Kate Grant is the CEO of The Fistula Foundation. An obstetric fistula, the kind that occurs in many developing countries, is a hole between a woman's vagina and bladder, and it is caused by many days of obstructed labor. It leaves women incontinent and often abandoned and ostracized by their communities. As the CEO of the Fistula Foundation, Kate is tasked with telling the stories of this stigmatized and unspoken condition in order to raise money to fund surgeries for affected women. And she has...
Jun 27, 2019•1 hr 16 min
http://austinmeyerfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dan-Klein-Social-Promo.mp4 Dan Klein teaches improvisation at Stanford University where he is on the faculty of the Theater and Performance Studies Department and the Graduate School of Business. His beginning improv class is one of Stanford’s most popular courses, and he has been awarded Stanford Teacher of the Year by the Student’s Association for teaching it. Dan not only teaches improvisation for the sake of making people better theatric...
Jun 06, 2019•1 hr 18 min
Josh Estey is one of the world’s top humanitarian relief and development documentary photographers. His work for UNICEF, CARE, USAID, World Food Programme, World Bank, Mercy Corps, and others captures moments of dignity and spirit without ever sacrificing truth or context, and has helped lead the transformation of non-profit photography and videography over the past two decades. Josh is a Pulitzer nominee and his photojournalistic and video work has appeared in every major news outlet from The N...
May 22, 2019•1 hr 14 min
Lauren Gunderson is one of the world’s most prolific playwrights. At 37, she is the most produced playwright in America and has taken home many of the most coveted awards in the business. In 2017, The New Yorker wrote a profile on Lauren and titled it, “You’ve Probably Never Heard of America’s Most Popular Playwright.” Well everybody, it’s about time you heard! . In this episode Lauren and I discuss how a lack of female representation in theater fueled her to write her first plays as a teenager,...
May 08, 2019•1 hr 23 min
David Zinn's Art: www.instagram.com/davidzinn . David Zinn is a world renowned street artist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. David’s temporary street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects, and are always improvised on location through a process known as “pareidolic anamorphosis.” This technique makes his chalk art appear three dimensional. . In this episode, David and I talk about how he makes a living drawing tiny creatures on the sidewalk out of chalk, why he loves ...
Apr 24, 2019•1 hr 20 min
Link to Maja Ruznic’s artwork: http://bit.ly/MajaPaintings Maja Ruznic is a prolific artist currently based in Roswell, New Mexico. Primarily a painter, her artwork often explores themes related to trauma. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the California College of Arts, Maja has exhibited internationally and is a 2018 Hopper Prize winner. In this episode, Maja and I talk through the step-by-step process of how she creates her paintings, how she cultivates her authentic voice by resisting the pressu...
Apr 11, 2019•1 hr 12 min
Jonathan London is a children’s book author who has over 100 publications to his name. Jonathan is best known as the author of the Froggy series, which has sold over 20 million copies and has been translated into 7 different languages. The first of the series, which was published in 1992, is called Froggy Gets Dressed, and now there are 29 others. In this conversation, Jonathan and I discuss how he went from a struggling poet to a world renowned children’s book author, what qualities make a good...
Mar 28, 2019•48 min
Kat Zdan studied theater at UCSB and got her MFA in ensemble based physical theater from Dell’Arte International school of physical theater. Kat has been performing, teaching, and directing professionally in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond since 2009. Not only does Kat work in scripted theater, she is also a member of Improv Playhouse, one of the top improv troupes in the Bay Area. . Off the stage, Kat is a conversation designer at Xandra, a company which brings artists and developers toge...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr 13 min
Aaron Huey is a National Geographic photographer who has contributed dozens of cover and feature stories to the magazine. His photography stories are on a wide range of topics from Sherpas on Everest, to life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and most recently, Aaron detailed the fight to preserve America’s national monuments like Bears Ears. Aaron is also the founder of Amplifier, a design lab that builds art to amplify the voices of grassroots movements.. He was the design director for the...
Feb 28, 2019•53 min
John Branch is a sports reporter for The New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2013 for “Snow Fall,” a story about a deadly avalanche in Washington State, and was a finalist for the prize in 2012 for his series of stories about Derek Boogaard, a professional hockey player who overdosed on painkillers. . John’s work has been featured in The Best American Sports Writing; and his first book, BOY ON ICE, won the ESPN Prize for Literary Sports Writing. . In this conversatio...
Feb 14, 2019•1 hr
Latif Nasser is the director of research at Radiolab, where he reports, produces and creates stories on a range of topics. In 2018 he created stories on everything from life at the southern border, to the blue blood of horseshoe crabs, to voting laws, to National Hockey League All-Star games. . In this episode Latif and I discuss how he went from a theater kid with playwriting aspirations to creating stories for Radiolab, how he chooses which stories to pursue, and then we go deep into the dynam...
Feb 07, 2019•1 hr 19 min
Jennifer Kingsley is a National Geographic Explorer and a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. She is a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for Paddlenorth, the story of her 54-day canoeing expedition across the Canadian Arctic, and her writing has appeared in various outlets including National Geographic, the BBC, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Her radio documentaries have been broadcast internationally and recognized by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism...
Jan 31, 2019•1 hr 14 min
Jane Ferguson is a Beirut-based Special Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. She reports from across the Middle East, Africa and beyond, often working in conflict zones. Some of her reporting highlights include front-line dispatches from the war against ISIS in Iraq, an up-close look at Houthi-controlled Yemen, and reports on the war and famine in South Sudan. On top of her work at the PBS NewsHour, Jane also writes for various outlets including the New Yorker. And before PBS, she reported extens...
