Writer, Producer, Historian, Creative. Fascinated by how we feed cities.
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Let's explore the global food system so we can discover fresh perspectives about the realities of how we feed cities that can inspire action.
Is everything we perceive…real? During a recent visit to Las Vegas, I visited a museum that invites you to question what you perceive as reality.
I dove into this topic on Substack this month for the next installment in my series on senses, plus shared a separate piece on my plans and projects for the new year.
Read both of them here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
PS: what do you think? And would you check out this museum on a Vegas trip?
I have just returned from two weeks in the Caribbean and have emptied the last grains of sand out of my pockets and shoes.
Letting the beach go makes room for what lies ahead and I’m excited about filling my upcoming newsletters with reports from the field about experiments and explorations.
Head to my Substack to read more about my plans, projects, and goals for the new year, plus a separate piece that is the next installment in my series on senses about illusionary museums: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Last week I published a fun walk down memory lane about Big Boy, the burger brand my grandfather opened in the 1930s with Bob's Big Boy Burbank and expanded throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s.
His fearlessness and curiosity for food entrepreneurship in no doubt has inspired me to lead with curiosity and adventure, too.
Check out the story here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
PS: what do you prefer: a simple burger with cheese, ketchup, and mustard, or one with all the fixings?
I grew up in Los Angeles and my grandparents lived in our neighborhood, tucked up in the hills near Pasadena in La Cañada. Early one Saturday morning during the 1950s, my grandfather, a building contractor, took me along with him as he toured his new project, the first hamburger restaurant.
What began as a 10-stool hamburger stand in LA expanded into a chain of restaurants, drive-ins, and other businesses around the nation in the ‘50s and ‘60s with the help of my grandfather.
More about my personal connection to the Big Boy restaurants, plus their fascinating history and unique business expansion, on my latest Substack: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Every time I drive past an In-N-Out burger in Austin, I think of my grandfather.
When the In-N-Out chain arrived here in 2013, Austinites were offended. Locals thought the wave of transplants from Californians had gone too far.
Turns out that the burger chain belonged to the latest wave of entrepreneurs arriving from the West Coast.
Burger entrepreneurs were in their sublime moment during the 1930s and 1940s in Southern California. Imagine Los Angeles as the Silicon Valley of burgers in a bun.
LA was the center of hamburger innovation and creativity, the site of origin stories not only of In-N-Out burgers and McDonald’s but of Bob’s Big Boy restaurants. restaurants are part of my story, beginning with a warm glazed doughnut.
Sharing more about my personal connection to the Big Boys, plus their fascinating history and unique business expansion on my latest Substack: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Will real-life experiences be eventually replaced by “immersive” ones? How can such immersions tell stories or provide experiences that ignite each of our five senses?
I was able to see what the hype was about at The Sphere in Las Vegas. This dome is home to a wrap-around screen with a 16k resolution and 160,000 speakers, making it a remarkable spectacle for immersive shows.
Read more about it all here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe and I’d love to know - would you visit?
Attended this heart-felt, emotional film ImPossible, by Seckeita and Brandon Lewis, and was blown away. A deeply moving story about a journey from Type-2 Diabetes to a better life. Congratulations to everyone who made that film possible.
Trying rucking for the first time, loving the pink rucksack, not loving the 20-pound weight inside.
Can’t get better than this: In honor of husband Bob’s Turing Award, UT lights up its tower. Hook ’em 🎉🤘
Old photo of me on Halloween, during the mid-20th century, in a Peter Pan costume, made by my mom.
Humans in Our Food…a spooktacular (non) cookbook you’ve been dying to read. 😛🎃👻
Yes, has a cheeky title, but in all reality, it’s about meeting the people who feed us every day, everywhere, even through hurricanes and world events.
While we have become familiar with farmers, food bloggers, and chefs, we haven’t seen the people *inside* our food system – WAY inside, like in a food processing company, shucking lobsters, or tending industrial flour mills.
While writing, illustrating, and photographing for this book, I interviewed those humans in a moment when technology is promising to replace them.
What we’re discovering is that the humans in our food system are here to stay, and they’re even more important to the preservation of our humanity than ever before. These human faces are reassuring reminders that food and humans are connected in more ways than one.
Order a copy here: https://robynsmetcalfe.com/store/humansinourfood/
PS: I took this photo while researching food in Paris. 🙂
Incredibly pleased to announce that "Arc of Oblivion," a film I produced with Director Ian Cheney, received the Grand Prize Award this year at the Prague Science Film Fest!
