We had the honor of hosting the incomparable (and age-defying) Jane Fonda for a raw and inspiring conversation with Chief members — moderated by Founding Member Amani Duncan.

The Academy Award-winning actress will receive the Cecil B. DeMille award at this year's Golden Globes, and has a long history of activism under her belt alongside her illustrious career on-screen. We've highlighted some of Jane's most powerful insights from our conversation below:

The story behind Jane's book, What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action, and the power of collective activism:

In 2019, I was very depressed, because I had done all the things that you can do to fight climate change as an individual. I got an electric car, was getting rid of single-use plastics, and had cut way back on meat. But I knew it wasn't enough. That is the on-ramp — it's not where you stop. So I figured out how to use my platform, and we started Fire Drill Fridays, which we knew would involve civil disobedience. And when I started it, the depression lifted. There's nothing like activism to dispel depression.

We targeted the 25 million people who know there is a climate crisis, but haven't done anything because nobody's asked them to. We didn't know if it would work, or if it would look like an aging actress flopping into DC and making a fuss. But it worked, because young people had awakened others to the urgency of the crisis. They responded to what we were doing, and little by little, more people started to join us. We've had nine million people join us virtually since March to participate and volunteer.

The climate crisis is a systemic problem, and there's not much we can do individually. Even if every one of us did everything possible — like solarizing our homes and buying electric cars — we couldn't slow down global warming fast enough. What matters is bringing large numbers of people together to force the government to do what's needed.

And when you finally have someone in power who listens — that's when you ramp up your activism. Biden's administration is off to a great start, but we’ve got to hold their feet to the fire.

Why climate change is the BIG crisis, and how we can rise to meet the moment:

We're facing so many crises right now, like the economic crisis and the racial justice crisis, but the climate crisis can absorb them all. Because if we don't address the climate crisis, everything we care about will disappear — from our economy and healthcare to our democracy, national security, and a livable future for our children.

Human beings depend on the ocean and forests for oxygen. But both of those are dying and disappearing with the burning of fossil fuels. This is an existential crisis, and we are the generation that has to do something about it. If we don't keep the warming at one and a half degrees Celsius, it will be beyond our control. We have ten years before that tipping point is reached.

We don't want to have our grandchildren say to us, 'Well, what were you doing? Why didn't you do something about it?'

Right now, we are living in our documentary moment. And the question we'll have to ask ourselves is, 'Were we brave enough to do what was needed?'

Finding meaning in activism, and the fault in seeking perfection:

Am I afraid of death? No. What I'm afraid of is having regrets when I get to the end. It's always what you didn't do when it's too late to do anything. So I live my life in such a way that I minimize the regrets. You can't necessarily make your life longer, but you can make it deeper.

We can have all the money and job titles in the world, but if they don't help us answer the question of why we're here, then they're not going to be meaningful or satisfying. The way we answer that question is by leaving the earth a little bit better with the efforts that we've made. That's what keeps me going. That, and knowing I'm not alone. It's very hard to be brave by yourself, but being part of a movement, especially a movement of women, gives you strength.

I've learned that the attempt to be perfect is toxic. What we are supposed to do is figure out what’s lacking in us, and seek that. Seek wholeness. Work on increasing your empathy and compassion, because those are things that fill you up and make you feel whole.