vHopeful Conversations Podcast

Ghost in the Machine: "I think the bravery and boldness to think outside the box, to create outside the box, and to trust that you’ll find your audience...that is what resonates right now."

In this vHopeful Conversation, I speak with filmmaker Valerie Veatch about her Sundance 2026 documentary Ghost in the Machine. We dive into the dirty wiring behind today’s AI boom—its roots in eugenics and race science, its extraction‑driven infrastructures, and the white male techno‑fantasies shaping it. Veatch unpacks how a “secret” artist program around OpenAI’s Sora jolted her from curiosity to resistance, why she chose a scrappy, Zoom‑based, self‑funded film over platform‑friendly series formats, and how archival discoveries (from Norbert Wiener to Claude Shannon) reveal an unbroken line between so‑called neutral data and explicitly racist projects. She connects Kenyan data‑labeling sweatshops, water‑hungry data centers, and venture‑funded rationalists in Silicon Valley into a single story about power, misogyny, and the abandonment of the earth. Above all, she makes a bracing case for refusal—arguing that saying no to AI in our workflows, schools, and cultural institutions is not Luddite panic but a necessary act of care, clarity, and democratic self‑defense. Get full access to Dream of a Better World at vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe [https://vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

We Are Pat: "This needed to be funny, to show nuanced perspectives of trans people where we could be flawed, messy, idiotic, funny—all the things."

This vHopeful Conversation features director–producer Rowan Haber and Emmy‑winning producer Caryn Capotosto discussing their documentary We Are Pat, which revisits SNL’s 1990s “It’s Pat” sketches through a contemporary trans and non‑binary lens. We talk about why this is the right cultural moment to unearth Pat again, how Ro’s realization that “the punchline wasn’t about me, it was me” became the emotional engine of the film, and what it meant to bring Julia Sweeney into a room with younger trans and non‑binary comics to rewrite and restage the sketches. We explore the tension between humor that harms and humor that connects, who gets to tell which jokes, how power and perspective shape comedy, and why We Are Pat is designed less as a political treatise than a joyful, community‑building conversation starter about gender, art, and the possibility of talking across difference. Get full access to Dream of a Better World at vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe [https://vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Gaslit: "Even though the film is U.S.‑focused, these are the same fights people are experiencing everywhere!"

In this vHopeful Conversations episode, filmmaker Katie Camosy joins me to talk about her new Greenpeace‑backed documentary GASLIT, which follows Jane Fonda, Connie Britton, and Maggie Rogers through Texas and the Gulf South as they bear witness to LNG export terminals, petrochemical corridors, and the communities living in their shadow. Katie traces how a shocking first encounter with the Permian Basin’s fracking fields grew into a feature‑length film about liquefied “natural” gas, export‑driven extraction, and the human cost of America’s fossil fuel build‑out. We dive into GASLIT’s balance of grief and hope—devastating stories of illness, loss, and dispossession alongside shrimpers, ranchers, faith leaders, and organizers who are fighting back with thermal cameras, citizen lawsuits, historic‑preservation tactics, and cross‑political alliances. We also unpack the ways GASLIT counters the narrative promoted by hit series like LANDMAN, explore the global reach of companies like Formosa Plastics and the international struggle against LNG and single‑use plastics, and highlight concrete pathways for viewers to plug into the movement—from GaslitDoc.com resources to voting out fossil‑funded politicians and joining local campaigns. Get full access to Dream of a Better World at vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe [https://vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Get Away with Janet Hsieh: "If you’re curious about people, you’ll ask questions. You’ll be more accepting. You’ll want to learn about them and their culture. Same with food, places, knowledge."

This vHopeful Conversation features creator, producer, and host Janet Hsieh whose journey runs from MIT pre‑med and the long‑running Discovery travel series Fun Taiwan to funding and creating her new YouTube travel show GET AWAY with Janet Hsieh. We talk through the “drought” Janet faced moving back to the U.S., how a chance reunion with high‑school friend and Emmy‑winning producer Joe Litzinger led to their three‑person production model, and why YouTube’s flexible runtimes and small‑crew freedom let them chase eruptions in Hawaii, 24‑hour love letters to Taipei, and spontaneous, music‑infused moments like playing violin atop Mauna Kea. Along the way, Janet opens up about brutal beauty standards in Asian entertainment, eating disorders, IVF, pregnancy, perimenopause, and aging on camera, and how honesty, vulnerability, and “Janet of all trades” curiosity have turned her travel work into a coming‑of‑age series for midlife—one that invites everyone to embrace imperfection, adventure, and bridge‑building across cultures. Get full access to Dream of a Better World at vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe [https://vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ask E. Jean: "You will see yourself. You will see your sisters. You will see your mother. You will recognize so much of what we all experience... Men too."

In this vHopeful Conversation, filmmaker Vanessa Hope speaks with Emmy‑nominated documentarian Ivy Meeropol about her new film Ask E. Jean, a portrait of advice columnist and writer E. Jean Carroll that goes far beyond the courtroom headlines to explore her Miss Cheerleader USA past, gonzo magazine career, TV show, and late‑in‑life decision to publicly confront Donald Trump. They discuss the challenge of balancing E. Jean’s buoyant, hilarious persona with the gravity of the assault and its lifelong impact, the complicity and constraints of the boys’‑club media world she navigated, and the transformative power of women’s friendship and lawyering embodied by Carroll’s bond with attorney Robbie Kaplan and her close circle of friends. Throughout, Ivy reflects on how E. Jean’s willingness at 75 to reckon with her past, revise her own advice‑giver legacy, and insist on telling the truth offers exhausted audiences something rare in the Trump era: a story that is both deeply sobering and unexpectedly joyful, galvanizing viewers—women and men alike—to see sexual violence, patriarchy, and American democracy as inextricably linked. Get full access to Dream of a Better World at vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe [https://vanessahope.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]