Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, some of the first real friendships I had were in chat rooms.

One joke coming from one person can land completely flat, while somebody else delivering it in a unique way can really elevate it.

Any kind of gender expression is performance for me, regardless of where it is on the spectrum.

The bigger your platform gets - it kind of feels like being Godzilla sometimes. You make a slight move and you can accidentally knock over a building. It's a tough thing to navigate.

Our politicians debate this, but our scientists don't. A huge majority of climate scientists say climate change is happening. They say we're causing it and we need to do something about it before it has a terrible effect on all of us.

I try to understand place on a deeper level than just the physical or environmental aspects. It includes cultural and intellectual forces, too. It's an inclusive approach that brings in many disciplines and sees place as a dynamic thing.

However we choose to leave the E.U., let me be clear: we remain committed to dealing with climate change.

I do think we're at a point in our history where almost all of the big, grand, challenges faced by the human race are those that demand a scientific solution: climate change; access to clean water; over-crowding; plastic waste.