On April 10 WGCU hosted an event at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School that featured NOVA Executive Producer Chris Schmidt. Schmidt has worked with NOVA on PBS one way or another for more than a quarter century. He formally joined the NOVA team in 2012 and these days as Executive Producer he oversees NOVA’s development team in creating new multi-hour projects in collaboration with U.S. filmmakers and international co-producers.
Prior to joining the NOVA staff Chris served as VP of Special Projects and VP of Production for Powderhouse Productions, one of the largest factual production companies in the North East. While at Powderhouse Chris developed and executive produced the NOVA mini-series Making Stuff as well as a two-hour NOVA special, Hunting The Elements – hosted by popular tech writer David Pogue. He also served as showrunner / executive producer for more than 100 hours of factual programming in series such as Extreme Engineering, Build It Bigger, Mega Engineering (Discovery Networks), Sliced, The Works (History Channel), Dogs 101 (Animal Planet) as well as numerous limited series and one-offs for PBS, National Geographic Channel and others.
That day we screened parts of the NOVA episode Weathering the Future for an audience of about 200 people. Between the segments we chatted with him, as well as two FGCU professors about issues raised in the film and the challenges we face in Southwest Florida when it comes to adapting to our changing climate. Chris talked about the challenges NOVA faces in communicating science to a broad audience, and Dr. Win Everham and Dr. Molly Nation helped tie it all together.
Dr. Everham is a Professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies and he’s a founding member of the FGCU faculty. Dr. Nation is an Associate Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, specializing in Environmental Education within the Department of Ecology and Environmental Studies.
Click here to watch Weathering the Future in full.
Click below to listen to the panel discussion in full.
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