Talking TV: Today’s Dylan Dreyer On Climate Change And The Joys Of A Nature Show

Dylan Dreyer thinks there will always be a place in the world for a nature show, the kind the whole family can agree on and be happily transported, however briefly, into the wonders of the natural world.

Dreyer is trying to make that very kind of show with Earth Odyssey, now in its fourth season via Hearst Media Production Group and NBC’s “The More You Know” Saturday morning block. It’s a gig she squeezes in along with her day job as meteorologist of Today on NBC and as an anchor of its third hour.

In this Talking TV conversation, Dreyer discusses her role at Today and where climate change discussion has begun to permeate weather reporting. She shares what’s different about hosting the third hour since returning from the pandemic. And she reveals why the most recent episodes of Earth Odyssey have been the most significant to her.

Episode transcript below, edited for clarity.

Michael Depp: Dylan Dreyer is a meteorologist, children’s book author and anchor of the third hour of NBC’s Today. She is also the host of Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer on Hearst Media Production Group’s “The More You Know” block on NBC.

Earth Odyssey is a globetrotting show covering the environment, conservation and animal welfare in its fourth season. And Dreyer recently shot a spate of episodes at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, which she found, by all accounts to be a transformative experience.

I’m Michael Depp, editor of TVNewsCheck, and this is Talking TV. Up next, a conversation with Dylan Dreyer about TV meteorology, the Today show and what she hopes for viewers to take away from Earth Odyssey. We’ll be right back.

Welcome, Dylan Dreyer.

Dylan Dreyer: Thank you so much. It’s so nice to join you.

Glad you could be here. Dylan, the Today show is a pretty big platform to report the weather on, not to mention your anchoring duties in the third hour. We’ve had some meteorologists on this podcast in the past, and invariably we get into where their work is intersecting climate change. So, let’s get into that ourselves. Where does climate change fit into the narrative of where and how you report the weather?

Well, you know, I think it’s really special because at the Today show and NBC in general, we saw the need for a climate unit. I remember when I first started here, we had one producer. His name was Don. He’s worked here forever. And he helps make the forecast and he helps make graphics that we see every day on the show.

And since that time, which was about 11 years ago, our whole weather unit has evolved into having multiple producers. We have people in the morning, we have people in the afternoon, we have folks who focus on getting us all the stats that we need. Catherine, one of our producers, is amazing at tabulating all the facts that we need to tell, the stories that we need to tell. And then we’ve expanded into the climate unit so that there is a set of producers who can focus on telling the story of the climate.

And it’s still important as a news program to not be preachy, to not showcase necessarily our views, but to tell the story and let people take away what they want from the story. But we need the staff and the team to be able to tell those stories, and folks watching can do what they will with it. So, I think it’s just really a good sign that we saw that need to tell a deeper story when it comes to the Earth’s climate.

Personally speaking, what do you feel are your own responsibilities in terms of discussing climate change? I mean, I know on the Today show you’ve got to keep it light, but where are your opportunities there?

I think there’s so much happening across the world that we don’t necessarily know is happening. You know, I actually just had a chance to go out to Hawaii and talk about the Laysan albatross. It’s a bird that lives on a remote Hawaiian island. You know, it’s a five-day boat ride from the northernmost point of Oahu. And from this incredible story, we were able to show that this is one of the most remote islands. Humans cannot go to this island yet. It is covered in plastic. The birds cannot even walk around. They’re making nests in plastic Frisbees because it’s the part of the ocean where the garbage from three different continents come together because of the currents in the ocean.

So, it’s truly fascinating. You know, so often we do these nature shows, and we see these nature stories that showcase these animals and don’t really talk about the human interaction with these animals. But we’re as much animals on this planet as any of the other animals we’re familiar with, you know. And here we are creating this environment for these poor birds that have been around since the dinosaurs. And they’ve survived massive extinctions of all other animals. This bird has survived. And yet here it is, the plastic that is the biggest predator to these birds.

So, that’s the kind of story you want to say. And then hopefully it resonates with people to the point where it’s like they think about the next time they purchase a bottle or plastic bottle of water. Maybe we can use a refill instead. You know, maybe we will recycle, maybe we won’t use that straw. It’s just these little things that if everybody can make these small changes, perhaps they can make a big difference. And because we have such a huge audience, hopefully we’re reaching enough people that you can actually see a difference being made.

A meteorologist in Iowa recently resigned over what he described as PTSD from receiving numerous threatening emails over discussing climate at all during his forecasts. Have you ever gotten any kind of menacing response for discussing the subject on air?

