The Power of Storytelling: A Conversation with Austin Meyer

In our latest podcast episode, we hear from Austin Meyer, a documentary filmmaker, National Geographic Explorer, cinematographer, and photographer.  Austin's works have been featured by National Geographic, HBO, Apple TV, Hulu, and The New York Times.  During the podcast, Austin shares his background and the drivers that led him to his film-making career, his transition to becoming a vegan and his passion for animals and animal rights. Austin encourages us to rethink our choices for a kinder, more sustainable world.

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Austin is a co-founder of Collective Capital - a change and innovation consultancy.
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Transcript

Intro 00:03

Welcome to SolPods Studio. We're not your average social network. We're a community of professionals, enthusiasts, and students taking sustainability to the next level. Join us on our journey and get inspired by Earth Heroes just like you. 

Amy 00:20

Welcome back to another episode of SolPods Studio. I'm Amy Sabik, joining you from the Bay area of California. Joining us today is Austin Meyer. Austin is a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer and photographer based in Oakland, California. His work has been featured by HBO, Hulu, Apple TV, the New York Times, and National Geographic.  Austin is also the host of the Austin Meyer Podcast, a show in which he interviews the world's best documentary filmmakers and how they can craft the stories they tell. He's also the co-founder and facilitator at Collective Capital and works with companies on creating cultures of innovation. And if that wasn't enough, Austin is a competitive ultra-runner. He's incredibly passionate about animal welfare. He's vegan, and he explores the interconnectedness between humans,  animals and the planet. Welcome to SolPods Studio. Austin.

Austin 01:20

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting me on the on the show.

Amy 01:28

Yeah.  Well, I before we jump in, I do want to share a little bit about how I met Austin. So about a year ago, both Austin and I attended the Stanford Plant-Based Initiative Forum. And it was a forum that had all sorts of information about how to move to a plant-based diet, the benefits of moving to a plant-based diet, etc. And Austin was in the crowd, like me, and Austin brought up a really interesting point. And after he brought up that very interesting point, I said, I need to go meet him and find out more about his story. So the rest is history. And obviously, I'm a big fan of yours, Austin. So let's get started first with your passion about being vegan, your vegan lifestyle. Obviously, this is a very timely conversation to have, where people are starting to move towards more plant-based diets and incorporating more plant-based into their, their daily nutrition. I'd love to hear from you where you got started. And what it was that drove that transition for you. And how that kind of interconnects with your, your personal and your your professional passions.

Austin 02:37

Fantastic. Yeah. Well, it was great to meet you at that Stanford event. And that's so cool that it's led us here today. So, my journey into veganism charts back to 2018. And in 2018, I was going through a huge moment of transition and change in my life. So, after living my whole life in California, in 2018, I had the opportunity to travel and do a documentary project for National Geographic that was based in Zambia. And when I got this opportunity, it corresponded to a lot of life change for me. I was moving to Zambia, so moving out of California, for the first time. I had a two year relationship come to an end.  It was my first like long term relationship. So that was, you know, a really hard moment coming out of that. I had just quit my job that I was in to kind of go pursue and go all in on my career as a documentary filmmaker. And so here I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, which is the capital city of Zambia, which is a country in Southern Africa.  And for the first few weeks of my time there, I had to do a lot of producing work to get access to the places that I wanted to film this documentary, which was on maternal health care in rural Zambia. So I had to get a lot of permissions to get into the clinics where I was going to be doing a lot of filming. And in that time, I had about three weeks of not doing my project, in this space of like solitude in this new country. And there was something about being in this new context, apart from my identity back at home, that made me pause and reflect on how I was living my values in, in a different way.

