Storytime for the Apocalypse - The Podcast: Recent Episodes
Tilly Hinton
Storytime for the Apocalypse is a collection of mini podcasts for your listening pleasure. In each one, you will hear from one reader, bringing you a well-measured dose of read-aloud medicine. Hosted by Tilly Hinton.
Tom Griffiths is a beloved historian whose books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics, and journalism. His true stories are about fire and ice, climate and culture, forests and deserts, and the haunting relationship between the past and the present. His books include Hunters and Collectors, Forests of Ash, Slicing the Silence, Living with Fire and The Art of Time Travel: Historians and their Craft. Tom is an Emeritus Professor of History at the Australian National University and in 2014 received Australia’s highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his work in education, history, and literature. He’s been to Antarctica more than once, was an important voice in the Australian bushfire crisis last summer, and has for years been a mentor and an inspiration to environmental humanities scholars across the globe.
Bonnie Foster is an award-winning writer/director working in documentary, narrative film, and music videos. Her original films have won over 21 awards and played in more than 30 festivals worldwide, earning accolades including Best Director at the London Independent Film Awards, Best Screenplay at Santa Monica International Film Festival, and Best Performance at Malibu International Film Festival. She’s also a puppeteer and writer, and has interviewed Sean Lennon and Jerry Hall, among many other impressive achievements.
Read more about Bonnie at: https://www.bonniefoster.com/
Brooke Macbeth is a lifelong Californian and devoted Angelena. She is a silversmith, an occasional research scientist with a focus on entomology, a mother, and she loves to cook. She cherishes neighborhood walks, and flowers, and lives life with maximum levels of both curiosity and kindness.
Tim Ottman has an unparalleled knack for crafting beautiful things from foraged and forgotten objects. As Production Designer for the film DUSTWUN, he wrangled discarded electric objects and building materials to create a visually captivating 55-foot-long film set in Arizona and years ago he remodeled an abandoned couch so that actors in a Dali-esque play could vanish and re-appear through its cushions. He served in the military in Japan, and was for two decades Quentin Tarantino’s personal handyman. His neon artistry at the all-night dublab at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions was described as “perfect”. He filled a former Hollywood Boulevard mortuary with neon for the West Coast Ensemble and takes care of vintage neon signage in place and in his collection. In the 1980s, Tim acted in more than a hundred plays here in Southern California, and he and Tilly became friends when he inadvertently impersonated a doorman at an event they both attended.
Meredith Lancaster is a curator, art historian, archivist, and social media maven. She serves on the Black Alumni Board of Directors at the University of Oregon and is a member of the Society of American Archivists, the Black Caucus American Library Association, and the American Library Association. Meredith, who calls both Los Angeles and Chicago home, imbues her work with diversity, accessibility, and inclusion, particularly focussing on women and people of color. Her 2018 exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, “Don’t Touch My Hair: Expressions of Identity and Community,” used text and photography to explore how hair upholds and questions our sense of otherness and autonomy. Meredith is a plant mama, a member of the storied Los Angeles Breakfast Club, and harnessed her pandemic angst to earn a second Master's degree, in LIbrary and Information Science.
Read more about Meredith at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithelancaster/
Michael Mobbs’ house was recreated for an exhibition at one of Australia’s premier museums: the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (the fancy name for the place we all know and love as The Powerhouse) in Sydney Australia.
What does it take for a home to be museum-worthy, you ask? Well, in 1997, Michael, then an environmental lawyer and now an esteemed sustainability consultant, overhauled his inner-urban terrace house to be profoundly sustainable - independent of city water, sewage, and power.
His book ‘Sustainable House’ documents this remarkable achievement, and tens of thousands of people have toured his home to see what’s possible.
For his second act, Michael wrote ‘Sustainable Food’ which is just as revolutionary, and more recently has designed coolseats - an elegant and engaging solution to urban composting and closing the loop on urban food waste.
You can read more about Michael Mobbs at: https://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/.
