Betting Big On Yourself Through Helping Others: Dylan Mulick and HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD
When you normally see a series like HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD, put together by my guest, filmmaker Dylan Mulick (and the team at World Within Studios), the tendency is to brush it off as do-gooders doing good things. Where is the conflict in that? A lot of great documentaries aren't seen because of these assumptions.
Dylan turns the usual tropes of the series upside down in so many ways by going there: inner city Chicago; the Bahamas; wherever there is actual conflict for people who are looking to change our planet.
The result is something altogether fresh: a ten part series, starting September 10th, 2026 that's shot cinematically and doesn't make you feel like you're watching an infomercial or about to see a Gofundme link roll across the screen. It's premiering on YouTube, it has the clout of Mark Cuban and others behind it, and the team's end goal is to launch a studio through their nonprofit.
This is what the future looks like.
Hat tip to David Goldblum for making this interview happen. If you haven't heard my conversation with him, it's a must-listen.
In this episode, Dylan and I talk about:
- the layout of HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD;
- the strategy of betting big on putting this series on YouTube;
- how he able to recruit high-level EPs like Chris Pratt and Mark Cuban for his projects;
- ENTOURAGE shout-out (it truly was a whole thing for dudes in the 2000s);
- the mentorship role he now takes on for people starting out in film;
- the lessons he took from his first feature documentary -- HELEN BELIEVE (2023) -- into this project;
- the story behind World Within Studios, which bills itself as " a nonprofit focused on tackling extreme wealth consolidation by investing in community-owned projects";
- what keeps him up at night regarding this huge risk;
- whether EPs matter anymore and why Mark Cuban is the perfect fit for this project;
- how cool it is when people post about their challenges in making films;
- what success looks like for this series.
Memorable Quotes:
" How to Change the World is a 10-episode documentary series that is essentially like Chef's Table for social entrepreneurs."
" They're not the people that you often see in the headlines. And we believe what they're doing should be rewriting the definition of what a founder and a CEO should be. So we wanted to show them cinematically. We wanted to shoot them heroically."
" Mentorship is so critical, and I think it's lost in today's Hollywood because the jobs are so competitive and the jobs are so few.
" These are all ideas that are probably pretty close to us, whether consciously or just like the mysterious stresses in our lives. But if you don't show a solution and then you don't take that solution and clearly communicate it to an audience, you can't build a movement, and ultimately World Within wants to build a movement from these ideas."
" I don't know that [EPs] move the needle, unless of course they're the sole person on camera, right?"
" The buyers are too reluctant nowadays, and I think quite honestly, like every famous person is pitching their own show."
" And I'm trying to walk the walk of this idea of always trying to be failing,
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