And at that time, I was listening to a podcast called The Rich Roll Podcast, which is a podcast hosted by an individual named Rich Roll who's a vegan endurance athlete himself. And on the show, he has a bunch of different conversations with unique types of people; some of which happened to be on veganism, plant-based living and all the merits of moving in the direction of a vegan lifestyle. What's interesting is I've been listening to that podcast for a couple years but when I was home, anytime one of those episodes came on the podcast where someone was talking about veganism, I thought to myself, that's not for me, you know, I'm, I'm good with like basing my meals around an animal based protein. I'm an athlete, I got to do my thing, just like I was taught. So I kind of just like, put them aside. But there was something about being in Zambia, again, kind of detached from that identity back home, where I felt like I was reforming a new identity open to new influences. And that opened up my heart and mind in a very new way. So, in that moment of solitude, I went on to The Rich Roll Podcast, and I thought, you know what, let me let me check out some of these episodes that I had just skipped over. And in one single day, I must have just like binge listened to like the archives of plant-based guests that Rich Roll had had on the podcast, learning about how going vegan was not only healthier, long term, for an individual, but also how it was tied to helping our planet and climate change. How it was, you know, saving the lives of animals, and I learned about just the scale of factory farming around the world. And overnight, pretty much, it was a huge switch for me, I listened to this podcast during the day and then at night, I remember being in my bed, watching the documentary Forks Over Knives, and just becoming so convinced, so quickly, once I finally just opened my heart and mind to the message. And the next day, I went into the kitchen of my shared house and told my roommates, hey, I'm getting rid of all the milk in here and the chicken in here. So if you want to take it off, you know, off my shelf, that's the last I'll be having it. And it's almost been six years now. And it's been one of the biggest changes, positive changes in my life.

Amy 07:13

Wow.  That's quite a journey really to, to have that whole transformation if you will, and really revisiting kind of your whole, you know, your whole approach to how you're going to go through your everyday life, because food is clearly very important to feeding our bodies and feeding our minds. And so when you change it like that, it really is a huge, huge transformation. So what were some of the challenges that you found in terms of selecting meals, finding products, things like that?  You know, what would you say were some of your biggest challenges?

Austin 07:50

Yeah.  There were challenges being in a new country and a very new context for me in some ways.  You know, when I have friends who are asking me about making the transition to veganism, often times, what I'll encourage them to do is think about the meals that you already are in the habit of having in your day to day life. And then think about what are the non plant based elements of those meals, and then how do we just replace those with plant based elements. And sometimes that means swapping in tofu, or sometimes it means swapping in, like a replica or a vegan mock up of the animal-based protein source that you're used to having. And so I think for a lot of people, you know, starting with like, the Impossible Burger, instead of a normal burger, or like Daring Chicken rather than normal, alive chicken, I think that that is a great way to go. But for me, I didn't really have that option because in Zambia, the access to some of those plant based alternatives that are very common now where I live in in Oakland, California, I just didn't have access to those. And that just meant that I had to, on my own out there start to learn how to design a meal, how to learn how to cook with different ingredients. And so that just took a little bit of intentionality from me it wasn't that difficult, but it meant going online and looking up, oh, what are some what are some meals that I could cook with all these different legumes, all these different beans that I never really, you know, had too much when I was growing up.  And then one of the other elements that was really educational for me at that time was I was filming my documentary in a rural village in Zambia. I was out there for five months, essentially following this one family during the last stages of pregnancy for their fifth child. And I kind of became integrated into their family. I would stay in their village. And, you know, when I was out there filming with them, I was living in this rural community where almost everyone was made their living, sustain their family, by being farmers. And for the most part, just farming, you know, plant based food. And so in, in those areas, whenever they had food that came from animals, it was typically a luxury, it was very rare. And so when I was over at their homes, they were educating me.  They were showing me how to cook with some of these different ingredients.  Like I had never cooked okra at home. But here I was, with this family in this rural community, and we were making okra at night, or we were making dishes with beans. And so I got to get acquainted with some of these new ingredients in this very, kind of beautiful way, because it was with this family who I was already starting to become a part of their lives and kind of get integrated and build trust for the documentary. And I was very grateful that they showed me some of the the amazing foods that were now coming into my awareness as I was going vegan.