Joe Petricca is a screenwriter and film education specialist in Los Angeles. He worked at the prestigious American Film Institute for over twenty years, most recently as Executive Vice Dean. His impact is global: Joe is the Chief Advisor of the International Academy of Film and Media in Bangladesh and was honored with a Chevalier from the French Government for contributions to French cinema in Los Angeles. Joe and Tilly crossed paths thanks to their shared love for the Los Angeles River, the place that he daily walks his Australian Shepherd Dog, Lucy. During the pandemic Joe re-vivified his passion for baking, and Angelenos can now order delicious baked goods from his home kitchen (and trust us, you must!).
Char Miller is an accomplished environmental historian, who teaches at Pomona College in Claremont where he leads the Environmental Analysis program. He writes extensively in scholarly and popular publications about water, landscapes, Texas, California, conservation, urbanization, forestry and more. Char resuscitates academia with his humanistic approaches to teaching and research, and breathes life and liveliness into every topic that he broaches.
S. Sëan Tretheway was born and raised in Los Angeles, but having built and sailed a concrete boat to Australia in the 1970s, he found his piece of paradise and has called the idyllic beachside town of Noosa home ever since. From there, he works as a professional magician, writes books, and anchors The Roadless Traveller Podcast where he interviews creatives about taking the roads less travelled. For almost forty years, Sean’s close-up magic performances have delighted audiences, including Hugh Jackman, Geoffrey Rush, Kylie Minogue and Barry Humphries. Sean is the reason that Storytime Curator Tilly Hinton found her way to Los Angeles, and she's forever grateful to him for that, and for their spectacular friendship.
Melissa Adylia Calasanz integrates her extensive professional expertise as a yoga therapist with her passion for California native plants. For over 15 years Melissa has been using yoga and other healing modalities to support athletes, dancers, and fitness enthusiasts as well as people with stress and chronic pain. Also a California Native Plants Education and Outreach Specialist and a former professional dancer, Melissa is truly multitalented. Her Storytime reading is about plants and people, two of her favorite things.
Kevin Segall is a bibliophile, a collectibles maven, a member of the World famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and the devoted owner and restorer with his wife Stephanie of the historic Winston House in Los Angeles. His passions include magic, comics, horror, sci-fi, cartoons, art, oddities, & traveling. Kevin has been VP of Marketing & Sales for Condomania, proprietor of countercultural icon Essential Media Catalog in Venice California, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Manuscript Society and as Treasurer of the historic Los Angeles Breakfast Club. Also a member of the Academy of American Poets, it is fitting that Kevin brought poetry to Storytime for the Apocalypse.
Genevieve Anderson is a writer, director, producer, artist, and the creator of the mission based minimalist fashion brand, WUNZ. Her short films have played at over 100 festivals worldwide, winning awards in Berlin, Seattle, Chicago, Rhode Island, Palm Springs, among many others. One of her short films, Too Loud A Solitude, is being developed as a feature with actor Paul Giamatti and she's soon to be an alum of the prestigious Stowe Story Labs. Her debut feature, DUSTWUN, is a compelling meditation on the politics of nation state borders. Genevieve is a creative force to be reckoned with, and for Storytime she reads from the appropriately apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy.
One of 2020's many losses was the death of Lewis MacAdams, the poet laureate of the Los Angeles River and a crucial figure in the environmental and social history of Los Angeles. Lewis was a charismatic and brilliant writer, strategist, dreamer, and urban environmentalist. Founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River, Lewis staunchly kept his promise to speak for the River in the human realm. In his memory, this extended Storytime for the Apocalypse episode features poet of Los Angeles city streets Mike Sonksen, science education superstar Lila Higgins, the City Ecologist for Los Angeles Kat Superfisky, and Communications and Impact Manager of Friends of the LA River, Michael Atkins reading, and remembering, him.
Storytime for the Apocalypse is a collection of mini podcasts for your listening pleasure. In each one, you will hear from one reader, bringing you a well-measured dose of read-aloud medicine. Hosted by Tilly Hinton.