Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Jill Soloway, creator of Amazon’s ‘Transparent,’ can create political change. Jeff Bezos said so.

“Transparent” has won eight Emmys.

Jill Soloway, Code 2017
Jill Soloway, Code 2017
Asa Mathat

Jill Soloway, the comedian and actor behind Amazon’s Emmy-award winning show “Transparent” and more recently “I Love Dick,” said that they spoke to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about how their television show will actually help to make the world a more equitable and just place.

Soloway recounted a story from when they were at the Golden Globes with Jeff Bezos and they had the chance to ask him a question.

“I’m obsessed with a movement for women, people of color, queer people, and an intersectional power movement. I think about revolution all the time,” Soloway said. “How do I square that with my TV and filmmaking ambitions?”

Bezos responded optimistically.

“‘They are the same thing,’” Soloway said Bezos told them. “‘The way that a story can make change is so much faster than the way that politics can make change,’” he told them.

“You create culture that has a story in it that says something as radical as ‘trans people are people’ and then laws follow,” Soloway recalled.

Soloway went on to say that “Transparent” was one of the shows that really helped to propel Amazon into the content business.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel