's alighter lift when it's not
something that you're dealingwith the trauma of every day, so
(15:03):
that intersectionalrelationship and support can be
a real energy boost and joy tothis work.
I think I feel like I mean, as aperson who supports many causes
(15:34):
but it's not my profession Isee the exhaustion in leadership
and how this work can wear onsomeone, and so when the Biden
Harris administration passed theBipartisan, the Safer
Communities Act, i was like I'malways the one in the room who's
like.
When do we party?
(15:55):
When do we celebrate?
Like I don't know.
Like who makes cake?
What do you guys like?
Like tacos, something, becauseI feel like in activism there's
always more work to do.
It's such a long road that evennot even something as big as
the Bipartisan Safer CommunitiesAct, but like even small things
, i think it's so important tocelebrate even the small
(16:17):
victories, because this work isso exhausting that you know
getting together and havingtacos and like patting each
other on the back and tellingeach other a great job and that
was a step forward is soimportant.
I am super fun at a party, yeah, that whole like shut up and
(17:12):
dribble argument.
I mean I've never been theperson that you're like.
You can change the channel, youknow what I mean.
But like, guess what?
Like we are citizens of theUnited States and I have my
First Amendment rights to speakand I am a voter And I also vote
with my money.
You know, i put my money incauses and people and businesses
(17:35):
that I believe have bestpractices, and one of the great
things about this country is ourfreedom of speech, and part of
my work is to be a storyteller.
But part of my personhood andpart of my citizenship and part
of my humanity is that I'm goingto speak about the things I
(17:58):
care about And, for whateverreason, people in entertainment
have a larger platform in thiscountry and like this country
did that, like I didn't say Ididn't become an actress so I
could have, like a big Twitterthing.
I wasn't even Twitter.
So if people are going tolisten and that's a tool that I
(18:20):
have to make change for thebetter for all of us I'm not
going to not use that tool.
If I was a restaurant owner,then maybe I would use my
restaurant to hold a fundraiserfor Brady, you know.
Or I would say, when I'mtalking with older friends of
mine, i'm like I know you'regoing to talking on the phone
And so like, let's get you, youknow, to call donors.
(18:43):
Like we all have something thatwe can give to participate, and
it's just a matter of figuringout what that is.
And I happen to have thisplatform and like I'm not really
going to tell you what I'mhaving for lunch on my Instagram
, i'm going to tell you aboutBrady.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well, we really appreciate it And I think too,
having you know, having you andother people in entertainment,
also just kind of drives homethe point that gun violence is
unfortunately something that youcan't really like, you know,
buy your way out of or poweryour way out of.
We all have a stake in it, andso it's just a way of showing
(19:19):
that, like, if you're in theUnited States, you have a stake
in this.
It's really a real thing thatall of us, you know, we have
people we love, we like to goplaces, like you said, freedom
of speech, and so all of thesethings are sort of part of it.
And I'm wondering, you know,where would you in your wildest
dreams if, if you could see somechanges sort of take place in
(19:42):
Hollywood around the depictionof guns, like, where would you
love for it to go?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I mean there's so much we could do.
I heard one idea that ashowrunner brought up when we
were in Washington this pastweek about could we take the
guns off the posters, and Ithought like, oh, that feels
concrete, actionable, we couldagree on it.
We're not saying there aren'tguns in America, we're just
(20:09):
going to take the guns off theposters because we can't control
who sees those posters.
You know, some kid walks pastthat poster every day on their
way to school and there's plentyof ways for me to understand
who John Wick is.
I don't need to see the gun onthe poster.
So I thought that was kind ofan interesting idea.
I also someone brought up anidea that I thought was really
cool.
You know, when you're watchinga TV show, before it begins
(20:31):
there's like a card that sayslike warning violent or adult
language, nudity They warned youfor the nudity.
They don't want you for the guns.
I was like who makes that card?
And one of the showrunners saidoh, the networks are in charge
of the cards on their network.
Their legal decides what goeson that card.
What will constitute that?
(20:51):
And I said I wonder if we canreach out to networks and talk
about, could we say on the card,warning, adult language, nudity
, unsafe gun use.
Because it just puts it on thefront, it just raises that
awareness.