Amy 11:18

I love that, Austin.  That is so powerful when I think about, it's almost going back to the roots, right? So we're so privileged in a lot of these developed countries, we're so privileged, and we have things at the shelf and things that we can find really easily. But going back to the basics, and going back to the way they do things in other countries, where they have a backyard garden.  It is a privilege to have a piece of meat on their plate. It's it's really, it's really a great way for you to have gone through this transition, I think because it really probably brought home for you, just the goodness of that and the nature and the connectedness of all that I would imagine.

Austin 12:03

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.  And I would say it was immediately like a close connection to the food where it comes from, which I was grateful to have. In my background as a family that always had like a vegetable garden in our backyard growing up. But then I'd also say it, it started as, when you make the transition to veganism, you're creating new behavior patterns. And whatever behavior pattern you start with, it can then be hard to break that again. So I you know, base my diet around like a whole foods, plant based diet. Of course, there are ways you could eat vegan, a vegan diet, that's not healthy. But for me, I'm always trying to do what's best for my body and mind. And that's a whole food, plant based diet. And so it's cool to think back to me in 2018. And really based on the the people I was interacting there, just the access to like, fresh produce on every street corner led me to start that new behavior pattern off on the right foot eating a plant based, whole foods diet. Typically eating produce that was grown, you know, earlier that morning. So very grateful for that experience.

Amy 13:20

That's awesome. If you if you could choose, say three tips for somebody who is interested in transitioning to a more of a plant based diet, what three tips would you give them?

Austin 13:33

So I think the first one is, is one that I previously mentioned, which is starting to look at the the meals that you're already eating the things that you love, and starting to figure out how you can replace the non plant based elements in that dish with a plant based alternative. I think the the next tip that I would give is, especially early on in your journey, to not get so caught up on labels about what you are. And I think when it comes to identifying as a vegan or a vegetarian or a pescatarian or an omnivore, I think, I think sometimes the labels do a disservice to what we're all trying to do, which is to make this a kinder, more compassionate world for animals, the environment, and and humans.

And I think it does that because once you put a label on yourself, sometimes the aspiration or the pressure to be perfect in pursuit of that label, makes you feel like you shouldn't try at all. And I just think that's such a shame that some people don't even try to go more plant based because they think of that one meal that's so special that they have with their family at Christmas or Thanksgiving.  You know, people will say, Oh, well, you know, Thanksgiving, having the turkey around the table with my family, I could never give that up. And I think, Okay, if you can never give that up, then what about the other 1000 meals you're having during the year? Could we, could we make the plant based decision on those meals. And I think that people are so afraid to be labeled a hypocrite, that the labels can just do a disservice, because it's like, oh, if I can't be perfect, and why try at all. So I would say, not to hang your identity on any of those labels, especially early on. The third tip that I would give, is to start getting educated about how what we eat is such a, such an incredibly powerful decision. And all the implications of what we eat both on a personal level, a population health level, environment and for animals. I think that the way that being plant based or being vegan, the way that really does stick and becomes a part of who you are, and what you care about, like it has for me, is when you start to get educated about all the implications of how it's not just like, you know, it's not just a 15 minute sandwich, this is an individual's life, this is, you know, a production line that led to deforestation somewhere. You know, all the implications. And I think that is so important that education piece, because then you start to ground your decisions about what you buy at the store, whether it's food or products, you start to ground that in something that's bigger than yourself, you start to ground that in a very persuasive and powerful why. And when you have a very powerful, why, then when you get into those situations where it might be a little uncomfortable to ask the waiter, hey, you know, sorry, I don't want to be a burden. But I just is there anything that you have on the menu that you know, you could make vegan for me, when you get to those moments where it's a little uncomfortable, you'll go back to your why and remember why you're doing this, and that is what's going to make this behavior transition stick for the long run. So those would be my three pieces of advice.

