photo by Yunfei Ren
Hello!
I’m an audio/video producer, artist, and storyteller based in San Francisco.
Firsts things first: here’s my very first interview with my neighbor Kristin:
When I’m not working on a creative project, you can find me watering my 125+ houseplants, walking the hills of San Francisco or stalking the shelves of the library for a good read.
I thrive in collaborative partnerships, solving creative problems and telling meaningful stories.
Reach out if you have a project and need someone like me!
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RECENT WORK
I was a Summer News Fellow at KALW where I produced this piece about a Fear of Flying Clinic that was also featured on KQED’s The California Report and NPR’s Morning Edition. I also produced this story about Humphrey, a humpback whale that got lost.
I worked with the New York Times Climate Forward team and produced an immersive sound installation, The Sounds of Climate Change.
I produced short audio content for The New York Times and their (now sunsetted) Audio App.
I’ve produced podcast and audio content for IDEO, The Eames Center for Infinite Curiosity, Salesforce, Pandora, The Dodo, The Mission, OZY, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
I reported a story about lesbian icon Phyllis Lyon that aired on KALW in June of 2020.
With my friend and journalist Tina Antonlini, we produced stories of the COVID-19 pandemic with Corona Voicemails that aired on KQED’s The California Report.
PERSONAL WORK
I post stories on my personal podcast, Recollector, a place for intimate stories and found sound.
I am the founder of Audio Heirlooms, an oral history production company that preserves family stories with custom, intimate audio portraits. I was inspired to start Audio Heirlooms after I interviewed my grandmother back in 2000. I compiled her interviews into a book that I gifted to my mother for Christmas. When she cried reading it, I thought: “I wanna do this for everyone.” I recently produced audio pieces for my parent’s 50th anniversary and a friends father’s 80th birthday.
In 2003, I interviewed 36 people in Portland, Maine to discover the ways in which the community was connected. 20 years later, I went back to each person for an updated interview with my project 6x6: Portland.
Co-habitating with my partner inspired me to reach out to all my former flames and consider my entire romantic career in All My Exes.
I am gathering creative ideas for Games, Gifts and Gatherings that foster connection in my series How To Have Fun With Your Friends.
I’m documenting 50 friends via audio messages they leave every December once a year every year for ten years with my project Message to the Future 2020-2030. You can join this ten-year project for $2 a month at Patreon (Update: Membership Closed)
I founded and co-organized the MERYLTHON, a film festival fundraiser that celebrates the work of Meryl Streep. The inaugural Merylthon in September of 2023 was a benefit for Queer LifeSpace, a San Francisco non-profit. We raised 15k toward affordable health care for the LGBTQIA+ community. In June of 2024, we brought the Merylthon to Tacoma, Washington and raised critical operational funds for the Grand Cinema.
The Library of Compliments collected answers to the question “What’s the best compliment you’ve received?” — a collaboration with friend Phoebe McIndoe.
PERSONALITY TEST RESULTS
Top 5 Clinton Strengths: Ideation, Empathy, Restorative, Context, and Futuristic
Myers-Briggs: INFP
Astrology: Virgo Sun, Sagittarius Moon, Sagittarius Rising
Chinese Zodiac: Fire Snake 🔥🐍
Enneagram: 4, the Individualist
Human Design Type: Generator
DOCUMENTARY & ARCHIVAL PRACTICE
After my grandfather passed away, my parents bought me a cloth-bound journal hoping it would help me process the loss. I was nine years old. The first line I wrote was: “Grandpa died and I got to ride in a limo.”
Over time it turned into a habit of documenting the people around me: friends, family, lovers. I recorded them in whatever format I was obsessed with at the time—audio, photos, video. As I grew up and eventually became a professional media maker, my archive kept expanding. Mixed in with recordings of my therapy sessions and astrology readings are saved voicemails and conversations on road trips.
Here are a few selections from my personal archive of recordings and family projects:
VOICEMAILS
If you ever leave a voicemail on my phone, I may save it and archive it like this voicemail from my mother about Downton Abbey’s Series Finale.
ARCHIVAL MONTAGE
In 2005, I edited all the archival family audio I could gather from cassettes that my parents had recorded in the 70’s to interviews, to recordings I made with my young nephews. This montage below was given to my parents as a gift for Christmas.
DISPOSABLE CAMERA PROJECT
In 2006, I sent a package with disposable cameras to my family members. The instructions were to photograph the people, places, and things that were meaningful to them. Each photographer captioned their photos and were given a book that displayed everyone’s photographs. This project was repeated in 2020.
2006
2020
ORIGINAL MUSIC
I like to write lyrics and sing short sad songs with friends. “Table for One” was written one holiday when I couldn’t afford to fly home for Christmas. “I Can’t Wait” is inspired by a break-up grief that wouldn’t go away.
A SHORT OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARY OF MY FAMILY ON DAY IN AUGUST 2013
Teaching
From 2014-2016, I was an adjunct lecturer in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. I taught a screenwriting class called Adapting Life Stories where students would interview a member of their community and record their stories. Then they would focus on one event in that person’s life and fictionalize it in a short film script.
FILM WORK
My short documentary ARVIND was a semi-finalist for a Student Academy Award. ARVIND premiered on PBS/KLRU in June of 2016. I was a co-producer on SKUNK, directed by my talented friend Annie Silverstein. SKUNK won First Prize in the Cannes Cinefondation Selection in 2014, among numerous other awards. My other short films include 33 Teeth, Yeah, Kowalski! (runner up for the Iris Prize; Best Foreign Short Film at Brazil Mix Fest) and Rush, all of which have screened in festivals around the world - including Slamdance, SXSW, and Frameline. My films have been broadcast on Comcast and Alaska Airlines and were even pirated by Ukrainians! I was a fellow at the Storytelling Institute at Skidmore College and a recipient of an Austin Film Society grant for ARVIND.
STUDY
I studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and studied abroad in Europe and the Middle East. I co-taught a photography workshop in Palestine to refugees in Bethlehem. It was a life changing experience that shifted me towards oral histories and radio storytelling. I later studied Radio Documentary at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies with Rob Rosenthal. I received my MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas at Austin.
INFLUENCES
Wendy Ewald. Photographer, educator.
Wendy Ewald profoundly influenced how I approached the photography workshop I taught to Palestinian refugee youth in the West Bank, particularly my decision to pair students’ images with interviews from elders in the camps. This work was my college senior project, which required an outside reviewer. To my surprise, Wendy agreed to review it after my school contacted her, providing a sincere and thoughtful critique.
Studs Terkel. Writer, historian.
I know Studs Turkel mostly from his oral history collections like “Working”, “Hard Times”, and “Division Street.” He has influenced so many radio producers like me to turn their focus to “ordinary” people (working class, the poor, and the incarcerated) and their experiences.
Alan Berliner.Filmmaker
Alan’s films are personal and experimental and unexpected. He is a filmmaker who makes films about his family, as a window for the audience to think about their own relationships. I’ve been inspired by his installations, his incredible archive, and his advice to always follow your fascinations.
Have an idea for a story? I’d love to hear from you.
WORK Photos throughout the years
