x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Doc Walks

Ben Steinbauer & Keith Maitland

Documentary filmmakers, Keith Maitland (Tower, Dear Mr Brody) and Ben Steinbauer (Winnebago Man, Chop & Steele), are giving the world what no one asked for… Doc Walks. Against their better judgment, they decided to turn their weekly walks into a podcast, stepping into conversation with filmmakers and execs about the art and industry of documentary filmmaking. If you"re an up and coming filmmaker, lover of non-fiction, or related to either Ben or Keith, this podcast might be for you.

tv & film film interviews

All Episodes

01:02:44

EP033 - The Stone Peacock w/ David Modigliani

Doc Walks ·

2025/12/11

What is it with all the doc-filmmakers turning to podcasting?!? No, not us… we're talkin' about David Modigliani—a playwright turned poet turned documentary filmmaker turned podcaster (and Stanley Tucci voice director). This is a fun walk with an old friend at a park rumored to be populated by peacocks! The director of 2008's CRAWFORD (about a small town invaded by George W. Bush) and 2019's RUNNING WITH BETO (a quixotic look at Beto O'Rouke's life on the campaign trail), David is back in Austin for

en

01:17:04

EP032 - Podcasts Are The New Mayonnaise w/ Scott Ballew

Doc Walks ·

2025/12/04

Keith's out this week, so Ben is strutting Travis Heights solo with his good pal Scott(y) Ballew. Scott's a lesson in cutting-against the grain and getting more for it. You might know him from his work as the former Head of Content at Yeti, making 100+ branded docs with one rule: no product placement. Scott's path is pure chaos theory - starting with a UT football national championship ring, spending time as an insurance salesman, working the ol' LA PA grind to end up changing how brands tell

en

40:02

BONUS RE-RELEASE, EPISODE 007: A Story That Went...

Doc Walks ·

2025/11/28

Consider this your second helping of the holiday—Charlie Shackleton's THE ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT is now playing in theaters, which means audiences can now experience one of the most twisted, brightest docs of the year. This thanksgiving we're grateful for filmmakers who take big swings and for audiences who show up to support adventurous storytelling. So grab another slice of pie, settle in, and revisit our SXSW conversation with Charlie—a filmmaker who turned rejection into art and morphed failure

en

39:34

HOLIDAY RE-RELEASE EP09 - The Watering Hole, Live...

Doc Walks ·

2025/11/27

Thanksgiving is here and we're thankful for the filmmakers who make our home town of Austin, TX weird and wonderful. So this week, we're serving up a heaping helping of gratitude and indulging in a re-release of one of our favorite community episodes, EP09 - THE WATERING HOLE, LIVE FROM THE AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY. We recorded this one during SXSW at the annual Austin Film Society party. We're grateful to documentary filmmakers, the festivals that bring us all together, AFS for holding down the fort and

en

40:43

EP031 - Opportunity Calls! w/ Patrick Heaphy

Doc Walks ·

2025/11/20

Join Ben as he walks solo with Patrick Heaphy—a New York producer/director and music doc extraordinaire. Together they saunter across South Congress, past the Continental Club to Arlyn Studios. Pat's the filmmaker behind CHARLEY CROCKETT: $10 COWBOY documentary—now screening at Austin Film Festival—but his career path runs through a Nancy Kerrigan vampire clip (the lav accessory, of course), the 1994 Olympics, and a 9/11 doc compiled from his day-of footage. We dig into the music documentary hustle:

en

53:10

EP030 - I'm With the People (and the Butterflies) w/...

Doc Walks ·

2025/11/13

Meet Rena Effendi—National Geographic photographer, and first-time filmmaker whose SEARCHING FOR SATYRUS just won the top doc prize at the Austin Film Festival. This walk is pure magic—seemingly in honor of her butterfly-hunting film, monarch butterflies flit all around us like they know something the rest of us don't. Rena's film traces her hunt for one of the world's rarest butterflies, named after her father—a Soviet-era lepidopterist who collected 90,000 specimens before his untimely death. This

en

49:14

EP029: What Should We Call This Episode? w/ Chelsea...

