Inside the Journey
About This Project
Inside the Journey is a podcast I produced and co-hosted with John Younger to help us conduct research for our documentary film Identifying Nelson/Buscando a Roberto. Over the course of four years, from 2013 to 2017, we discussed issues related to El Salvador, The Disappeared Children, and the country’s 13-year-long civil war.
During the 86-episode run, we interviewed members of my family as well as other Salvadoran Adoptees who, like me, were forcibly separated from their families during the war. We also spoke with people who have done significant advocacy work for El Salvador, such as Representative Jim McGovern, Professor Aviva Chomsky, and Dr. Angelina Snodgrass Godoy.
The Situation
In 2010, I started working on a documentary film called Identifying Nelson/Buscando a Roberto with my friend John Younger. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, we flew to El Salvador to capture a historic commemoration of the country’s Day of Disappeared Children. During the week-long trip, We interviewed my family about their experiences during the war and other Salvadorans who had also been forcibly separated from their families as children.
The Challenge
Upon returning from El Salvador, we began editing our footage. It didn’t take us long to put together a beginning and ending for the film, but then we hit a wall. It turned out that creating a narrative for a full-length documentary was much harder than either of us had anticipated. We struggled to agree on a direction for the film and to understand the country’s complicated history.
The Solution
In January of 2013, I attended an event for the release of Seth Godin's book The Icarus Deception. Seth spoke about how we are living in a connection-based economy that rewards people who are willing to take risks and stand out. He explained that at the heart of connection lies vulnerability and said that if you can find ways to be vulnerable in public regularly, then you can build an audience.
That's when I had a brain wave. What if we started a podcast to discuss important issues related to our film and interviewed people who knew more about El Salvador’s history than we did? Not only would this allow us to work through our ideas for the film, but we would also hopefully build an audience for it in the process. John loved the idea. The only problem was that neither of us had ever created a podcast before.
Over the next few months, I worked to understand what was involved in recording episodes, setting up a website, and getting our show listed on iTunes. Once I had taken care of all the technical details, we began recording and launched our first show on May 5th, 2013.
The Results
Since its launch, we recorded 86 episodes over three years, which have been listened to over 7,000 times. The podcast features interviews with members of my family as well as other Salvadoran Adoptees who, like me, were forcibly separated from their families during the war. We also recorded episodes with people who have done significant advocacy work for El Salvador, such as Representative Jim McGovern, Professor Aviva Chomsky, and Dr. Angelina Snodgrass Godoy. For a complete list of all the episodes, check out our episode guide, which is linked below.
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