The Grand Prize Award is a collaboration between the AFO (Academia Film Olomouc) and Prague Science Film Fest to honor the best science film for 2023: https://psff.cz/
Prague Science Film Fest 16.–19. 10. 2023 Kampus České zemědělské univerzity v Praze Registrace Informace Program Přijďte si užít festival Projekce filmů Výběr nejlepších populárně-vědeckých snímků z celého světa. Nenechte si ujít exkluzivní uvedení filmů, ...
Last weekend at Lake Travis for a trail run, the Texas drought couldn’t be more visible. Grateful for the rains this week.
The disappearance of industrial soundscapes began decades ago as humans passed laws against industrial sound and new technologies enabled the removal of evidence of our industrial world.
Other industrial sounds signal tracks we leave behind -
The movement of goods from producer to consumer aboard trains that cross our landscapes, signaling their arrival and departure, warning pedestrians and other trains of their presence.
Continue reading my latest Substack essay about industrial sound here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
My fascination with fog horns - yes, fog horns - emerged from other hidden artifacts and people that fill our landscape.
Fog horns and other industrial sounds create ambiance - they send messages of alarm or comfort along the water.
Industrial sound is a topic I’ve been exploring lately as I work on one of my upcoming films: how the presence - and absence - of industrial sound played into our lives throughout history, and how modern-day sound (or lack thereof) plays into our lives today.
Read more about it all here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Green, Greene, or Green’s? The island my family visits every summer off the coast of Maine is beautifully rugged and has a fascinating history, including how the real name of the real Joseph Green (often mixed up for Greene or Green’s) came to be.
If you read last month’s essay, I gave a glimpse into our island life and dug into the question, “Are islands just small continents?”
This month, we dig deeper into this small part of New England that has a big history (and some mystery).
Read it here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
This month on Substack, I am sharing a fascinating story from my island camp in Maine… “Part 2” continued from last month’s essay about islands, one in particular.
Bob and I arrived on this island during the 1980s, not to escape the mainland or modern contemporary culture, but to explore, find some adventure, and satisfy some irresistible curiosity that drew us to find out about islands we saw from our summer home on the mainland.
Over the summers we spent on the island, we heard stories about its name, the original settlers, and the many generations of inhabitants. Some of the stories made sense, others not so much. One enigmatic story prompted me to dig deeper. You can see what I discovered in this latest essay.
Read the story here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Experimenting with layering old pottery shards over knitting samples. Seems there’s something there, not sure what.
Check out these old mussel shells, found on Munroe Island in Maine. Layers that look similar to those found in rock formations around Texas. I wonder if you can read mussel layers like tree rings?
Love my guitar teacher, Mandy Rowden, playing her heart out at a show celebrating her birthday last weekend. She really IS a rockstar.
Finally, got some decent images from my black and white film with my old Rollei. I’ve been struggling with blurred images as I find it difficult to manage a heavy camera with a light touch shutter button.
Maine’s wild blueberry season is winding down and I’m happy to report that my annual jam making obsession is intact. Here’s this season’s production.
We built an ark for our film The Arc of Oblivion (of course) and now use it for small screening events. Yes, we show our Ark film in an ark.
Are islands just small continents?
Islands have often been sites of refuge for pirates, immigrants, and convicts. In the Caribbean, a pirate haven; Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay for military and federal prisoners.
The idea was that these were isolated, bounded by water, separated from the general population.
The “other” as some anthropologists call outsiders.
Thus, islands separate, isolate, protect, and can seem like alternate universes.
Exploring this further on my latest Substack newsletter: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Islands are both magical and mythical. Maine has almost 5,000 islands, if you include some that lean inland. (The rocky granite coastline was the subject of a documentary film I recently produced, The Long Coast.)
While the film didn’t dig deep into island life, it did portray the hard surfaces and intemperate weather that shaped a coastline populated by resilient, rugged, and imaginative individuals.
My latest Substack newsletter shows what it is like to camp along this rugged coastline, and shares some of my thoughts on what islands really are.
Read it here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
First blackberries appeared this weekend, along our beach trail. Wild, small and scrawny, but packed with flavor.
On my breakfast yogurt before daylight.
After a long hike on Sunday morning, I found this scene waiting near the parking lot.
🍯 That honey on your toast probably came from India or South America.
More on honey here:
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What is the difference between magic and what we can do with algorithms and natural language to create illusions?