Doc Walks ·

2025/11/06

We've been trying to book this walk with director Chelsea Hernandez for weeks, but she's just too-busy city-hopping for the PBS music doc-series to hit the trail with us—until now. Chelsea is an Emmy-nominated director, a part of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and a great friend! On a return from a recent shoot in Puerto Rico for CITY OF SONGS, Chelsea found that her living room ceiling had collapsed, turning her life upside down… rather than get down about it, she took it as a sign from the universe

en

53:55

EP028 - Go To Church: Watch Movies w/ Megan Gilbride

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/30

Keith wanders LA's Atwater Village with acclaimed producer Megan Gilbride—a co-conspirator on TOWER, A SONG FOR YOU, and DEAR MR. BRODY. We stroll the neighborhood, two old friends and frequent collaborators, outlining just how Megan's the "producer kind of crazy" and not the "director kind of crazy." Megan's got theories and she has opinions—and she's got the experience to back them all up. This wide-ranging talk covers a whole lot, like… the ethics of authenticity, how the budget tells a story,

en

58:51

EP027 - Living The Dream with Mike Blizzard

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/23

Welcome to Austin Studios, the airport-turned-soundstages located at the intersection of Austin Film Society and Richard Linklater’s Detour Filmproductions… and who better to catch on the backlot than Mike Blizzard? A producer known for APOLLO 10½, HIT MAN, and this month’s BLUE MOON, all made with longtime collaborator Richard Linklater, Mike takes us through the old airport hangars where MISS CONGENIALITY stumbled and where WALKER spurred onto screens. Breaking down how true stories become

en

50:56

EP026 - Literally Don't Do This, But Don't Do This...

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/16

We're wandering through a mystery neighborhood (we don’t know the name) with Alex Ross Perry, who has TWO movies screening in Austin on the same day. Here to promote his 10-year passion project VIDEO HEAVEN—an essay film about video stores screening at Austin Film Society, and his part of the omnibus VHS series at Fantastic Fest, Alex has built up a fair amount of cred since 2014’s LISTEN UP, PHILIP. Of course, "you can't pay for Montessori preschool with cred." Ain’t that the truth. We catch Alex

en

48:47

EP025 - I'm Not Sure That’s A Sculpture with Hillary...

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/09

This week we’re roaming from Go-Valley (the production compound) thru Govalle (the neighborhood) with Marfa, TX-based filmmaker Hillary Pierce, a producing force behind Ben Masters’ THE RIVER AND THE WALL, and Maisie Crow’s AT THE READY.. Hillary's path involves assisting the legendary Albert Maysles in New York (yes, he ate her leftovers), looping back to Austin, and then simultaneously working on two wildly different features with Keith, TOWER and A SONG FOR YOU. A meandering stroll through

en

14:14

EP024.5 - Matt and Bob Morning Show Meets Doc Walks

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/08

Ben crashes the Matt and Bob show to talk WINNEBAGO MAN, viral videos before viral was a thing, and tracking down an angry RV salesman living as a hermit in Northern California. The conversation rips through documentary evolution—from Ken Burns photo zooms to Tiger King (quick: who directed it? exactly)—and lands on why docs are the offensive linemen of film: you don't know their names, but you need them. Ben breaks down Doc Walks, his new weekly walk-and-talk series with Austin filmmaker Keith

en

52:21

EP024 - Golden Moments with Maureen Gosling

Doc Walks ·

2025/10/02

This one is pure gold! Join Ben on a solo walk with the legendary Maureen Gosling—a prolific documentary editor and director, and a longtime collaborator of Les Blank. Dig into the makings-of iconic films like SPROUT WINGS AND FLY, GAP-TOOTHED WOMEN and BURDEN OF DREAMS, and explore Maureen's latest work, THE NINE LIVES OF BARBARA DANE. We dive deep into the fascinating twists and turns of Maureen's career and her seamless transition from editor to director. Maureen inspires as she lays out the

en

54:24

EP023 - I’m Not A Pirate Anymore (But I Used To Be)...

