The Ferris Files

Ecomagination has published my interview with Randy Olson, a most unusual kind of filmmaker. For the first half of his career, Olson pursued the career that is the dream of many a geeky adolescent: marine biologist. By the young age of 38 he actually achieved it. He earned a tenured professorship in marine biology at the University of New Hampshire. But upon achieving his dream he found it wasn’t quite a fit with his personality and aspirations. You see, Olson harbored another unrealistic fantasy, that of being a documentary filmmaker. He thought he could do both by working as a full-time academic and making movies on the side. But that’s before the scientific community met his plan with derision and scorn. […]