It's not even a you know, it'snot a story giveaway, it's not.
(21:12):
I guess it's a judgment.
But we're just saying we'rekind of naming it before you see
it in a show like the nudity,you know, if you don't want to
see a naked person, like getready to cover your eyes for
some part of the show or changeit.
But I think bringing thatawareness at the top of the show
might be helpful.
(21:35):
And I would love to see thenetworks have to grapple with
where do we put that label?
I thought that was kind of agood idea It reminds me of.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I mean, they put drug use Right Or a lot of.
I'm used to seeing that and itkind of tees you up to it where
you're like, okay, this ishappening, they also put unsafe
treatment of animals beforecertain shows.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They're like a lot of you know, and I think I'm not
sure if unsafe gun use is theright phrase.
But you know, in thespitballing of the idea I was
like that's a really interestingidea.
If writers knew that that labelmight go on the show they might
(22:35):
just think a tiny bit couplemore seconds about how the there
was a showrunner in Washingtonthis weekend who was saying a
lot of times a gun is a littlebit of a lazy cliche.
It's being used like anexclamation point And it was so
used to it being pulled by acharacter on a TV show that
we're almost completely unawareof it, except to say like it's
(22:57):
basically saying like listen tome or do what I say.
But maybe we could not be so wecould just think a little bit
more.
If that's the right way ofdoing the storytelling, we're
better storytelling.
Frankly, I did a television showfor Fox like two years ago and
(23:40):
my character had breast cancerAnd I said to the showrunner
could we put up a thing toremind women to get?
because it was the pandemic hadjust happened and women weren't
going in for their mammogramsbecause they didn't want to.
Women are so generous and youknow they don't want to take up
room in the hospital with theiryou know mammogram, in case
somebody.
But there had been a sharpdecline in women getting their
(24:03):
regularly scheduled mammogramsduring the pandemic And I said
that because my character hadbreast cancer.
This is a great opportunity toremind everybody to go get your
mammogram or think of the womanin your life that you love your
mom, your aunt, your sister,your wife, whatever and and say
remind them, remind them to dothat.
And they the show is like thewriter was a woman.
(24:24):
She was like that's, that'scool, that's who do we call?
I was like I don't know, it'syour show.
I said I'll call the executiveproducer and she was like oh,
that's a great idea.
Here's who you should call, andI couldn't believe that we could
just call it up the chain andwe did it.
So I think there's there's realopportunities for that, and I
think, especially after rightafter you've seen a very
(24:45):
meaningful story that might hityou emotionally, you are more
apt to consider the idea andmaybe even make a change.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
And for listeners who , who you know, maybe, if you're
not a big consumer of media oryou're unfamiliar with like
American media and you're like,I don't see like this changing
that much.
Like when law and order SVUstarted airing, the number of
folks who were comfortablesuddenly disclosing their
assaults like skyrocketed ReallyAfter after the show aired.
Yeah, people would call becausesuddenly, you know, maybe they
(25:22):
felt that their local lawenforcement wouldn't respond.
But here was a in particular,like Mariska Hargitay.
Like people would I know, evenlike write to her.
But like people were likehere's a detective who cares
that I see on my TV screen.
Here's what I can say, here arethe procedures I can follow.
So, even without somethingformally set up, like media
changes the way that peoplerespond to things that they're
seeing.
Yeah in their life.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I think storytelling does that, because we can't all
have had all the experiences,but if you see a well-told story
, it can connect and sort oflead you somewhere.
Mariska is like an incredible,incredible powerhouse for work
on getting rid of the backlog ofrape kids because she
encountered that when she wasdoing the show.
(26:04):
she sort of learned about itand then started working on it.
She's one of those people thatI marvel marvel at.
She's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Thinking to to your point about unsafe gun use,
especially given that a lot ofpeople who own guns want to be
responsible.
They want to protect theirfamilies, And so I could imagine
a situation where maybe yourkid who you're, you've tried to
teach not to play with guns andthings like that is watching a
(26:35):
show and you see that it hasthat on there.
Maybe that reminds you.
