Behind the scenes of my new Netflix series

I’ve always seen myself as a student trying to figure out the heart of the matter. A good day for me is one where I go to sleep knowing just a little bit more than I did when I woke up in the morning. So when I’m deciding how to spend my time, I usually ask myself three questions: Will I have fun? Will I make a difference? And will I learn something?

My new Netflix series, What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gatesis out today. And as I reflect on the process of working on it over the past two years, the answer to all three questions is a resounding “yes.”

I had a great time with the super talented director, Morgan Neville. Morgan directed one of my favorite documentaries, Best Enemieswhich is about the debates between Gore Vidal and William Buckley during the 1968 American presidential election. Morgan also won an Oscar for his great film 6 meters from Stardom.

As you might have guessed from the title, What now? is a show about the future. I’m fortunate to be working on some interesting problems. Between fighting to reduce inequality through the Gates Foundation, leading Breakthrough Energy’s work on the climate crisis, and my ongoing involvement with Microsoft, I have a front-row seat on some of the biggest challenges we face today.

I’m incredibly grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from some truly incredible people while making this show. (I hesitate to even use the word “work” because the process has been so much fun!) I hope people watch What now? and feel like they are accompanying me on my learning journey.

Each episode focuses on a different challenge: artificial intelligence, climate change, misinformation, eradicating disease, and income inequality. I spoke with some of the great thinkers and innovators who are pushing for progress. Some of them have different ideas than I do about how to tackle these challenges, and I loved hearing their perspectives. It was eye-opening.

I got to have on-camera conversations with familiar faces like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Open AI co-founder Greg Brockman, and groundbreaking director James Cameron. And I made many new friends, including a resourceful malaria researcher from Burkina Faso named Abdoulaye Diabaté, young climate activists who impressed me with their intelligence and passion, and an amazing group of people from the Bay Area who overcame enormous adversity on their path from poverty to stability.

There were also dozens of people who participated in the standalone interview series, including my friend Bono and the brilliant Mark Cuban, all of whom provide an inspiring and informed view of the challenges we face. I hope that together we can combat the doomsday scenarios that so often surround these issues.

It’s hard to pick which discussion I learned the most from. But three conversations will always be etched in my memory: the ones with Lady Gaga, Senator Bernie Sanders, and my youngest daughter, Phoebe.

Become a Gaga

I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.

I was in Palm Desert, CA, preparing to film a conversation with Lady Gaga for our episode on misinformation. Hanging out with famous people doesn’t usually affect me. But I’m a huge fan of A star is born—especially the music—and I was aware of her reputation as an outsized personality. I couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say.

Luckily, I had nothing to worry about. I was blown away by how thoughtful Gaga was. She made me laugh with the outrageous stories of how she’s been the subject of misinformation in the past, and inspired me with some of the ways she thinks about the subject.

In the early years of her career, one of the most persistent Internet rumors about Gaga was that she was actually a man. It became so mainstream that reporters asked about it during interviews. She refused to confirm or deny it. Instead, Gaga turned it back on the interviewer and asked, “Would it matter if I was?”

The day of our Netflix conversation, I was filming earlier with my two sisters, Kristi and Libby, so I asked them to come watch the conversation between Lady Gaga and me.

We all hoped this photo would make us cooler in the eyes of our kids!

Lady Gaga had a great perspective on the intersection of information and entertainment, and the need to bring humanity back to personal interactions in the age of the internet. Our conversation was valuable in helping me think about what is possible (and perhaps not possible) when it comes to preventing misinformation.

Our conversation started before the cameras even rolled.

I’ve always enjoyed Gaga’s music (including her new song!), but I’ve come to appreciate her thoughtfulness as an artist. She has such interesting and insightful things to say about her art, her audience, and the ways she can make a difference. I’m grateful I got to spend time with her.

Unexpected bedfellows

When I emailed Senator Bernie Sanders to ask if he would talk to me about the income inequality episode, I expected to hear back after a while. So I was surprised and pleased to get a note back from him right away:

Bill – That sounds fun. Let’s do it.

