Ellie Wen on motherhood, film making, and how she's changing the world.

Teen People

English - February 05, 2021 00:46 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MB
Society & Culture Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Previous Episode: Lucas Peerman tells me about his work as a Teen People News Team member!

Next Episode: "I don't know what you wear to meet a boy band." — Lindsay Soll Kirkman

Welcome to another episode of Teen People; the podcast that catches up with real people from Teen People magazine! This episode is a conversation with Ellie Wen, who appeared on Teen People’s annual list of 20 Teens Who Will Change the World, in 2005. In the early 2000s, Ellie created an award-winning digital library called Repeat After Us. She and her friends recorded and transcribed poems, quotes, speeches, and books; including works by Katharine Hepburn, Frida Kahlo, Shakespeare, and Oprah. At the time, Ellie said that the website would function as a free resource for literature lovers and English language learners. It had 2000 hits a day when Teen People profiled it in 2005.

As an adult, Ellie has shifted into a career as a documentary filmmaker. Born in Hong Kong, Ellie’s now based in San Francisco, where she lives with her husband and a “pandemic baby”. She spoke with me about 'Single Mother Only Daughter'—a short film she made about her relationship with her mother—and how she’s changing the world.

Podcast notes:

Find Ellie: www.elliewen.com
Watch 'Single Mother Only Daughter': https://vimeo.com/206768959

Find me: www.annasoper.ca
Twitter/Instagram: TeenPeoplePod

Curious about how books are digitized? Read more: https://www.samuelmoore.org/2017/11/28/google-books-and-labour-erasure-in-the-digital-humanities/