About Me
Where did Ponders come from?
It’s a long story, but the short version is that I started my career in audio engineering while working as a middle school teacher. To keep some separation between my day job and my side hustle—that is, to keep my students from finding me—I repurposed an old high school nickname as a kind of professional/online/pen name.
By the time I transitioned into design, I had already established myself online as Ponders, so the name stuck!
It’s a unique name, given to me by a friend who appreciated how much I thought about the world. I try to live up to their admiration every day and do the name proud.
You seem like the kind of person with a lot of interests and hobbies...
That’s a very astute observation!
Outside of my career in tech, I’m a writer, musician, dancer, amateur film critic, die-hard road tripper, and board game enthusiast. I went to college to study math and music. My language requirement in both high school and college was fulfilled with Ancient Greek. I’m a little rusty, but I can still bust out a pretty good recitation of the first ten lines of the Iliad.
My list of interests is ever-growing. A couple of recent deep dives:
- Using SQL (and ChatGPT) to build a complete map of the Godzilla cinematic multiverse
- The paleogeology and the stratigraphy of the Niagara Escarpment (Did you know there is an underwater waterfall between Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay?)
- Comedy actresses from the silent era whose work has been largely overshadowed by the likes of Chaplin and Arbuckle
- Specifically Mabel Normand
- Specifically, this Keystone Comedy that Mabel directed, thought to be lost until it was discovered in New Zealand
- Specifically Mabel Normand
Photography
I’ve recently been getting into both film and digital photography. I love street and architecture photography and am always on the lookout for a story. I have a lot of thoughts about the philosophy of photography, and I’m not afraid of telephone wires.
Audio Fiction and Podcasting
I am the creator of three podcasts:
- Accession is a narrative art history and museum podcast, that brings art to life through story, fiction, poetry, and music. The episode “Take Me To the Water” won a Sarah Lawrence Award for Excellence in Audio Fiction.
- The Wanderer is a fairy folk tale about a man whose love has been taken by the forest. The show is written and performed by me, and each episode features an original song.
- Mars’ Best Brisket is a sitcom about the first vegan brisket joint on Mars. It was created as a charity event to raise money for Spoonfuls, a group using restaurant food waste to end food insecurity in Boston.
I was also a producer on the hope punk sci-fi anthology Open World, where I adapted, directed, and designed adaptations of short stories by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz. (I also sound designed N.K. Jemison reading the prologue of The City We Became, which is still one of the coolest projects I’ve gotten to work on.)
I’m also in the writing and production rooms for Greater Boston and Arden and have various other credits on What’s The Frequency, Hit the Bricks, Station Blue, and Forgive Me.