Amy 17:45

Three great tips. I think that's fabulous. So I'm gonna give one why right now. So, we recently did a podcast with Ann Linder, who is the Associate Director of Research and Policy at Harvard Law. And one of the things that she commented on was that there will be a strata of chicken bones found in the archaeological, like, the strata of chicken bones in the archaeological record of this era. That, to me is very scary. That is a huge why. Let's not let chicken bones be in the archaeological record. Right? 

Austin 18:22

Wow. That's a that's a powerful and haunting thought.

Amy 18:28

Yes. So you have a gift for storytelling. Even just talking with you right now, it's a story in every response that you give, and it's fabulous. So I want to, I want to, I want to explore that one a little bit more. So you're a podcast producer, a video journalist, cinematographer. How do you use this gift of the storytelling to kind of tell the story about that interconnectedness between human, plant, animal and the importance of all that? Can you share with us a little bit about your storytelling and? And yeah, share your storytelling with us?

Austin 19:08

Yeah, I would say that as a storyteller, I've always felt the the most creative, and the most passionate about telling stories, when I feel my emotions getting stirred and I feel I need to communicate this emotion in some way. That was always the core of why I got into storytelling and why I got so obsessed with it in college and started to chart a career in the direction of storytelling. And as someone who's a freelance documentary filmmaker, I'm oftentimes being pulled in so many directions when it comes to the stories that I tell. You know, I'll be hired on a project about sports. I'll be hired on like a daily breaking news story about storms coming to California. I'll be hired on a daily news story about you know, tattoo removal, earlier this year. So I cover stories in all different areas. But I'm always trying to develop not only as a cinematographer who executes other people's visions, but also as a director and as a storyteller, who can communicate my own emotion and my own vision. And in the last, you know, five or six years, since really going vegan, and learning more about the issues related to veganism, a lot of those projects that I've been pushing to do have been in the space of, as you said, how animal, human and environmental health is all interconnected. And when I tell those stories, I'm looking for what speaks most directly to me, when do I get the most angry? When do I get the most awestruck at a particular moment. And whenever I feel that I go, okay, there's a story here, there's something here, there's some emotion here. Now, let me think about how I can construct a story around that.

And so I think that storytelling in this space is is so crucial. You know, it is the way that we have always communicated as a species. In the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, who's a historian, one of his theses of the book is, the reason that homo sapiens has become kind of this dominant species is because of our ability to tell stories, which can then get buy in from large groups to accomplish tasks together, because they can coalesce around a belief in something. And that belief is transmitted through story. So everything that anyone has a belief around comes from a story.

And so when I think about what can I do, what is my skill set to make a change, when it comes to all these issues that I care about around animals and the planet, I just keep coming back to, lean into story, lean into my unique skill set in order to capture stories, both positive and stories that I feel like, you know, where change needs to be made. And so I'm trying to develop my skills every single day to be able to do that at a higher level, every single week, every single month, every single year.

Amy 22:41

Nice. That's great. So diving a little bit deeper into some of the specific documentaries that you've done.  A little bit the hydro dams in Southeast Asia, you did some work there. You covered the wildfires in California. You also covered Fred the tap dancing turkey.  Can you share maybe a little bit about each of those bodies of work? And they're all very unique. Yet, they're all very important stories that people need to hear.