Oh, I should probably have aconversation with my child about
what they saw, what's right,like the questions to ask as
well, rather than not evenknowing that your child is
seeing all sorts of stuff andthen going out into the world.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I totally agree I think there's a whole slew of
responsible gun owners thatdon't have their guns in the
locked storage situation that ifa card was put at the end of a
show that said make sure youstore your firearms locked and
unloaded to protect your kids, Iwonder how many people would
consider taking action.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I think, especially if maybe the person modeling it
is someone who is shown as avery responsible and competent
gun owner on TV, totally Or evenjust a hero of any kind.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
It doesn't even.
I think there's a pretty wideswath of stories that have
characters that are socompelling.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, it can be.
I mean to identify myself as anelder millennial.
I don't think there was a TVshow on television that was
geared towards my age groupgrowing up that didn't have a do
not drink and drive on promnight or homecoming episode.
I think we got it from everytype of conceivable story, from
the schmaltzy after school typestuff to the really serious teen
(27:58):
dramas.
They all dealt with it and theyall, i think, had the angle of
the really pretty popular girlor the really cool girl that you
wanted to be Didn't engage inthat behavior.
The one you wanted to be wasn'tgoing to be the one causing
like harm to someone else, andthat was helpful like it was.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It was a good work And we're not, you know,
touching anyone's secondamendment, right?
We're not getting into adiscussion about even
legislation, we're justnormalizing safe storage.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Which trickles down, hopefully, in a good way,
definitely, definitely.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I mean, especially given the suicide, just the
burden of suicide that thiscountry is facing every year,
and a lot of that has to do withsafe storage too.
So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
It's impressive that you guys do this work every day.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I see, for me, i'm really impressed whenever folks
come into it to work in thisspace, who like that this isn't
your every day, right, if thatmakes sense.
Especially folks who don't havea tie to it, who aren't
survivors.
Like if you're choosing to bein this space and like to give
of your time and like And it'snot what, like you went to
(29:18):
school for that you do daily,like I actually think that
that's really impressive becauseit's a it's a hard thing to
select into, right?
I don't know if I'marticulating that well, kelly,
but I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
It's especially, i mean we're talking earlier about
, i'm not We know how for a lotof people, this can be a third
rail, and I think part of whatthat means is that when you step
into it, you're sort ofengaging in something that's
controversial even though itshouldn't be, which is why I
think this campaign is so cool,because it's sort of getting,
(29:53):
it's not going on the you know,the floral Congress or something
like that.
It's simply like tellingstories and working with people
in that way, which is soimportant because it shouldn't
be a third rail And for a lot ofpeople in their private lives
it's not, but it can percolateup to being this issue that
becomes.
(30:14):
I mean, people want, they don'twant their family to die.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, and I think I think I totally agree with you
And I think the gun violenceepidemic is so big We can't sort
of tackle it with one solution.
This is a huge issue in ourcountry And we need to separate
out these different groups.
You know responsible gun owners.
That's a really different groupthan certain other people, and
(30:39):
so the solutions are not just aone size fits all.
And let's talk about having asafer community And who wants to
be a part of that, and I thinkthat's you know we can broadly
agree as a large number of thepopulation that we would like to
have safe communities.
So let's start, you know,spreading that instead of trying
to deal with it all in onething and thinking it has to be
(31:01):
all or nothing or, you know, geton the floor of Congress.
We can each sort of find a wayto participate in having a safer
community and country.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And I think, too, what it goes to is, again, as
Kelly, as you mentioned, likethe power of storytelling,
because one of the things we'velearned from this podcast is
that we can present all theacademic information in the
world And we can distill it tobe as clear as possible, but
what actually tends to have animpact on electives and then on
allowing folks to feel like theycan engage directly, or when
people come on and say, likethis is my story, this is what
(31:33):
happened to me.
So if you're saying that thisisn't true, you're talking about
me, you're talking about my kid, you're talking about my dad,
and so I think having thosestories, as you said, modeled
like I can't knock, like wecan't knock on every single door
in Wisconsin and say here's areally important true story that
happened, but you can modelthose stories In every house-
(31:54):
and I think there are questionsthat people have that they're
afraid to ask, like I was sayingto two friends of mine who have
little kids.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I said what's the language you use when you drop
your kid off for a play date toask if there are Firearms in the
house and if they're storedsafely?
you like locked.
And they were like, oh, i don'task that.
And I was like, oh, okay, but Iwas like maybe we could find a
way to ask that and like not forit to be weird or an affront,
(32:22):
but if there was a normal,normalised way to say like, hey,
you know, i'll be back in fouro'clock.
Are there any unlocked firearmsin the house?
Like can we just normalize howto do that as parents so that we
have some?
you know, i mean, a televisionis a great way to do that kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
What allergies do you have?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I Always tell people to roll it in in the same
questions I asked my Dannyabout.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Like hey, it's so nice that like Oh no, this is
what I really wanted to know.
Come back, JJ.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Hopefully, jj.
Let's see She doesn't look likeshe got dropped off, so that's
good.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Also squad cast.
I think, oh, she'll, she'llcome back.
The cool thing about squad castis that it actually will keep
recording.
Oh, that's cool.
So like, let's say, she wastalking if she was talking, but
we can hear it, they willcapture the audio, be safe.
Yeah which is why this is areally good platform for For
podcasting, because it like willkeep going just why wasn't that
(33:32):
happening on that audition?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I was telling you I.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Yeah, no, we started with zoom and like, when we had
to go, you know, into quarantineright me, i started with zoom
and then we switched to podcastfor that reason, because it it's
like sending things to thecloud, right that way.
Yeah, i'm not as tech savvy asJJ, i'm midway, i'm moderate.
(34:03):
Okay but yeah, she didn't pingher, just to make sure she's
okay.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
We should have battery tires.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
We'll see We'll see.
It could have just been Oh,she's typing, she's alive.
Oh, she said, the internet justwent.
(34:41):
Oh, so, which makes sense in away, because I think the way, i
think it's pretty windy outside.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Where are you guys?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So I'm in DC and she's in like northern Virginia.
Look right outside.
Cool, She says she's gettingback on.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Okay is it nicer today?
It was raining here all weekendin New York.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Um, it is Nicer than it was.
It was raining here all weekendtoo, but it's still not like
great great to me.
I want to be 72 sunny.
No, I feel like we're almostthere.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It was sunny this morning in New York when I went
out to get a coffee and I waslike, oh, thank goodness.
Yeah little sunshine goes a lotwith me.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, friday was miserable here.
It was like blustery, rainy andI had to go to the dentist like
at the end of the day, and Iremember I walked over um,
because it was like this awkwarddistance where Walking was
about the same and I got thisand I was just soaking and I was
like And you're the dentist.
(35:48):
Yeah, it was quite the.
It was a Rockin Friday nightfor me.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Hi, I made it back.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I'm so sorry What you were saying about how you think
, how to model Asking when youdrop up your kid if there are
weapons in the house.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, i literally like a transformer went and I
was like They don't want me toshare my nanny stories.
Um, no, wait, yeah.
So um, how, how I thinkmodeling it tends to work and
how I've been telling people todo it Is when you do that
initial like first ever playdate or have people over, is
I've always like, hey, there'sjust a few like safety things.
You know, any food Needs orrequests, any medications?
(36:25):
Do you have a pool?
Are there any firearms in thehouse, like kind of the?
I mean I'm from Pittsburgh, sothe pool question as much
doesn't come up, but I feel likeLA probably.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I like the pool question though, because it kind
of is like I'm just a safetyconscious parent And I'm worried
about pools too.
You know what I mean.
Like you kind of just sandwichthe Difficult one in there with
the kind of more mundane ones,and it kind of.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And I think mixing it together right, because then it
feels less targeted, it's lesslike.
well, why are they asking meabout a firearm?
Do they think I'm?
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I just care about safety.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, i, just I.
He can't have nuts, we don't.
You know we keep, we keep halalin our home, and also like he
needs floaties and sunscreen.
And if you have a firearm inyour house and you don't store
it locked and loaded, separateammunition, maybe that's a
conversation that me and myfamily need to have about, like
if we can have play dates atyour house Or not that.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I love that answer.
I love that.
I would love to see someone Dothat checklist of yours.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Right, like have a nice.
I want to see, like some pta,like Conversation happen about
it, like of who gets to go to abirthday party, who doesn't like
.
