Storytime for the Apocalypse - The Podcast

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. 

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.

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.