–Bernie

Sent from my iPad

Several of my friends raised their eyebrows when I told them I would be meeting him. After all, Senator Sanders is the first U.S. senator in history to go on the record saying that billionaires should not exist. How would this discussion go?

This wasn’t the first time I’d met the senator. In the past, I’d found him quite approachable. I knew we saw things the same way on many issues. We’d briefly touched on the climate crisis, but we’d never had a long conversation, and certainly not on income inequality.

Our meeting for the series took place in a nondescript Washington, D.C., row house on a sunny afternoon last September. Arriving first, I reviewed my notes and pondered what the senator might say to me.

A few minutes later I heard the front door of the house open and a deep voice bellow my name. The senator quickly walked up the stairs to give me a hearty handshake.

Senator Sanders immediately put me at ease. He gave me a signed copy of his latest book. And I appreciated his efficiency when he immediately turned to the director and said, “Well, should we continue this on camera?”

I admire Bernie’s clear position on these issues.

Bernie asked me some tough questions about how much wealth I thought was enough. We agreed that rich people should pay more taxes. I asked him if he had legislation ready to make that happen. It was a great conversation.

After the shoot was over, we both had another appointment in Washington, so we walked downstairs together and to our waiting cars.

On the sidewalk, a jogger passing by saw Senator Sanders and yelled, “Bernie!” When he saw me, he looked twice and yelled, “Holy shit, Bill Gates!” Which made us both laugh. I guess we made an unlikely duo.

Proud daddy

As much fun as it was filming with Lady Gaga and Senator Sanders, my favorite interview for the series took place last fall in New York City with my daughter Phoebe.

I was a little hesitant to ask her to join the series, for a number of reasons.

First of all, I have two other wonderful children and I wanted to know if any of them wanted to be on the show. They were happy to put Phoebe in the spotlight.

Secondly, we had to film during Phoebe’s final year of university, when she was busy not only finishing her degree but also starting her own business and speaking at the foundation’s Goalkeepers event later that same week.

I’m glad it worked out, because our conversation about the disinformation episode turned out to be a highlight of the series.

In addition to running her own business, Phoebe is also an incredible advocate for women’s rights and women’s health. She regularly meets with other activists, many of whom have been horribly harassed online. She shared with me specific examples of how bad actors use misinformation and disinformation to disrupt progress.

Phoebe helped me better understand how women online, especially women who advocate for other women, often face threats to their safety that are designed to make them think twice before speaking out. I’m no stranger to people being mean to you online, but I’m fortunate enough to (mostly) ignore what’s being said about me. Phoebe explained how these threats can have a chilling effect on women’s rights activism and shared some thoughtful ideas about how to make the internet a safer place for everyone.

I am so proud of the way Phoebe uses her voice to stand up for women and girls.

There are few people in your life who can be as direct with you as your own children. Phoebe and I talked about growing up with social media, how to be sophisticated with it, how not to feed the trolls, how to seek out different points of view, and the important lesson (for me anyway) that no one uses Facebook or email anymore.

One of my favorite moments was when she told me never to email her. When I asked her why, she said, “Nobody uses email for personal communication anymore. Just text me.”

I finally met her halfway. These days I text her to say I’m going to email her. And we ended up talking more on the phone. I can’t wait to see how her advocacy work makes a difference in the world, and to hear what she thinks. What now? now that it’s out.

My goal for the show is to inspire more people to have conversations about these important topics. The human condition has improved dramatically over the last few hundred years. There’s no doubt that scary things are happening and it feels like change is coming fast. But we shouldn’t underestimate what happens when people work together and focus on a problem. I have faith that brilliant people, especially young people, will come up with amazing solutions.

The key is to engage with the issues. They are simply too important to just be pessimistic or bury our heads in the sand. These are global issues and we should be talking about them together. It is a critical time, but if we engage, there is a path to progress.

I hope you enjoy it What now?.