I think, because I think thoseare real conversations that are
happening.
But, as you mentioned, i think,like I, i know that I still,
when people ask what I do for aliving, one never want to tell
people your podcaster.
It's like telling people you'rea writer.
(37:50):
It's a bad, it's either, it'sit's gonna be an awkward
interaction.
But then to follow that withyou know I work for a gun
violence prevention org.
When I'm out in the world, likeI don't necessarily know if
someone's going to take thatWith grace or in an exciting way
, or if they're going to youknow if this is immediately
Kelly, i think, even more so foryou right, because I'm walking
(38:11):
or something where you'retrapped.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
And I have, like I walk through the role as with,
with white lady protection,right, so that's, but like is so
is someone gonna make this areally uncomfortable interaction
?
Um, that maybe, like I don'twant to have what, i'm just
trying to get coffee or go tothe airport, um, but the more it
gets modeled Right, the theless awkward that interaction
(38:36):
has to get, because the morepeople get used to it.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I'm the safer we all are so.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I'm gonna whisper that this conversation to um
some writers who write showsthat have like Children and
parents, but I would love to seethat too.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
We, we did have.
We have like magnets and thingswe sent out for ask day, which
is a day that Brady helpedsupport um, that maybe I can
connect you with through Reneeto like send out If you actually
want, like the pamphlets andthings.
But it included like have youasked your friends and family
today?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
That's cool.
What does?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
the magnet say.
I think it's just like have youasked like it's a, it's a, it's
a checklist, sort of thing?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I like that a lot.
That's really cool.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
It's useful, i'll.
I'll connect with you on thatand this part, the magnet part,
i will cut, but It's just, it'sjust nice because it's again
I've wondered it like when COVIDopened up and you're going into
family members houses again for, like, dinner parties and
things like that, like What'saround, what's in the house,
(39:37):
well, and I think I want to berespectful of your time.
So, kelly, do you want to goahead?
What did you say, kelly?
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Um, i was saying even you know same thing with pets,
like there's so many differentways, and I'm actually gonna.
I was looking for the links Icould drop it in the chat.
Oh cool, my internet's beingkind of weird, let's see, it's
just going a little slow.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
That's funny.
Seems like it's the day I know.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
So while we're dropping it, kelly Piper, we'll
ask you the final question.
So this is the part where wepivot to you and put, kind of
our guests in the hot seat.
So we always ask folks whenyou're asked to come on a gun
violence prevention podcast,besides being like, yay, this is
the best, is there anythingthat you were like I absolutely
want to discuss?
I really hope that they bringup or that you really wanted to
(40:31):
mention that we didn't covertoday.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Thanks, kelly, i see that you just linked that.
Yeah, i think and I sort ofpreempted your end because what
I really one of the things thatI really want to know is what's
a good way to ask when you'redropping your kids off for a
play date, if there are firearmsin the house.
And I really liked how youtalked about it, jj, how you say
, like, okay, just a few quicksafety things.
He can't have nuts, is there apool, are there any pets?
(40:58):
Do you have any firearms in thehouse?
Like that kind of sandwichingamong other normal safety
concerns.
I think is a great way to do it.
Great way to do it And alsosaying, you know, when people
drop their kids off at yourhouse, to say, hey, just so you
know we don't have any firearmsin the house.
(41:19):
Or we do have firearms andthey're unloaded and locked and
the kids cannot get to them.
The pool has a fence around itand my dog is so old he doesn't
have any teeth.
Like, let's just like put it inthe safety group and like, as
parents, we can normalize thisSo it doesn't have to be an
awkward question and we canprotect all our kids, which is,
you know, something we all careabout.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Phenomenal, thank you .
And so, piper, where can folksfind you If, after listening to
this, they're like I want tosupport her in everything And
also I want to see her shows,show, safe storage appropriately
and everything else?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I right now I am on the season of Yellowstone and
this season of billion spoileralert, and you can find me on
social media, at Piper caribou,on Instagram and Twitter, but
only DM nice things.
If you DM me a not nice thing,you're going to be blocked from
(42:16):
subscribing into the web forever.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Well, there we go.
All right, all right.
Well, i think I'm going to go.
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