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Wawa Gatheru - Closing the Climate Work Gap Through Black Girl Environmentalist | The Daily Show

2025-10-08 Comedy
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The Daily Show
The Daily Show
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Wawa Gatheru: Restructuring the World Through Climate Equity Pipelines

Learn how Wawa Gatheru channels historical movement wisdom to maintain optimism while building concrete talent pipelines for Black women and gender-expansive people in the critical climate sector.

Short Summary

  • Build pipelines to address the significant underrepresentation of people of color in the "green ceiling" jobs (12–16% representation).
  • Reframe the climate crisis not as a guarantee of doom, but as a generational opportunity to fundamentally restructure systems inherited from past social movements.
  • Fundamentally shift climate communication away from constant doom toward inspiring stories of innovative local action, like land reclamation and regenerative farming techniques.

This interview introduces Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE), an organization dedicated to equipping the next generation of diverse climate leaders. Gatheru explains how political setbacks complicate climate work but stresses that shared values rooted in clean air and water offer a path forward for broad coalition building.

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Description

Founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Environmentalist, Wawa Gatheru, sits down with Josh Johnson to discuss her organization’s mission to build a pipeline in the climate sector for Black women and gender expansive people to create more environmental equity and provide resources for the next generation of green leaders. She shares how she stays optimistic in the face of the climate crisis by reframing the narrative as an opportunity to inherit the wisdom of past movements and restructure our world into something better, and emphasizes the importance of telling inspiring stories of climate work to make it more exciting and accessible for everyone. #DailyShow #WawaGatheru #ClimateCrisis Subscribe to The Daily Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/?sub_confirmation=1 Follow The Daily Show: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedailyshow Stream full episodes of The Daily Show on Paramount+: http://www.paramountplus.com/thedailyshow Follow Comedy Central: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ComedyCentral Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ComedyCentral Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/comedycentral About The Daily Show: Jon Stewart and The Best F**king News Team host The Daily Show, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning program analyzing the biggest stories in news, politics, and culture through a sharp, satirical lens. The Daily Show redefined the late night show category on TV and, with an audience of over 51M across social media platforms, has become a launching pad for some of the biggest stars in entertainment. The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central.

Top Comments (10)

@LotsOfLove4Music 2025-10-08

no wayyy, i went to college with wawa at uconn. it's great to see her on the daily show and doing great things in the environmentalism field!!

621 13 replies
@Bodhismile 2025-10-08

Thank you for giving Wawa Gatheru space on the Daily Show platform. She is so grounded, inspiring and she has an enthusiastic and positive outlook. It is indeed easy to have a very pessimistic view these days, and she highlights ways for people to view what is occurring thru a more constructive outlook.

403 5 replies
@nitty_ville 2025-10-08

KENYANS 🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪gather here! Our girl Wawa🇰🇪 is carrying Dr. Wangari Maathai's legacy and talking to Josh Johnson. 🇰🇪🌍

360 6 replies
@TuesdaywJJ 2025-10-08

WOW! Bravo Josh! 👏🏾👏🏾 Thanks TDS for putting Josh Johnson back in the host chair! Thanks Josh for interviewing Wawa Gatheru. What a beautiful, amazing gift to the planet! I will definitely follow her. 💐

238 1 replies
@jairajswann 2025-10-08

Two very impressive people, Josh and Wawa.

230 1 replies
@allyjojo3 2025-10-08

Such a beautiful and smart young lady. We need more of her in this world. More girls in science. The passion and dedication is exploding out of this sweet young lady. Makes me very happy to see a program like this.

182 3 replies
@judithparsons1920 2025-10-08

“Crisis of care” … she hit the bullseye. Brilliant!

180
@claudias1987 2025-10-08

Hey from Portugal! Josh Johnson needs to host more often. We need all his positive vibes. And Wawa indeed brought me hope ❤

106
@CU2morrow0488 2025-10-09

Is it just me, or was Josh completely mesmerized by her? 😀

82 7 replies
@rayellenkishbach8998 2025-10-08

Best 15 minutes on my feed all week. Thank you Josh for elevating black girl voices!

58

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