The ADNA Presents

Alex Howard and Lee Pugsley are back on The ADNA Presents, and a lot has changed since their first visit.

The Darkroom podcast hosts and co-founders of the Blind Film Critic Society join Roy Samuelson for a conversation about what it means when blind critics evaluate Audio Description -- not just as consumers, but as people who can now name the performers, writers, and engineers responsible for the work.

They talk about why crediting the full Audio Description team is gaining ground, how the back catalog movement is raising the bar for quality, and what it looks like when the field shifts from technical compliance to genuine artistic contribution. Alex also shares something personal: that bad Audio Description at a movie theater still makes him feel like he doesn't belong. It's a quiet, honest moment that says something important about what's actually at stake.

The Blind Film Critic Society is growing. Darkroom is expanding its scope. And the conversation about who gets credited -- and who gets to evaluate that work -- is getting sharper.

Darian Rodriguez Heyman has spent thirty years helping mission-led organizations stop reinventing the wheel.

He's the author of AI for Nonprofits, founder of Helping People Help, and someone who has thought seriously about why good intentions so often produce predictable, avoidable mistakes.

What drew me to this conversation is that the gap he keeps closing, between what's available and what people actually reach for, lives in Audio Description too.

We talk about the nonprofit assumption, what AI adoption actually looks like inside organizations right now, and why the accessibility sector may be solving important problems, and why you don't have to live in sacrifice to do the right thing.

There's also a moment where he shares something he couldn't find while researching his book. It stuck with me. I think it'll stick with you too.

Lee Pugsley and Alex Howard of The Dark Room watched this year's Oscar ceremony with audio description on, and they brought friends. John Stark, and the newest Blind Film Critic Society member Ren Leach, join them to hand out their own awards, debate the night's surprises and snubs, and reflect on what it actually felt like to experience the telecast as a blind audience member.

They get specific. Who got named from the stage, which nominated films still don't have audio description, and what the Marlee Matlin captioning moment means for the conversation ahead.

This is a cross-post from The Dark Room, a podcast by two legally blind cinephiles for film lovers of all abilities. Subscribe to their show, and if you want to go deeper on the professionals who make audio description possible, that's what The ADNA Presents is here for.

Joanne Levine has spent her career making sure people who aren't physically there, could still experience what happened there.

As founding head of programming for Al Jazeera English in the Americas, a producer for Nightline and ABC World News Tonight, and a Senior Advisor for Media at the State Department, she has worked across continents, cultures, and crises.

She speaks multiple languages. She has reported from conflict zones and sat with world leaders.

In this conversation, we talk about the craft of storytelling across formats, what it costs to translate one world for another, and what a person who has covered everything does, when the most interesting territory left is figuring out what comes next.

What does it take to make a joke land in a language it was never written for? How do you know when the emotional contract with an audience has held, and when has it broken?

Scott McCarthy has been sitting with those questions for more than twenty years. As VP of Localization at DreamWorks Animation Television, he oversees dubbing across 30+ markets, from Shrek to preschool series to song-heavy productions, each one requiring a different set of creative partners, a different set of decisions, and a different kind of trust.

In this conversation, Scott shares a description of localization work that stopped both of us cold: "We breathe in X language and we exhale Y." From there, we go deep into what trust actually means between a content creator and an audience, why choosing the right studio partners in each market is more important than any single script decision, and why he believes a great dub deserves to be called an original production.

We find common ground between localization and audio description: two fields that often get misclassified as translation, when what they actually involve is millions of tiny creative decisions, layered on top of each other, in service of a single goal. The seamlessness is the craft.

And we talk about AI honestly, with care for everyone navigating this, including the people under real pressure to move faster than the audience's trust can absorb.

This one went somewhere neither of us planned. We are already scheduling part two.

J. Michael Collins has 30 years in voiceover, 50+ industry awards, and runs the largest voiceover conference in the world. He also still has things worth saying.

In this conversation, J. Michael and Roy talk about why the voiceover industry is unusually decent, what abundance actually means in a business full of competition, and how Audio Description continues to earn its place at the table at VO Atlanta. J. Michael is candid about the cost of people-pleasing, the math of saying no, and what it looks like to take real risks in a career that spans agency work, online casting, and everything the pandemic threw at everyone.

If you are curious about Audio Description and want to hear from someone who built his career by moving toward things before everyone else caught on, this one is worth your time. If you like, please share and like!

What if audio description wasn't just functional, but beautiful? Monica Zeka, researcher and author-in-progress, joins Roy to talk about creativity as the missing ingredient in AD, why children's content is the proving ground, and what it means when description becomes invisible not because it disappears, but because it fits. A conversation about accessibility as art form, not afterthought.

Voice actor Maren Garcia joins host Roy Samuelson to talk about how she first discovered Audio Description, and why it immediately felt personal.

Maren shares the moment she was hired for a full feature film, after being found through the Disabled Voice Actors Directory, a resource built to support authentic casting.

She talks candidly about vetting an unfamiliar company before saying yes, then falling in love with audio description as both craft and service.

They dig into what makes audio description work when it is done well: intention, empathy, and choices that support the story. Audio description is the narration track that communicates essential visual information that the audio alone cannot carry. Maren also describes an experiment watching a dance show with audio description, just to feel how writers and performers decide what matters when everything is visual.

Then the conversation pivots to NPC Chronicles, a Kickstarter soundboard project for Dungeons & Dragons non-playable characters, and why Maren sees it as an access and connection tool, inspired by assistive communication devices and her experience working with kids with disabilities. A soundboard is essentially an on-demand toolbox of sounds you can trigger in real time.

Follow Maren at @MarenGarciaVO.

Join Roy Samuelson as he chats with Emmy-winning filmmaker David Grabias about his groundbreaking documentary "Brailled It." Grabias shares his innovative approach to incorporating audio description and working with blind filmmakers, challenging traditional views on cinema.

Learn how this unique project redefines collaboration and creativity in filmmaking, and get an exclusive peek into its premiere at the Slam Dance Film Festival. Don't miss this exciting discussion that poses the thought-provoking question: 'What is blind cinema?'

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