Austin 23:09

Cool. Yeah. So I'll tick through those in the order that you shared them, which also happens to be chronological order. So that that fits well. So the first project, you mentioned that charts back to 2017, when I was the recipient, along with my friend and colleague, Gus Greenstein of a design firm called IDEO their first climate storytelling fellowship. And they opened up for, you know, project pitches to do any sort of storytelling or documentary project related to climate impacts, environmental impacts. 
And so my friend Gus happens to be, you know, a recently graduated PhD student from Stanford whose expertise and field of study was in the impacts of hydroelectric dams, on the environment and around and their impact on local communities. And so, combining his skill set, which was really like a subject matter expertise, with my background and storytelling, we teamed up and went back to one of his previous places of field research, which was in Southeast Asia. And we did a feature story for a platform called Roads & Kingdoms and Slate, and it told the story about how these dam projects from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are impacting the environment and impacting the communities that depend on the Mekong River. And that was one of my first real immersive deep dives as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, into specially into this theme around how human infrastructure projects are having an impact on the environment.  This one was also really influential for me. And one of the takeaways that I felt while working on this piece was thinking a lot about how so many of the ways that we are putting pressure on nature in natural landscapes extends beyond these fabricated borders that humans have constructed. So, for example, in that story, we have the Mekong River, which is, you know, flows all the way up to China, I believe. And this is a resource which so many millions of people in so many countries depend on. And yet every nation was essentially making their own individual decisions on how to build and how to influence the flow of this river, without any sort of communication between the governments of these countries. And so what happens is, all of these countries are trying to maximize their profits. And by the time the Mekong River flows out into the Delta, in southern Vietnam, you've seen such deleterious impacts on this environment, this incredible ecosystem, and then also the people whose livelihoods and lives depend on it. So that was a really impactful project.

And then the next one you mentioned was covering wildfires. And this one goes back to what I was saying earlier about how my emotions and my personal experiences is  often leading me in the direction of how I how and when I tell stories.  And in 2017, the wildfire problem in California really seemed to just reach a new level of destruction, at least for what I was exposed to and how it hits so close to home. So from 2017, through 2020, my family and I had to evacuate our home, which is where I grew up in in Santa Rosa, California, three different times. And my community was destroyed in 2017, and 2020. And when these fires hit so close to home, I, as a freelancer, went out into the community was visiting evacuation centers. I was talking to people about who was being impacted. And so I did a bunch of different stories that were telling. The side of I was never really on the frontlines is I don't have that training to be like on the frontlines with the firefighters. But I was often looking at like, okay, what are those secondary impacts from? How is how are these wildfires impacting Californians abilities to get insurance? How is it impacting this one individual who is home was the last one in his neighborhood, while everyone else's has burned to the ground? And what does that feel like? How are the agricultural workers in Sonoma County being impacted during a COVID year when not only are they are the ones that we're getting COVID at higher rates than anyone else, but now they're being trucked behind evacuation lines to go pick grapes before they're spoiled by the smoke. So that was a way to get to understand my own community and the trauma my own community was going through the way I process that a lot was through telling stories. And then the last one you mentioned was Fred the tap dancing Turkey, which is a story about a turkey, who has been rescued and now lives on a beautiful idyllic animal sanctuary in Northern California. And I did this story that showcased who Fred is, and what his personality is like, and the joy that he brings to people who visit the sanctuary. And I very strategically film this story in the lead up to Thanksgiving and was fortunate enough to have the platform when National Geographic Short Film Showcase to put this out shortly before Thanksgiving in an attempt to make people maybe slow down, pause and realize that that Turkey that has become the centerpiece for American Thanksgivings is an individual who didn't want to die whose life has tremendous value. And I thought, Fred, it was just like so fun to spend, you know, days, just like crawling around in the dirt trying to get the best angles of this charismatic and social turkey.

Amy 30:12

This is just so like touching. I have a couple of little tears like in my eyes right now just thinking about this experience. What I loved about this, was your, like you said, getting down in the dirt, you were at the turkeys level, you were filming it and shooting it from  where he was and ou felt like he was part of your world. And I know for me watching that, we did not have a turkey this year,  we did have a vegan Thanksgiving and that was partially influenced by your your documentary and seeing Fred the tap dancing turkey and sharing that with my daughter so thank you for doing that. See you work moves people.

Austin 30:55

That makes me so happy I often feel I think about this as a storyteller we always know when we go out and spend all this time and put all this energy into making stories like that I have to feel a lot of joy and get fulfillment just through the making of it and putting it out. Then of course I have big goals for you know could this change someone's mind, can  this make them behave in a different way, but you know you never know we throw these things online and maybe get some comments maybe you hear from a couple people but at some point you just have to have faith that maybe it's moving the needle a little bit so any any testimony I hear like that about how it may have changed you and that you shared it with your daughter makes me so happy so thanks for sharing that.

