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Help Us Turn to Each Other
MATLANA MEDIA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a simple mission: to create and distribute programs that inspire us to turn to each other before turning to our phones.
Our aim is to bring a little balance to the force by reviving the human skills that pre-digital travel once required: improvisation, common sense, adaptability, curiosity, creativity, courage—and the willingness to turn to a stranger and ask for help.
Our first project, Our Looney Planet, is a video podcast series created by Ian Wright and Justine Shapiro, the original hosts of the landmark travel series Lonely Planet / Globe Trekker. Starting in the early 90s, Ian & Justine traveled for two decades with small crews to over 100 countries reliant on analog tools (paper maps, phrase books, cash, letters) and the occasional fax or phone call.
Our Looney Planet shows how humans navigated uncertainty with their own wits. Missteps were at the heart of each journey.
In an entertaining, often hilarious way, Our Looney Planet brings back the spirit and practice of embracing the unknown.
Our Looney Planet aims to:
Spark an international conversation about the concept and practice of “analog travel”;
Highlight humanity’s innate abilities and capacities to navigate our lives without devices;
Inspire people to look up, listen, look around, and banter with strangers;
Invite our audience to put these skills into practice through analog travel challenges.
TRAVEL LIKE IT’S 1999!
Why now?
Trust in ourselves and others is eroding. Our social muscles are atrophying and the skills we’re losing aren’t exotic. They’re the skills behind every conversation, apology, collaboration, friendship and flirtation.
Not long ago, boredom didn’t have a quick fix: it was the soil in which our imaginations could flourish. We had inner dialogues that were private. But today, everywhere someone is shooting, cropping, sharing and comparing. Each of us playing a role in the panopticon.
Our Looney Planet believes that practicing analog travel skills might help bring us back to a quieter, more connected, and saner existence.
Humans need in-person connections. Too many of us are not self-honest about the distinction between relationships conducted remotely vs. those experienced face-to-face.
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.
What is “Analog Travel”?
“Analog” is defined as engaging directly with your environment, and the people in it, without resorting to a mediating device. “Travel” means stepping out of your comfort zone, whether walking to the corner store, or getting on a plane.
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. The series is no longer available for streaming, but MATLANA MEDIA has access to hundreds of hours filmed during the pre-digital era. We can incorporate select footage from the Globe Trekker archives into the video podcast episodes.
This archive is a time capsule of a world in which getting lost was normal, information was scarce, and strangers were often the own resources you could turn to.
The audience is finding us:
The response to Our Looney Planet has been extraordinary.
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.
Our podcast channels reached 66 countries.
Instagram engagement by reach is 19.59%, compared with an average of 4–6%.
YouTube engagement by views is 5.96%, compared with an average of 1–3%.
TikTok engagement by views is 9.55%, compared with an average of 5-10%.
Our Kickstarter reached its goal of $25,000, with support from 188 backers.
And here’s the rather amazing part:
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.
We use digital tools to distribute Our Looney Planet because that's where people are. But the thing we're inviting them to do is look up from the screen. Our Looney Planet offers a joyful reminder that an unmediated world still exists—and celebrates our place in it.
Independence matters
MATLANA MEDIA, is a nonprofit funded primarily by foundations and individual donors, not advertisers. That Independence gives us the freedom to make entertainment that invites people to look up, look around, and engage with one another. We want people to watch and listen to our work. 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, beginning in 2027, our funding model will include sponsorships and revenue from partnerships.
Life is hard. Our gift to you is Season 2.
A joyful, quirky, funny - and yes, fun - new season of Our Looney Planet.
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 actually 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!
Every contribution helps keep this project independent—and keeps the conversation going. Season 1 – funded by the Khosravi Family Foundation and contributions from individual donors.Season 2 – funded in part by 188 Kickstarter backers who raised $25,000.
To complete Season 2, MATLANA MEDIA, must 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.
Your Donation Makes it Happen:
Your support gives an experienced team of producers, researchers, editors and creatives the resources to produce Season 2:
6 video podcasts
2 social media clips each day
2 episodes of Personal Geographies
What Your Gift Can Fund:
$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.
$5,000 covers legal fees for 1 year.
$6,000 funds production and editing of 1 episode of Hello Again Globe Trekker.
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
The inspiration for MATLANA MEDIA:
Justine’s grannies: Mathilda and Lana.