The Austin Meyer Podcast

Forrest Gander is a poet, novelist, and essayist based in Northern California, whose most recent book of poems, Be With, was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

In this conversation, Forrest and I discuss the life changing moment that made him forego a safe and stable career to pursue life as a poet, what he thinks makes a poem not just good, but great, and why poetry continues to be such a significant art form for allowing people to express themselves and process both the beauty and tragedy in life.

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Charlie Phillips is the head of video at The Guardian. Before working at The Guardian, Charlie was deputy director at Sheffield DocFest and an editor at FourDocs.

In this conversation, Charlie and I discuss the trends shaping the documentary industry, what kind of access and consent lead to great films, and what qualities make a film stand out from the crowd as one that The Guardian wants to commission and share with the world.

Thank you for listening!

Subscribe to Austin Meyer's Newsletter for short monthly emails on storytelling and creativity!

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www.austinmeyerfilms.com

Charlie Phillips is the head of video at The Guardian. Before working at The Guardian, Charlie was deputy director at Sheffield DocFest and an editor at FourDocs.

In this conversation, Charlie and I discuss the trends shaping the documentary industry, what kind of access and consent lead to great films, and what qualities make a film stand out from the crowd as one that The Guardian wants to commission and share with the world.

Thank you for listening!

Subscribe to Austin Meyer's Newsletter for short monthly emails on storytelling and creativity!

Support the show on Patreon

Follow Austin on:

Instagram

Facebook

www.austinmeyerfilms.com

Trapped in Qatar

Benjamin Best is an award winning investigative reporter, filmmaker, and author whose reporting focuses on the dark side of sports: illegal betting, match fixing, corruption, organized crime, and the human rights violations that are often a byproduct of major sporting events such as the World Cup and The Olympics.

In 2011 Benjamin Best was awarded CNN's journalist of the year award, he is multiple time winner of Medium Magazine's journalist of the year, and in 2016, was awarded Best Director at London's International Film Festival for his feature length documentary, Dirty Games.

In this conversation, Benjamin and I talk about his untraditional path into journalism, his advice for freelancers and investigative reporters, and he takes us behind the scenes of his recent undercover report from Qatar where he revealed how migrant workers who are building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup are being exploited. If you're interested in seeing that video, it is at the top of the show notes.

Get the Post Show over on Patreon!

Follow Austin Meyer on:

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Trapped in Qatar

Benjamin Best is an award winning investigative reporter, filmmaker, and author whose reporting focuses on the dark side of sports: illegal betting, match fixing, corruption, organized crime, and the human rights violations that are often a byproduct of major sporting events such as the World Cup and The Olympics.

In 2011 Benjamin Best was awarded CNN's journalist of the year award, he is multiple time winner of Medium Magazine's journalist of the year, and in 2016, was awarded Best Director at London's International Film Festival for his feature length documentary, Dirty Games.

In this conversation, Benjamin and I talk about his untraditional path into journalism, his advice for freelancers and investigative reporters, and he takes us behind the scenes of his recent undercover report from Qatar where he revealed how migrant workers who are building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup are being exploited. If you're interested in seeing that video, it is at the top of the show notes.

Get the Post Show over on Patreon!

Follow Austin Meyer on:

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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 done so valiantly, quintupling the foundation’s revenue since 2005 and earning Nonprofit Marketer of the Year awards along the way.

In this conversation Kate and I talk about how she tells the stories of obstetric fistulas in a way that audiences will engage with, the importance of having heart and humility when speaking to others about their trauma, and what advice she has for both storytellers and entrepreneurs when it comes to bringing issues you care most about to light.

Support the Fistula Foundation

Get access to the Austin Meyer Private Podcast and all the post shows with our guests!

Connect with Austin Meyer on Instagram

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 done so valiantly, quintupling the foundation’s revenue since 2005 and earning Nonprofit Marketer of the Year awards along the way.

In this conversation Kate and I talk about how she tells the stories of obstetric fistulas in a way that audiences will engage with, the importance of having heart and humility when speaking to others about their trauma, and what advice she has for both storytellers and entrepreneurs when it comes to bringing issues you care most about to light.

Support the Fistula Foundation

Get access to the Austin Meyer Private Podcast and all the post shows with our guests!

Connect with Austin Meyer on Instagram

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 theatrical performers, but he also teaches applied improvisation in many other settings. Applied improv takes the principles and mindsets of theatrical improv and applies them to new contexts to help people become more effective leaders, generous teammates, and happier individuals. Dan has brought improv to some of the world’s biggest companies including Cisco, Oracle, Nestle, and many more.

In this conversation, Dan Klein and I discuss why an improv theater class is one of the most popular classes at Stanford, which improv maxims he believes are the key to unlocking creativity, and specific storytelling strategies that you can use whether you’re making up a story on stage or delivering a high stakes presentation at your company.

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Follow Austin

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 theatrical performers, but he also teaches applied improvisation in many other settings. Applied improv takes the principles and mindsets of theatrical improv and applies them to new contexts to help people become more effective leaders, generous teammates, and happier individuals. Dan has brought improv to some of the world’s biggest companies including Cisco, Oracle, Nestle, and many more.

In this conversation, Dan Klein and I discuss why an improv theater class is one of the most popular classes at Stanford, which improv maxims he believes are the key to unlocking creativity, and specific storytelling strategies that you can use whether you’re making up a story on stage or delivering a high stakes presentation at your company.

Support the show

Follow Austin

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 New York Times to the PBS NewsHour, Time, Newsweek, CNN, and many more.

In this conversation, Josh and I talk about what it’s like to cover humanitarian crises. We go into everything from navigating logistics in an emergency situation, to crafting images and videos that drive impact.. And we’re not just talking in the abstract here. We’re grounding all these details in stories, as Josh takes his through two of his most recent assignments covering the devastation of the cyclone that hit Mozambique and the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

To hear the post-show with Josh, and to support this podcast, visit www.patreon.com/austinmeyerfilms

To see Josh Estey’s photography, follow www.instagram.com/joshestey.

To follow Austin Meyer, follow @austinmeyerfilms on Instagram and Facebook!