Amy 31:47

Well you are in an area where it's so incredibly important, right? Film really has the power to shift culture. It really has the power to shift peoples beliefs and things like that so I think that's what happened with us so thank you for that.  Are there specific themes or ideas that you're you're looking to do in the near future then you can share with us?

Austin 32:09

Yea, so right now I've been working on a project which is about end-of-life care for animals. This is a project that I've been working on probably for about the last six months and this project specifically takes place again at animal sanctuary and I've been following a number of elderly animals who are still in good shape but at some point they will need to be euthanized when you know hopefully it's just through the process of natural aging and not some sort of disease or cancer. But the reason that I started working on this project was my girlfriends family runs an animal sanctuary and I happened to be at the sanctuary one winters week last year and got to witness the euthanasia of two different horses, and it was very sad and hard to witness, but it was also so beautiful and tender and caring and it made me think like when you watch this moment of dying and death and the connection between human caretakers and the animals who they love in those final moments of life through that last breaths, it is such a powerful illustration of the undeniable connection between humans and animals. And so what I've been doing right now is figuring out OK can I tell that story specifically about farmed animals specifically about the animals, in our culture, we often don't get to see reach even near the end of their natural lifespan, whose death comes so early in their lives, and again it's not gonna be a story where I'm kind of like hitting people over the head with my belief system or my messaging I think the images and the care and the love speak for themselves, and that's what I'm hoping to do with that project so that's one that I'm working on right now.

Amy 34:37

That sounds really interesting. So what advice do you have for aspiring documentary filmmakers who essentially, like you wanna make a positive impact through their work. What advice would you give them?

Austin 35:00

My biggest piece of advice for aspiring documentary filmmakers is to not wait for permission to create art. And I think that when I see a lot of young filmmakers do is they spend a ton of time you know writing pitches and sending them out to editorial outlets. Or they spend a ton of time figuring out OK how can I work on somebody else's project and those are all part of the process it's all that's all part of the learning and getting to a sustainable point in your career when you can actually make filmaking the majority of your time. But the beautiful thing about documentary storytelling about journalism is you really don't need permission to just get started. To get started building your skills to get started figuring out is this really what you actually want to do or is this something that just kind of like looked cool that you dreamed of doing when you saw National Geographic magazine when you were ten years old. Because its a lot of hard work. So I think when people get out into the field and just start making no matter what camera you have, whether it's your phone or whether it's a DSLR or a muralist camera or just your pen and a piece of paper, The more you can start without anyone's permission just make that habit of developing an idea and actually bring it to life I think that is a huge that's that that's that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about because then this industry is a portfolio industry. This industry is not one where they're gonna be looking at your college  resume and seeing how you did in your classes. No one ever asks where I went to college or like what awards I've won. They look at what I've done and they think this is what his portfolio pieces look like. Can he execute my vision? Can I trust him if I hire him for this day to point his camera to know how to work the camera and get great shots  So if you can demonstrate that because you've gone out and done it, no matter if someone paid you for that work or not then you're gonna start to build your résumé and portfolio to a point when you can make a living doing this.

Amy 37:22

That's great advice and I am gonna give you a little bit of a plug too. I know you've been featuring both on YouTube and LinkedIn, tips and tricks for documentary filmmakers and I know I've been watching them and I just even in my own personal little films that I'm doing, I'm taking some of your advice so I know they can start following you to to learn a little bit more about the fun tips and tricks.

Austin 37:45

Thank you, thank you for the plug.

Amy 37:48

I do want to touch briefly on the national graphic explorer role that you had. Tell us a little bit about how you got i involved in that and what was your most memorable experience or expedition that you went on with National Geographic?