Magicians have an uncanny ability to get their audiences to believe in the impossible, a trait that may be just as important as magic and technology.
Sharing more about this in my latest Substack: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
When was the last time you had permission to play, tossing out rules for a night?
I attended a magic show earlier this month, an intriguing dance of entertainment and storytelling.
I hadn’t thought much about magic until that night when the connection between magic and how technology is now able to fool us into believing we can live in multiple universes, or multiverses.
Sharing more about this topic, with a deep dive into a few other illusionist stories from the past, in my latest Substack newsletter.
Read it here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
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During a recent visit to Las Vegas, I visited a museum that invites you to question what you perceive as reality. This museum provides a refreshing look at what we think is real and what might just be an illusion. It raises the question that perhaps we can’t trust our rational mind. Where does that put us in terms of science, our emotions, and our senses? Today I’ve published two pieces on Substack, one inviting you into my plans & projects for the new year, and the other, my next installment in my series on senses: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe #substack #substackwriter #thespherelasvegas #lasvegas #storytelling #senses #essays #immersiveart #immersions #immersivexperiences #lasvegasshows #lasvegasstrip
Immersiveness seems to be up in the air, like AI. In a moment when we’re trying to understand where we humans fit into a future with robots infused with artificial intelligence, it can be challenging to sense the boundary between our analog and digital worlds. I was able to see what the hype was about at The Sphere, a new home to extravagant immersive experience in Las Vegas that blends digital storytelling with real life and how this type of storytelling fits into our five senses. Read all about it on my latest Substack, the first installment in a series on senses: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe #substack #substackwriter #thespherelasvegas #lasvegas #storytelling #immersiveart #immersions #immersivexperiences #lasvegasshows #lasvegasstrip
What does your book collection say about you? I have over 2,000… Mine are coming in handy for a UT project I’m working on - especially related to storytelling through a single lens. One of my books is a fantastic example of this. Sharing more about it on my Substack newsletter, out today: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe
Here is a video from our #ScienceStorytellingStudio, showing “zines” made by the attendees, as they experimented with creating a story about a scientific concept. Lots of fun as we discovered that it’s more of a challenge than we realized, giving us room to create some new courses at UT. #utaustinni #utni #utaustin #sciencecommunication
Singing along and playing our guitar in the streets of Guanajuato with a group of women from Austin. What fun!
So proud of our Women’s Volleyball team: NCAA Champions!
This summer while in Maine, I changed my running route to head south instead of north along our rocky coastline. Early morning, just after a short espresso and a skim of news headlines and some spiritual reflection time. Out the door, a mix of walking hills and running flats and downhills. Fall seeping into the edges of my vision. Gloves this time. Sandy shoulders, ferns, deep ramshackle woods, steely, bitter smells from moss, leaves turning reds and oranges, falling on the ground. I wrote about this new running route in my latest Substack newsletter (out tomorrow), and also shared about the interesting characters (people!) I met along the way. This month’s Substack newsletter is out tomorrow! Visit robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe to get exclusive access to tomorrow’s newsletter plus all of my previous issues!
Ten years ago, I was curious about maps as a storytelling platform for history. By combining computer graphics, historical documents, and archival maps, I came up with this short clip about the old meat market in 19th century London. Do you get a sense of where the market was, how the space looked and felt? PS: I am highlighting interactive maps as one of my topics in my newest Substack newsletter, out this Thursday.
[Flip Screen] Ten years ago, I was curious about maps as a storytelling platform for history. By combining computer graphics, historical documents, and archival maps, I came up with this short clip about the old meat market in 19th century London. Do you get a sense of where the market was, how the space looked and felt? PS: I am highlighting interactive maps as one of my topics in my newest Substack newsletter, out this Thursday.
You remember: Someone gave you a sticky square of breakfast cereal that was light as air and that exploded with a snap and a crackle into your mouth. That square (or squares, since it’s next to impossible to have only one at a time) is a classic American treat, Kellogg's Rice Krispies treats. You need only three simple ingredients to make them: Rice Krispies cereal, Jet Puff marshmallows, and butter. You don’t even need to bake them, you only need two hands, a pan and a bowl. From start to finish, 2 seconds, if you use time-lapse photography, as you can see. My version (featured in my video) included hazelnuts with a drizzle of Nutella on top. I’d love to know…with Rice Krispie treats, are you Team Classic or Team Creative? PS: I’ll be sharing more about Rice Krispie treats in my new nostalgic foods thread in my next Substack newsletter, out next week.
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