{"podcast":{"title":"Doc Walks","slug":"doc-walks-7327673","podcast_index_feed_id":7327673,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/576985/rss","website_url":"http://www.docwalkspod.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/8/8/b/3/88b35d9d7d68506bd959afa2a1bf1c87/DOCWALKS_Artwork.png","author":"Doc Walks","episode_count":67,"summary":"Documentary filmmakers, Keith Maitland (TOWER, DEAR MR BRODY) and Ben Steinbauer (WINNEBAGO MAN, CHOP & STEELE), host this lively walk & talk podcast featuring conversations with today's best non-fiction storytellers. DocWalks takes the conversation to the street (or nature trail), offering candid insight into the art & industry of documentary filmmaking for an audience of emerging filmmakers and doc-lovers alike.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T00:19:13.407990+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673"},"episode":{"title":"EP058 - The Jellyfish Died w/ Juli Berwald","slug":"ep058-the-jellyfish-died-w-juli-berwald","published_at":"2026-06-18T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673/ep058-the-jellyfish-died-w-juli-berwald","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673","url":"https://docwalkspod.com/ep058-the-jellyfish-died-w-juli-berwald","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/769d52a5-d399-4750-a0ce-f637076f16a6/DW_EP058_JULIBERWALD_RC-esv2-37p-bg-51p-music-49p.mp3?dest-id=4997995","summary":"Meet Juli Berwald—a marine biologist turned science writer and the author of an invertebrate page-turner—she's the founder of a coral-reef nonprofit in Honduras, aaaaand she's producing her first doc. Throughout our waterfront walk at Ladybird Lake Juli opens up about her adventures in science writing—how getting fired off a book project (& replaced by Elizabeth Kolbert) inspired Juli to create her own destiny and finally write her own book. What follows is a masterclass in turning science into memoir called SPINELESS—a jellyfish book secretly structured like a jellyfish lifecycle, complete with a fever dream that sent her to Japan to find the world's biggest jellyfish (spoiler: it died right in front of her). We dig into \"hiding behind the facts,\" the boldness it takes to put yourself on the page, and the best creative-accountability advice we've heard yet: combine a tight writing group with Elizabeth Gilbert's \"take your project on a date,\" add in some John August-style sprints while following a roommate's admonition to \"write the worst book you can—\"and you're on your way. Theres's a whole lot of science, a bunch of laughs, and some doc-stuff in this one too. THE REBEL REEF: SEEDS OF HOPE is Juli's hopeful short doc about a reef to remember and divemaster Christian Carias, whose own healing becomes the heart of the film. Plus composer Chad Cannon (AMERICAN FACTORY, JOIN OR DIE), a $100K biobank dream, and perhaps an answer to the question of \"how do you get to Symphony Space?\" Also: An entire taxonomy of recumbent coots; shoutout to a Charles and Ray Eames numerically inspired mid-century film; and the official-yet-disputed name of a celebrated Austin footbridge. And yes—Juli already has another book on the way… DISCUSSION LINKS: THE REBEL REEF: SEEDS OF HOPE (2026)…","meta_description":"Meet Juli Berwald—a marine biologist turned science writer and the author of an invertebrate page-turner—she's the founder of a coral-reef nonprofit in Ho…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4273,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/doc-walks-7327673/episodes/ep058-the-jellyfish-died-w-juli-berwald/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673/ep058-the-jellyfish-died-w-juli-berwald.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}