Jan 24, 2019•1 hr 5 min
This week my guests are Susan Milstein and Andi Brady. Susan and Andi a cofounders Personal History Productions, a company that helps an individual capture their life story and family memories as a legacy for future generations. Writing a life story can be daunting, so Susan and Andi come in and make it easy. They handle everything from interviewing the individual, to writing the narrative, to creating beautiful physical books, and by doing so, help people create a legacy through storytelling. I...
Jan 17, 2019•1 hr 3 min
This week my guest is award winning radio journalist, Jake Warga. Jake is a contributor to NPR, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. His stories have been featured on programs such as All Things Considered and This American Life. On top of making his own stories, Jake also teaches storytelling as a lecturer at Stanford University. In this conversation, Jake and I discuss how one of his first radio stories ended up on This American Life, the three layers of a well told story, an...
Jan 10, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Happy New Year! In today's episode I am reflecting on my life changing 2018. 2018 was a year in which I quit my job, moved out of California for the first time to go live in Zambia, and went 100% all in on pursuing my dream of becoming the best documentary filmmaker I can be. To help guide my reflection, I sat down with my good friend and fellow documentary filmmaker, Joe Alexander-Short, who interviewed me about the highlights, setbacks, and learnings from this past year. In this conversation w...
Jan 03, 2019•1 hr 8 min
This week on the podcast my guest is Xandra Clark. Xandra is an actor, writer, documentarian, musician, performance-maker, and all-around storyteller. Xandra is currently a 2018-19 Queer|Art Fellow in Performance, a member of The Bats Company at The Flea, a company member of Poetic Theater Productions, and a performer and experience designer with immersive performance company Odyssey Works. As an audio documentarian, Xandra has worked at StoryCorps and was a cofounder of the True Story Podcast, ...
Dec 20, 2018•1 hr 14 min
This week’s guest on The Austin Meyer Podcast is Annalisa Quinn. Annalisa is a contributing writer, reporter, and literary critic for NPR where she created NPR's Book News column and covers literature and culture. Annalisa also writes about arts and culture for the New York Times and the Financial Times, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine section First Words, which includes essays on what language reveals our current moment in culture and politics. In this conversation ...
Dec 13, 2018•1 hr 8 min
This week my guest is Daniella Zalcman, a documentary photographer based between London and New York. She is a multiple grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a fellow with the International Women's Media Foundation, a National Geographic photographer, and the founder of Women Photograph, an initiative working to elevate the voices of female and non-binary visual journalists. Her ongoing project, Signs of Your Identity, is the recipient many awards including of the 2017 Arnold Newma...
Dec 06, 2018•52 min
This week's guest is Lauren Goode, a senior writer at WIRED. Lauren is an Emmy award winning journalist who covers all things tech. Before arriving at WIRED, Lauren was the senior technology editor at The Verge, Managing editor of reviews and consumer tech coverage at ReCode, and a video producer at the Wall Street Journal. In this conversation, Lauren and I talk about her career path, and the lessons she has learned along the way. Then we move into the ethical responsibilities of technology rep...
Nov 29, 2018•1 hr 6 min
Today on the podcast I am chatting with Steve Fiffer. Steve Fiffer is a prolific author who has written 16 books, several screenplays, and dozens of articles on a range of topics. Steve writes non-fiction, and has written numerous memoirs, not only about his own life, but as co-author for others working on theirs. His as-told-to memoirs include books by Miami Dolphins football star Mercury Morris, former Secretary of State James Baker, and the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Morri...
Nov 21, 2018•1 hr 19 min
This week on the podcast I am chatting with Lisa Kay Solomon. Lisa does it all. She is a speaker, an author, and an educator focused on helping leaders learn how to be more creative, flexible and resilient in the face of increasing complexity and change. She is a currently a Designer in Residence at Stanford University’s Institute for Design and founding Chair of Transformational Practices and Leadership at Singularity University. Lisa co-authored the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Moments of I...
Nov 15, 2018•1 hr 4 min
I'm so excited to welcome our first musician to the show: Max Cowan. Max is a keyboard player based out of Berkeley, California. In his music, Max uses elements of funk and jazz and blends them into grooves that will surely get you up and moving. Max co-leads the East Bay meets New Orleans funk group, Atta Kid, and has played alongside some of the most accomplished musicians out there today. In this conversation, Max and I talk about how he tells stories through chords, melodies, and by playing ...
Nov 08, 2018•1 hr 24 min
This week I am joined on the podcast by Chris Smith. Chris Smith is a columnist at my hometown newspaper, The Press Democrat -- a paper which recently won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage. Chris has been working at the Press Democrat for 41 years, and his role is unique. Chris writes human-interest stories. He is a master of the vignette... of bringing these human-interest stories to life with vivid scenes, stakes, and emotions, all while fitting into the space constraints of a prin...
Nov 02, 2018•1 hr 8 min
On this week’s episode I am joined by academy award winning movie producer, Steve Starkey. Starkey, who always teams up with director Robert Zemeckis, has produced films such as: Allied, The Walk, Flight, The Polar Express, Cast Away, and Contact. In 1995 he won an Academy Award for Best Picture with Forrest Gump. Early in his career, Starkey was an associate producer and assistant editor on Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and a couple of indie films called Star Wars Return of the J...
Oct 25, 2018•1 hr 23 min
"When we're playing really well together but we're also creating characters and moments that make the audience gasp, that's like... the best." Lisa Rowland is a professional theatrical improviser. She is a member of BATS Improv, Northern California's most acclaimed and longest running improvisational theatre company, and in 2012, Lisa was voted Best Actor by the SF Bay Guardian's Reader Poll. Off the stage, Lisa is a lecturer at Stanford University in the Theatre Department, teaching the same be...
Sep 21, 2018•1 hr 1 min