Fortunately, not directly. There are going to be comments on Twitter. We’re in this world where people can say whatever they want from the comfort and anonymity of their own home. I will never meet that person, that person would most likely never say it to my face if I did. So, I think there are people who certainly want to get mad at us for certain things we talk about.

I don’t understand why we’re not talking about people drastically changing their lives. I mean, these are just small things that maybe we can live in a better place. I don’t see how this can upset people. Fortunately, I haven’t gotten direct comments and the ones I get on Twitter, I just kind of shrug off.

Do you think the TV meteorologists generally need to sort of get behind when an incident like this happens or there is some sort of general attack that that the whole community? That meteorologists need to in some way band together?

I think we’re trying to simply by telling these stories, you certainly see them a lot more across all networks, across local news. That’s our way of standing up to people. At first, perhaps it’s new. Perhaps nobody wants to be preached to, which what I said in the beginning. We try not to be preaching. We try to just tell the story.

I think as time goes on and enough of us tell this story, it becomes part of what you get used to seeing. Everything’s jarring at first. People don’t want to hear us tell you what to do. Instead, we’re going to step back. We’re going to tell you a heartfelt story about the state of our planet now from all these different aspects and all these different stories we can tell.

And hopefully people will get used to hearing them and they’ll do what they will with them, if that makes sense. It’s hard. It’s hard to come up and take a stand. And we’re doing so by example. Just by telling these stories, I think, is our way of taking a stand.

1. The Today show. What’s it like hosting that third hour now that we’re on the other side of the pandemic? Did you change the way you approach your job in any way, or was it more just a matter of getting back into the old rhythms?

It’s certainly a matter of getting back to the old rhythm. It became a new normal when we were all at home on our remote cameras. We had to work with the delay. You try to make a joke. We always joke with each other, we always tease each other, and the delay doesn’t allow those jokes to happen. There’s no instant reaction when you have to wait for a one-, two-second delay.

Latency is a humor killer.

It is. It just changes everything. So, when we got to get back in the studio with each other, even when we were separated at first, you know, we had all the space between our chairs. It’s just such a wonderful thing to all be in the same studio together. And now we’re all squeezed into that desk together and we can rag on each other and tease each other just like we always did. And I mean, I’m sure a lot of people feel this way. You look back and think, How did we do that before? Because it seems like a distant memory. But we made it through. We made it work and now we can get back to normal.

Today‘s been around a long time, since 1952. Is there always going to be a case for a breakfast show like Today? I mean, in a digital multimedia age, where does the Today show continue to fit in?

So many of the stories in the news are stories you can find online. They come up in your feed. They come up on Twitter. You literally get any of the news information you need from various websites. That we know. There’s just really something special about getting your news from someone you feel like you could have a cup of coffee with, someone you feel like you could grab a drink with. That’s what we still try to do.

Not only do we start off the show chit chatting, maybe on a Monday about our weekends, we open our homes up to people. So many people know my kids. I was in Italy last year on vacation with my family, and people were waving at Calvin because they know him from “Cooking with Cal,” you know, my little cooking segment I do with my son. So, there’s that element, that emotional, personal element that we open ourselves up to every morning. You can’t get that just by reading a news article online.

I do feel like when people wake up in the morning, they want to have that relationship with folks on TV because we’re in their homes every single morning. Another thing that’s special about the Today show is, yes, we will cover the big headlines, but that’s not the only story we tell. Just like the story there with the Layson albatross. Maybe you never heard of them before. That’s a bird that you probably will never come in contact with. So maybe you’ve never heard that story before.

Or Jacob Soboroff was on the show today talking about a Jewish standup comedian who is about to open up on Broadway tonight or tomorrow night. And maybe that’s a story you hadn’t heard of before. So, not only do we try to make it personal and let you guys in on our whole family life, we’re also going to tell you stories that I think you can’t find elsewhere. And that’s what makes the third hour special.

All right, let’s talk about Earth Odyssey. You’re in your fourth season there in NBC’s “The More You Know” block. How do you describe the show to people?

I adore this show. I’ve always loved watching nature shows when I was younger. I have three little boys now, they’re 6, 3 and 1. So often you can’t just turn one show on that pleases everybody. My 6-year-old doesn’t really want to watch Sesame Street anymore. And then you turn on another Paw Patrol and my 1-year-old has no idea what’s going on.

