MANILA, Philippines — “Coconut trees were broken like matchsticks, getting snapped in half. We witnessed how roofs of houses were flying off. We found ourselves saying, ‘This is a disaster. Are we going to survive this Lord?’ We were really at God’s mercy that time.”

In their own voices and language, fisherfolk Kervie Sumaria and farmer Victor Bantaculo, both from Baybay City, Leyte, recalled the onslaught of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and how it profoundly affected their livelihoods.

Their voices add a more intimate touch to the ever-growing personal stories of the climate crisis—a topic perceived by some as too technical, data-intensive, and even distant.

Such stories are what the Súgat: Stories and Science for Sustainability podcast series hopes to amplify. The word “sugat” has different meanings in Tagalog (wound) and Bisaya (meeting). But in the podcast’s context, both meanings are closely related.

Ian Harvey Claros, lecturer at the Filipino Department of the Ateneo de Manila University, and Michael Carlo Villas, lecturer at the Visayas State University, first conceptualized the project as a way to fulfill what they consider as a responsibility.

“I’ve always believed in the duty to remember, meaning to say that we have that obligation to remember, primarily because we are the ones that are not really affected, or because we are the ones who survived after the typhoon,” Claros said. 

“The idea of the podcast was something not really within our reach [at that time], but we just wanted to do something, whatever it was,” said Claros.

They eventually found a home to develop their idea through the Ateneo’s Areté Sandbox Residency Program, where they worked on their project beginning in October 2022. The first season was then released in August 2023, a few months before the 10th anniversary commemoration of Yolanda.

For the Súgat team, the podcast is another platform to uncover stories left untold.

“We try to establish alternative stories from mainstream media. There are already a lot of stories about Haiyan, but at this moment we try to curate stories really coming from ground zero, the grassroots,” Claros said. 

“We try to have this congregation of perspectives and experiences, in which mainstream media would not practically explore into,” said Claros at an April 17 webinar on Súgat.

Ram Anayan, a Súgat team member and lecturer at the Filipino Department of the Ateneo de Manila, had initial worries that the project was not tangible enough, and it might not really bring something new. But he later realized that the goal was not to reinvent podcasting or anything else, but to spark conversations from such stories worth telling. 

A 2022 paper by Dr. Regina Rodrigues, professor of Physical Oceanography and Climate at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil, and Dr. Theodore Shepherd, professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, saw the need to bridge the gap between “top down” approaches to climate information and local contexts. 

One approach is in empowering communities to produce their own stories and data in a way that is simple and intelligible to them.

Commitment to grassroots

The podcast episodes were recorded in several languages, including Waray and Bisaya, which are spoken in the provinces most affected by the super typhoon. 

While making the first season, the Súgat team did not know how audiences beyond these regions would react to the use of local languages. 

Claros also admitted that using local languages could limit the podcast’s reach and mean less listenership. But for him, this initiative is meant to benefit local communities, who know firsthand how the use of language could be a matter of life and death.

For instance, Anayan recalled how public warnings of a “storm surge” did not fully capture the urgency of the situation. The concept, articulated in English, simply did not hold much weight to the locals.

Claros said that the commitment to forming a diverse team from varying backgrounds and language fluencies was important to connect organically with the grassroots. Team members Michael Villas, Glenn Pajares, and Charlie Andan can speak Waray, Bisaya, and Cebuano, Nathanielle Torre in Bicol, Anayan in Hiligaynon, and Claros in Waray.

“The podcast is not the interpreter, it’s not the voice. It’s merely a conduit of this discourse,” Anayan said, highlighting the podcast’s aim of understanding local contexts.

Another upside to the podcast is that it allows for greater portability. It takes up less space than videos, can be easily streamed through platforms like Spotify, and generally has lower production costs to produce. 

The podcasts can then be used as accessible teaching materials on the effects of climate change, as mentioned by Claros. Members of the Súgat team, all of whom are teachers, have themselves used the podcasts in their own classes.

Processing and learning from climate trauma

Retelling their experiences of the tragedy could trigger survivors’ traumatic memories. Thus, the team found the need to conduct pre-interviews to provide a safe space for initial sharing, and to help navigate through sensitive topics during the interview proper. 

“The word ‘sugat’ invites us to look at a wound, but at the same time, making it a moment of convergence. It’s not easy, we’re dealing with metaphysical and physical pain, but on balance we can transform these wounds into moments of convergence, and moments of conversation,” Claros said.

Keeping survivors comfortable in sharing their stories was also a key reason why the podcast used local languages.

According to Claros, community partners expressed their happiness in being given a platform to share their stories.

The podcast team is now working on ways to reach a wider audience, including offering English and Filipino transcripts for future episodes.

“Our human resource last year, as an emerging group, was spent on the production side rather than the dissemination. This 2024, we aim to work [with our] community partners to share [Súgat] at the grassroots level,” Claros said.

Súgat currently features the experiences of Yolanda survivors, but Claros is excited to launch a new season that explores other climate stories.

Both Claros and Anayan emphasized the importance of these narratives, which allow community participation by sharing and processing personal experiences through the medium. 

Such experiences–or wounds–can become catalysts for convergences that could stir climate action. 

Sugat: Stories and Science for Sustainability is available on Spotify. For more information, you can also visit their Facebook page.

This story was supported by the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines