_A Kid with 10 Parents_ pitch

In _A Kid with 10 Parents_, climate scientist Jonah Strauch tries to save the world from overpopulation and collapse, and has to deepen in love each time he meets indifference--even his own family.

As this one-hour, streaming  drama begins, Jonah is telling one of his grad students his saying that he can only afford to have one 10th of a child with the planet's carrying capacity. But this is only theory until his parents' mortality begins to show, and in a lapse of self-control, he posts the idea online of co-parenting with nine other adults. To his surprise, someone responds--and now he actually has experience being a father.

I didn't realize until a few months ago that I want to be a father. I live as sustainably as I can each day, in all my choices, heating with wood, starting to grow my own food. And the odd thing is, it's a lot more joyful than I had feared. But when the "have courage and get your baby" trend started, I felt the poignancy of both sides of the argument. Those who make the supreme sacrifice and choose not to have children for the sake of the greater good, thoughtful people who would make wonderful parents, ironically, fighting with people who, frankly, squeeze their eyes shut in denial. Yet who can deny the importance of having some children? And the beauty? I wish I could get these two groups to work together. I could try and write an argument, but that only gets people to dig in more. So instead, I had to tell a story, so people can open their hearts and realize how amazing things could be before they have a chance to shut their minds.

As the series begins, Sage is missing: now 13. Her 10 parents frantically search for her and begin to squabble. Then we go back to 2023: Jonah gets a call, his mother is in the hospital, his father has to go into memory care.  He posts on Craigslist, thinking no one would possibly be interested.  But someone replies.

It's Marisol, an actor who had a baby and lost him but wants to do it all again, who first takes his idea seriously and offers to help. They hold gatherings and advertise for their project, but don't manage to get anyone to commit. Eventually, Jonah becomes willing to read a leadership book, but only because it's recommended by someone living sustainable values even more thoroughly than himself, and then he realizes he needs to ask questions: "How many adults raised you?" Now crowds begin to show up for his meetings--but so does a life coach who smells money, and steals Jonah's crowds while turning the whole thing into therapy. Finally, a polycule of four people who've been fed up with the therapy, and are looking others who are serious about handling societal collapse before they have their child, manage to find Jonah's original group and save the project at the last minute. There's still one final obstacle as Jonah, out of time, crosses their boundaries. He apologize, but Andre, one of the four, tells Jonah directly that his condition is that the child not grow up in guilt and fear, like he did. Let her decide for herself if the climate crisis is real. Jonah agrees, and they all move to a two family house in the countryside to begin preparing and to have their baby.

Each episode focuses on a different one of the 10 parents: there's Tariq, who abandons the family for a woman when Sage is an infant, struggles with his relationship addiction, then returns and finds a tearful Sage who astonishes him since she recognizes him and grieves to lose even one out of her 10 parents. He finds out that he actually does count.  In another episode, Andre, frustrated that Sage has never seen the city or even a supermarket, takes her on a trip for her birthday, but she's not interested. The shelves are looking more bare, the security at the airport is more aggressive than ever. And she doesn't really have an interest in seeing planes take off--though this is what electrified him at age 5. The possibility of freedom, of escaping the religious cult he and his sister fled. He wants to pretend that the collapse isn't happening, but the world he wanted to give her slipping away. Finally, he realizes he only needs to give her something imaginary, it doesn't have to be physical, and takes her to the three-story globe you can walk inside in Boston: her eyes are as wide as saucers, she will always cherish this day.

The family contends with the vocally Christian social worker who hounds them, the helicopter parents next door, the challenges of heat waves and cold snaps, high winds and floods, prepping for disasters with their conservative neighbors, the teachers and other kids at school, and their own parents' dismissal of the family. Their conflicts over whether it's ever ok to use a disposable diaper can be sometimes comical and sometimes inspiring.  As there's less stuff outside, there's more love inside.

Again and again, the family is forced to use imagination and find new ways to express love, and each parent not only grows up, but also gives Sage some quality that she will need for her final confrontation with hate. 

In the season finale, Sage is kidnapped by the leader of an army of orphans, people whom our industrial society grew too large to support, and who rove the country, taking what they need and killing. Sage has a chance to escape, but chooses not to: she's going to help these orphans and heal them. That's the kind of person she's turned out to be, her life is of no value if she won't take risks to be of service. Although Sage is not the protagonist, it's probably the most challenging part to act, as she answers the question "what would happen if someone received five times the love?" What happens ultimately is that she does something that nobody, not even herself, thinks is possible, which sets up a second season.

I've been crying a lot as I've been writing this show: to see someone do a kind thing, let go of winning a fight in order to make up and move forward, even if they're fictional, feeds me deeply. The story does not shy away from the darkness, the worst case scenario of where our world is gradually heading, but it is never cynical. At a time when pretty much no one is truly confident that we're facing the future in an adult way, this show can put before us an image of honest and abundant living. It can show us a way to live responsibly within limits, yet still have love grow boundlessly. It can remind us that when we get knocked down, we reinvent ourselves. That in America we can create anything--even what a family is. A story of responsibility, innovation, and love. 

Will you help me tell it? Will you help me share with the world Sage's family?