Notebook

Jan 23, 2025

Ondi Timoner interview for the Mamalode Podcast

Audio Interview: Ondi Timoner (2017) I caught up with Ondi Timoner around the time her ten-part docuseries Jungletown was premiering on Viceland — a project that followed hundreds of young people attempting to build a sustainable town from scratch in the middle of the Panamanian jungle. We talked about what drew her to the story, the tension between utopian idealism and on-the-ground reality, and how she ended up making a TV series when she'd actually sworn off documentaries to pursue fiction.

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Jul 05, 2017

Gary Ferguson on Wildfire, Climate Change, and Land on Fire

In June 2017, I spoke with the prolific author and naturalist Gary Ferguson about his book Land on Fire, which examines the science, politics, and human cost of the megafire era in the American West. Ferguson is one of the most thoughtful voices writing about nature and the West today, and this wide-ranging conversation covers everything from firefighter instinct to carbon storage to what we can actually do about it.

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Feb 16, 2017

New episode of the Mamalode Podcast with Erica Rabner

Interview with Erica Rabner for the Mamalode Podcast

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Jan 26, 2017

Interview with Filmmaker Aslaug Holm for the Mamalode Podcast

Audio Interview: Aslaug Holm (2017) In 2017 I had the pleasure of speaking with Norwegian filmmaker Aslaug Holm about Brothers, her intimate documentary following her two sons — Markus and Lukas — from childhood through their teenage years. We talked about what it means to turn your own family into subjects, the challenge of balancing the roles of mother and filmmaker, and how the film went on to win the main prize at HotDocs and the Norwegian Amanda Award for Best Direction.

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Dec 24, 2016

Interview with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for Mamalode

I spoke with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for the Mamalode Podcast about her book Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting — a National Jewish Book Award finalist that argues parenting itself can be a genuine spiritual practice. Ruttenberg is a prolific author and widely recognized voice on faith, justice, and Jewish thought, named by Newsweek as one of ten "rabbis to watch."

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