Doc Walks ·

2025/09/25

A walk down docu-memory lane as we welcome Ben’s early filmmaking collaborator, roommate, and mentor Bradley Beesley…. A prolific and adventure-prone docmaker, Bradley’s created acclaimed docs OKIE NOODLING 1 & 2, FEARLESS FREAKS, and SWEETHEARTS OF THE PRISON RODEO—among others. This walk takes us through Brad & Ben’s old neighborhood, with a stop in front of the house they shared in French Place, here in Austin. In a flowing conversation filled with stories and insights from Bradley’s early days

en

41:20

EP022 - Fall Is Falling

Doc Walks ·

2025/09/18

Summer’s done and Fall is Falling as we (Keith & Ben) check in with each other about the state of our respective projects and how we go from development to production (fingers crossed). We don’t have the answers, but we each have our approaches to deck-creation, sizzle reel sizzling, pitching & fundraising, all to get into the ‘making’ part of filmmaking. Ben shares details about his doc project DR. DANTE, a collab with filmmaker/producer Bradley Beesley and Jimmy Kimmel's company Kimmelot (plus

en

46:35

EP021 - LIFE AFTER with Reid Davenport and Colleen...

Doc Walks ·

2025/09/12

Two-time Sundance winner Reid Davenport is in town with his new film LIFE AFTER. We were excited to book time with Reid and his producer Colleen Cassingham for a sit-down with Keith at the Austin Film Society Cinema. Reid shares the story behind what drew him to telling this complex story about the issues attached to state sanctioned assisted suicide and talks about his early filmmaking days where questions of identity and politics shaped him as a filmmaker with a unique perspective. Both Reid and

en

41:26

EP020 - A Shared Reality with Richard Whittaker

Doc Walks ·

2025/09/04

It’s a sobering summer day in Austin as we invite the Austin Chronicle’s Richard Whittaker out for a walk. Fresh off the presses, Richard has researched and written a story that details the ramifications of the recent defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the impact that this move has on independent documentaries. We get into it, talking up the history and significance of PBS and ITVS, the Independent Television Service — the leading funder of indie docs in the public sphere

en

50:47

EP019 - DocTalks with Dr. Paul Stekler

Doc Walks ·

2025/08/21

We talk a lot about mentorship on this podcast—so it makes sense that we’d bring a pivotal mentor to both of us into the mix. Join us as we find a shady spot on the campus of the University of Texas as DocWalks becomes DocTalks with Dr. Paul Stekler. We’ll get into Paul’s POV from many angles—from his days as a Harvard PhD, to his filmmaking roots in New Orleans, through his role as the chair of the Radio-Television-Film department at UT, Paul has made teaching and community building a priority. But

en

54:04

EP018 - Greg Kwedar Meta On Meta On Meta

Doc Walks ·

2025/08/14

This week we’re breaking out of the non-fiction world to talk fictionalization with Oscar-nominated writer/director Greg Kwedar. Fresh off the awards trail with last year’s SING SING, Greg shares insights and ideas about turning documentary style research into based-on-a-true-story truth. It’s a light-hearted walk through Hyde Park, with another stop at a shady creek, as we dig into Greg’s approach to creative partnership (he’s 4-films deep with collaborator Clint Bentley) — and catering his

en

49:06

EP017 - Through the Portal with Reed Harkness

Doc Walks ·

2025/08/07

Take a stroll with Reed Harkness, Portland-based creator behind SAM NOW, a creative portrait that follows the journey of the Harkness brothers, Reed and Sam, as they search for Sam’s mother who mysteriously disappeared in the year 2000. This walk mirrors Reed’s film, becoming a moving and unexpectedly epic conversation about family, loss, and long-haul filmmaking. This one takes us off the trail, through a literal portal with a detour into a stone-skipping dip in Boggy Creek. This one’s got heart,

en

36 results

Similar Podcasts

BEHIND THE VELVET ROPE

David Yontef

Nerd Culture - A Gamekings Podcast

Blammo Media

UPodcast

UPodcast

The Writers Hangout

Sandy Adomaitis

The Sarah Fraser Show

Sarah Fraser