Austin 38:03

So the National Geographic Explorer title is one that is given to people who have received grants from the National Geographic society. So back in 2017, I applied for a National Geographic fullbright, I got rejected. I applied for another National Geographic society grant for explorers to become an explorer got rejected. I tried again the third time, and I finally got it which is again illustrative of what this career is like. It's just like keep going, keep pitching, keep going until you get that yes. And on my third  attempt I  got that yes and that's when I went to do that project on maternal healthcare in Zambia that we touched earlier so that was my grant that I did with National Geographic Society and since then that's kind of open the door for me to have a direct line to their team that runs the National Geographic YouTube channel and so I
 believe I've had six short documentaries featured on their YouTube channel that have been on everything from Wildfires in California to a soccer program in the world's largest Syrian refugee camp to a handball team in Zambia, trying to make the Olympics against all odds to the turkey story that we talked about. So my relationship with National Geographic is one as a freelancer, is one more they're not ever coming to me with assignments it's always in the National Geographic ecosystem when you have to develop the ideas and then you have to go out and continually pitch, get rejected pitch get rejected and then finally maybe one day get that yes.

Amy 38:55

I love it. Persevere, persevere, persevere. And like you said earlier, lean, lean in when you have a story that you want to tell that's really really good advice too. So one of the things that we like to ask all of the folks that join us here at SolPods Studio is if you could have one sustainability superpower what would it be and why.

Austin 40:22

Sustainability superpower. And this is this is not necessarily like a snap my fingers and everything happens. It's like a genuine skill set.

Amy 40:45

A skill set, but you can you can you can stretch the Thanos snap would be fun but go out on a limb a little bit too, go for it .

Austin 40:56

OK, here's what comes to mind. When it comes to my vegan advocacy and my animal rights advocacy, I've gotten so much louder in the last couple years since meeting and falling deeply in love with my girlfriend, Zoe, who has been such an incredible advocate for so many years and has empowered me with so much knowledge and skills that make me confident to stand up and whether it's on this podcast or on my social media or outside of those internet spaces to stand up and really speak to my beliefs even though sometimes this message can make people uncomfortable.
And one of the skill sets that I see that Zoe has that I don't feel like is really in my wheelhouse when I think about sustainability skills I think this could be somewhere I really developed is she's an amazing systems level thinker.  And when we're talking about sustainability goals you know all of the sustainability goals if we're gonna make the size impact that we need to make to actually make a difference and live on a beautiful and habitable planet like those changes need to happen at a systemic level. Now I do believe that it is my deepest skill set and probably where my heart is at to be more on the ground floor interacting on a one-to-one basis. Sitting on the ground filming a sheep or a turkey all day. I love that kind of stuff but I think that I could really benefit from continuing to learn from people like Zoe, and start to think about how my films, how could I tie those into maybe more systemic levers for change how can I plug those into campaigns? How can I just use any sort of skills that I have to start making change at a little bit broader scale. So that's that's what comes to mind at this moment

Amy 43:22

I think that would be a great superpower.  And I think you're already exhibiting that in a lot of ways through your storytelling, and through all the work that you've produced so far. So keep doing more of that and we'll keep sharing more of that, especially through SolPods community and wherever we can. We're out there, talking to people all the time and sharing the work that many of the what we call earth heroes are doing to help you know change the trajectory of our planet. So keep doing it.

Austin 43:50

Yeah thank you, I will

Amy 43:53

Thank you Austin so much for being here today it was a real pleasure to go through your journey with you and to hear from you. It really was an absolute pleasure.

Austin 44:04

Well thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me and I am excited for us to meet up in person and share more stories about all of this at some point in the future.

Amy 44:14
Thank you again so much Austin for joining us here at SolPods Studio,

Austin 44:20

Thank you

Amy 44:22

For our listeners, be sure to check out austinmeyerfilms.com and follow Austin Meyer on Instagram at Austin Meyer films and will also have some additional information for you in the show notes. Thank you again, Austin.