But when it comes to nature, we’re surrounded by it. These are the animals we share the planet with. These are the places that are in our world, that you can’t always access. And we have the footage taking you into the rainforest or taking you to these remote islands or taking you to places that you’d never be able to see otherwise. It’s a nice little half-hour show.

And for the first time this season, we’re actually getting to meet some of these animals up close and personal. So, we’ve worked with Brookfield Zoo and anybody who lives anywhere near Chicago or passes through Chicago has a special place in their heart for Brookfield Zoo. It’s been around for so long. They are known for taking such special care of their animals. And we got to meet several of them. I got to meet a giraffe. I got to pet a baby sloth. I got to meet a binturong, which I had never even heard of before, and got to meet it and feed it.

What is that?

It’s like an anteater. It’s got a really long tongue. And I had these little test tubes of baby food that it would just stick its tongue in. And then he was getting a little restless because we’re also filming a show and we have to do several takes. And they said, can I just give you some mealworms? And I’m like sure, thinking it would come in a cup or something. They took a handful of mealworms and just put them in my hand and they’re just like crawling up my wrists and crawling in and around my hand. And there you have my natural reaction to this absolutely disgusting, disgusting thing that just happened. But it kept the animal happy.

How many episodes did you end up shooting there at the zoo?

My goodness. I think we shot all the episodes for the end of the season, so I think maybe we shot about 12 episodes with all the various animals.

OK, wow.

Yeah, all those little snippets, all those little interviews we did with each animal. I got kissed by a seal. I mean, like it just a big furry face right on my cheek. And it smelled like fish. And it was just so wonderfully awesome and not something I have done yet in these Earth Odyssey episodes.

What do you hope the viewers take away from the show in a general sense?

We all share this planet. You know, it’s not just us. We have beautiful animals and they have survived through so many different things. They just bring so much joy. You know, they don’t judge. They don’t talk back. They’re just living their life. And in a place like a zoo, we get to see them. But on a show like Earth Odyssey, we get to bring you into their homes, and we get to show you how they care for their young. We get to show you what their day-to-day life is like. And there’s something I find so peaceful about watching another animal who doesn’t have to deal with the stresses of life that we have to deal with. But they have their own things going on.

I might say theirs is a little worse sometimes.

Yeah, exactly. And it’s fascinating to open up that world to people because these are animals we might not meet otherwise. So, this is our show that kind of shows, you know, who we’re sharing the planet with.

A seal’s life, for instance, I learned recently on a boat trip in northern England, is extremely rough. They’re either fighting or having babies all the time.

All the time.

No peace. No peace for the seal. Let’s just bring this back a little full circle to where we started on climate change. And each show, zeroing in on the environment and animal welfare might once have been sort of generally agreed-upon safe territory for TV. But we are in a much more fraught cultural, political climate now. It’s more it’s more conceivable to think that a show like this and its values are coming into some crosshairs. Are you worried about that moment coming? And have you prepared how rather are you prepared to respond to it from the platform that you have if it does?

I think there’s something nostalgic about watching a nature show. We all grew up with a nature show of some sort, whether it was Jack Hanna or whatever we watched. And all we’re trying to do is educate families about who we share our planet with by telling some of the stories.

I think it will certainly come across how human interaction has perhaps negatively affected some of these animals or some of these locations. You have monkeys that are trying to survive in more of a city lifestyle that they have had to adapt to, but they have adapted. And it’s fascinating to see how some of these animals have adapted in some interesting ways.

That is because of us. You know, so again, the show doesn’t try to be preachy. In this case, we’re literally just showcasing animals in their habitats. So, I don’t think we’re going to run into an issue with Earth Odyssey, especially as far as people getting upset by watching it. And we hope just the opposite. It’s a family show. Hopefully it sparks some conversations. Maybe it’s one of those things where kids do a little more research on a particular animal.

And kids are our future. Maybe they realize they have a connection to an animal that they see could be suffering because of climate change. And maybe they’re the ones to make a difference, to make life easier on our planet. So, it’s all about education, it’s all about information. And I see it in my own kids that if they’re interested, they take the lead on, you know, trying to perhaps help in the future.

OK, well, Dylan Dreyer sounds like you had a lot of fun feeding the animals at the Brookfield Zoo.

I certainly did.

Good for you on that. Those special episodes are coming to your screens soon. Thanks for being here, Dylan.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks to all of you for watching and listening. You can find new episodes of Talking TV or all of our episodes at TVNewsCheck.com and on our YouTube channel. New episodes are out most Fridays, and we will see you next time. Thanks.