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Our Looney Planet is a project of MATLANA MEDIA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Through video podcasts and other media, MATLANA MEDIA’s mission is to revive the human skills that travel once required. Our work sparks conversation about the value of analog travel and celebrates the remarkable instincts, abilities, and playful, idiosyncratic intelligence we each bring to our looney world.
Before smartphones, travel meant stepping into the unfamiliar and turning to strangers, whether that was down to the corner store, or to the other side of the world. The uncertainty that goes hand in hand with analog travel kept us attentive to our surroundings and tuned into others. Being in actual, often tricky, unpredictable contact with other humans was the simple reality of everyday life.
Those weren’t just travel skills. Those were human skills.
Our social skills are eroding, and the ones we are losing aren’t exotic—they’re the skills behind every conversation, apology, collaboration, and flirtation.
Ian & Justine know what it’s like to depend on strangers for food, transport, shelter—and a toilet. Improvisation was the name of the game. With Our Looney Planet they share that spirit of embracing the unknown with audiences around the world.
TRAVEL LIKE IT’S 1999!
Why now?
Not long ago, boredom was rich with possibility: long bus rides transported us into our imagination. Our inner lives had space to flourish, and freak out. We had inner dialogues that were private and we turned to other humans for reality checks and conversation. But today many of us are exposing every big and little thing to the public at large, concretizing ineffable emotions into texts, stories, reels, and posts. Everywhere someone is shooting, cropping, sharing and comparing. And everywhere we sense that we are being watched, or watching, each of us participating in the panopticon. Our Looney Planet believes that practicing analog travel skills might help bring us back to a quieter and saner existence.
Human to human, in person interaction is fundamental to our mental health. Today, social trust is fraying, screen time is soaring and loneliness is associated with an increased risk of premature death. The World Health Organization’s commission, estimates that social disconnection contributes to roughly 871,000 deaths a year, and reports that one in six people worldwide experiences loneliness. Rates are highest among adolescents and young adults—the first generation to grow up with screens woven into nearly every part of daily life.
The Globe Trekker archive deserves a second life:
Globe Trekker, which also aired under the titles Lonely Planet and Pilot Guides, reached an estimated global audience of 40 million. MATLANA MEDIA is bringing the Globe Trekker archive back to life, not simply as nostalgia, but as a record of human behavior that has nearly vanished in a single generation. While the series is no longer available for streaming, MATLANA MEDIA has access to the Globe Trekker archive: hundreds of hours filmed during the pre-digital era and we can incorporate select footage from the Globe Trekker archives into the video podcast episodes.
The audience is finding us:
Fan engagement on Our Looney Planet has been stellar. Thousands of messages have poured in from India to Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the USA, astounding us with their warmth and enthusiasm for the project.
From the launch of Season 1 in October 2025 to August 30, 2026, our YouTube channel reached 68 countries and our podcast channels reached 66 countries.
On Instagram, our engagement rate by reach is 19.59%, against an average of 4–6%. On YouTube, our engagement rate by views is 5.96%, against an average of 1–3%. And on TikTok,our engagement rate by views is 9.55%, against an average of 5-10%.
Our Kickstarter raised $25,000 from 188 backers.
And here’s the amazing thing: before launching Our Looney Planet, neither Ian nor Justine had a social media profile—and neither did the Globe Trekker brand.
We're not anti-technology
The technologies that distract us are also our distribution channels. We don’t scold the audience for holding a phone. We hold one too. We just don’t want it to become a third appendage. Our Looney Planet offers a joyful reminder that an unmediated world still exists—and celebrates our place in it.
We are not beholden to the machine
As a nonprofit, MATLANA MEDIA, is funded primarily by foundations and individual donors, not advertisers. Independent funding allows us to make entertainment that invites our audiences to look up, look around, and engage with one another. We want our audience to watch and listen to our work, but we don’t need them to be glued to it. If we were dependent on investors and advertising revenue, we would have to devote more of our resources to social media marketing and the relentless production of short-form content. Our expectation is that in 2027, our funding model will include sponsorships and revenue from partnerships.
Season 2: six video podcast episodes and a new video series
Hello Again Globe Trekker 3 video podcast episodes
Ian & Justine reunite with members of the intrepid team behind Globe Trekker. Intercut with footage from the Globe Trekker archives, these behind-the-scenes conversations tell the story of how the episodes got made: a tiny crew, a shoestring budget, a four-week shoot, massive camera equipment, and a few bottles of whiskey for bribing anyone with a line on a helicopter. Success depended on teamwork, ingenuity, and the kindness of strangers.
Hello Stranger 3 video podcast episodes
Ian & Justine chat with someone they’ve never met and know nothing about. No briefing, no bio. They know only one thing about their guest: the city they live in. Our producer does the matchmaking, then steps back and we all find out who this person is together. The conversation starts from zero, the way it does when you find yourself sitting next to a stranger on a bus, a train, in the bleachers, or on a plane.
Personal Geographies Videos
A local takes us through their city, steering us to their favorite spots. Along the way they chat with locals, tourists, and friends and together those voices give us a multiplicity of perspectives on a single location. The pilot is in production.
Season 2 is up to YOU!
Season 1 – funded by the Khosravi Family Foundation and contributions from individual donors.
Season 2 – funded in part by 188 Kickstarter backers. To complete Season 2, MATLANA MEDIA, needs to raise an additional $250,000.
If you’ve ever gotten lost and a stranger helped you out, then you already understand what we are trying to protect. Every contribution helps keep this project independent—and keeps the conversation going.
DONATE TODAY: Give wings to an experienced team of producers, researchers, and editors to produce Season 2: six video podcasts, two social media clips each day, and Personal Geographies.
$50 covers coffee for the team for 1 month.
$150 covers software subscription fees for 1 month.
$450 funds the sound mix on one video podcast episode.
$1,200 covers rent for 1 month.
$3,000 funds production and editing of 1 episode of Personal Geographies.
$4,000 funds the edit of one month’s worth of social media clips.
$5,000 funds production and editing of 1 episode of Hello Stranger.
$6,000 funds production and editing of 1 episode of Hello Again Globe Trekker.
$5,000 covers legal fees for 1 year.
DONATE TODAY. We’re grateful for your participation.
If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us: hello@ourlooneyplanet.com.
Justine reads every email.
Donate online or mail a check to:
MATLANA MEDIA
1442A Walnut Street, #202
Berkeley, CA 94709
United States of America
For grants, major gifts, donor-advised funds, stock, or wire transfers, please contact us at hello@ourlooneyplanet.com.
MATLANA MEDIA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN: 39-4114517.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Board Members
Justine Shapiro, President and CEO
Jena Resner, Secretary
Jocelyn Leroux, Treasurer
Deirdre English, Director