In our story series ‘How Are You Today?’, we have a meandering, mental-health focused chat with some of our most well-known New Zealanders. Check out previous chats with people like Hayley Holt, Kiri Allan and Jacinda Ardern. Today, we talk to Paddy Gower about his new documentary series on climate change, Patrick Gower: On Ice, staying sober after redundancy, and how going to Antarctica prepared him for a difficult 2024.
Hi Patrick, how are you today?
I’m great! But I do need to persuade myself of that, because it’s been a pretty terrible six months. I’m back at home, I’m back on Zooms… a little bit of a lockdown feel does creep in, from time to time.
But I feel really proud because I’m still producing stuff. I’m proud about what I’ve done in Antarctica, despite all the circumstances. Antarctica saved me, because if it wasn’t for going down there I wouldn’t have anything on right now. And instead, I’ve gone to the most amazing place, and I’m about to tell the most amazing story about what’s happening down there.
When did you go down to Antarctica?
November last year, which is the height of summer in Antarctica. I went down there in a really dark mood – grumpy and overworked and not really appreciative of the fact that I was going to Antarctica. Then, fast forward from November to February, when Newshub was shut down and my show [Patrick Gower Has Issues], that I’ve worked so hard on, is put on pause, then eventually disappears. And I can’t really work for all those months until Newshub is finally shut, and I’m trying to find a job in a difficult economic environment, all those sorts of things.
Now, I realise that Antarctica gave me something very special. It gave me this special project that is helping save me from the situation I’m in and remind of all the reasons I do what I do.
I would imagine that the scale of Antarctica, coupled with the urgency of the climate change story you’re aiming to tell, must be quite a full-on combination.
Obviously, everyone who goes down there – myself included – cannot get over the beauty and the size… but also for me, it was about the power of nature. With all the scientists we were talking to; in understanding the role that Antarctica has in the whole world’s temperature ecosystem… everything links back to Antarctica. So, you’re confronted not just by the beauty, but by the power.
People always talk about having special experiences down there and I guess I sort of came back thinking I didn’t have one, but today, as I’m talking to you, I realise I did have one. When I said that ‘Antarctica saved me,’ I’m now realising that something incredibly special happened to me down there. It feels like it was fate for me to be there.
How so?
I was in bunk beds for three weeks with this scientist – first time I’ve been in a bunk bed since I was 12, probably the first ever scientific interview done from a bunk bed – and I was asking him about his research, which is getting microbes out of the crater of Mt Everest. I was like ‘Oh, what’s that going to be used for?’ And he said, ‘Science isn’t about getting use of out something, science is about finding something out and maybe it’s used for something, maybe it’s not, maybe someone else can come and build on it.’ It’s about adventure and finding out stuff that you don’t know.
That’s what a journalists should be really doing, in my mind. Just exploring and adventuring, learning stuff and telling stories, communicating with people. So, all that environment down in Antarctica was reminding me – it turns out now, a bit ahead of time – about the reasons that I love what I do. Pushing myself to find out new things, going further than I’ve gone personally before.
It was almost like Mother Nature – or fate – was saying, ‘Hey Paddy, you’re learning a lot of stuff about yourself right now and you think you don’t need it, because you’re the big man with the TV show… But trust me, in six months you’re going to need this, because you’ll be sitting at home, wondering what the eff you’re going to do with your life, and if you’ll ever get this thing going again. But go off, and be grumpy, and think you’re busy, because it’s all going to be coming back to you.’ [Laughs]
A very humbling process!
Absolutely. I was about to humbled – but I didn’t realise it yet, and I was being given some lessons on how to deal with it without knowing why.
It’s been a rough year for people in media, and for those working in civil service. Both of those are careers that require a certain amount of enthusiasm; it’s not just a job, it’s a purpose. Do you have any advice for those in the same position as you right now?
Something that is really closely linked to working with purpose for me is working with optimism. And – as hard as it can be – if you’re optimistic, if you believe in the possibility that you’ll get there again, that is your chance to get back some control.
Once you have that control, that’s where you can make changes. And it’s hard to sometimes think like that when you’ve lost your job, like so many people have, because you feel so out of control. But the way back to that purpose really is optimism and believing that you can get back there.
It fits with what we’re trying to do with the documentary – when I tell people I’m making a documentary about climate change, a lot of people talk about how anxious that makes them. So, we’ve built in a lot of optimism into the documentary, to show that it’s not a documentary of fear. There’s a lot of optimism and a lot of solutions out there.
I wanted to ask you about maintaining your sobriety after redundancy. When redundancy hits an industry, there can be a sense of ‘let’s all hit the pubs together and commiserate’. But you can’t do that, because you stopped drinking two years ago. When there’s a big life event like this, is it harder to be sober?
Definitely – I can say for myself that is harder to be sober when your work is shut down, and everybody heads to the pub and gets on the booze to debrief. I felt very, very lost without being able to do get on it with the colleagues. But I still went to the pub, and I didn’t have a relapse or anything like that. I just felt a bit out of sorts.
In saying that though, the in-between bits are so much easier. There’s obviously the big shock, where everyone gets on the piss and you feel left out. But then in those in-between periods, where there is lots of complexity, lots of decisions you need to make, where you need your brain to move on and look to the future, then being sober is awesome.
Personally, I’ve found that I process things much quicker, and I process things much more clearly, and I’m also a lot calmer now. Another thing I have found through not drinking is that a lot of ambition has returned for me, and same with self-belief, and both of those are things you need when you’ve been made redundant!
Finally, when the double whammy of bad news came out about Newshub and TVNZ, I really felt for students who were currently studying journalism and were watching their future industry go through a very hard time. What advice would you give them about why journalism is still a good path to pick?
On a practical level, the skills are great. Sorry to sound like a dad here, but the skills really are great. [Laughs]. But it’s about more than that. Yes, there is a lot of scary stuff going on right now but there are more ways – using technology – to tell stories than ever before. People are always going to be telling stories, someone still needs to go to Antarctica and see what’s happening down there, and report back. That hasn’t changed since the first explorers were down there.
When you break it down, and you take away all the scary stuff, there is still going to be a need for journalists. They’re still going to be there, there’s still an amazing job to be done by amazing people telling amazing stuff. So that’s what people need to focus on, in amongst all of the white noise, is that stuff happens, people do things, and someone needs to connect with them and tell that story. None of that has changed, and that’s where the hope is for these young people.
Patrick Gower on Ice is on Three, Monday, August 12, and Tuesday, August 13, 7pm. Streaming on ThreeNow from August 12.
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
