#69: Johnny Harris - Himalayan Borders, Making Maps, Traveling with Purpose

TravelEntertainmentVideoReligion

May 7

Written By Samuel Donner

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Episode Description

Today, we sit down with Johnny Harris, an international multimedia generalist based in Washington DC. Johnny was born in Ashland, Oregon in 1988 and attained a BA degree from BYU. His passion and career focus aims at connecting high quality media arts with foreign affairs. He utilizes media in making complex world issues more relatable and easier to understand. Johnny’s work with vox.com in reporting on interesting trends and domestic and global stories pioneered their series, Vox Borders. He is the co-founder of Bright Trip, a video-based educational platform.

Johnny is an Emmy-nominated video journalist who has spent the last 5 years reporting on and sharing human centered stories of borders around the globe. He has a passion for taking the overwhelming and the complex – and using his visual style of motion graphics and cinematic visuals to distill it into a comprehensive, relatable, and understandable message.

This is an exposé on self-discovery, feeling — but not seeking validation, and exploring ones unapologetic experimental creativity.

Show Notes

Childhood: Johnny is raised a Mormon — alongside 4 siblings — in Ashland, Oregon, where he participated in cross country, water polo and track. He was also a drummer for a band
Dyslexic: Johnny had quite a bit of trouble with school, he was dyslexic. His ever-supportive mother read books to him, and he listened to audiobooks in high school — perhaps to circumvent his dyslexia. Johnny deeply struggled with reading college learning materials. He devised an ingenious idea of recording class lectures and made videos/infographics instead of writing papers
Mormon Missionary: Being Mormon meant Johnny had to embark on a missionary trip to Tijuana where he became drawn to the idea of man-made borders. He went as far as changing his major to International Relations, giving up his dream of being a Filmmaker
Dating and Marriage: Johnny met his now wife, Iz (Isabel) at BYU. They start out being friends, but later become a couple after Johnny comes back from Belgium. They exchanged their vows while in their early twenties and graduated college together a week after the birth of their son Henry
Simple Flare Productions: Johnny founded this media production company in 2011 with skills in videography, motion graphics and graphic design, and his ever-evolving photography and web design skills. Johnny’s company ceased to exist in January of 2019
Move to DC: Johnny moved to Washington DC with Iz and their son after graduating from college to be a diplomat. He found it difficult to get a job so he decided to use his videography skills to get a job. Johnny got an official dyslexic diagnosis from a neurologist. His diagnosis was freeing and validating because it meant he wasn’t just not smart or indisciplined
Motion Graphics Artist: Johnny got a job making videos for an architecture regulation firm
Multimedia Producer: After a 7 months stint as a motion graphics artist, Johnny got a job with Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as a multimedia producer. He got to develop his writing, mapping, storytelling and explanation skill
American University and Joining Vox: Johnny decided to go back to school and got an M.A. in Conflict Resolution and Communications, International Relations and Affairs. He applied to Vox a second time with a video resume and was offered a job
Vox Borders: Johnny proposed an idea to his boss about a series of documented stories from borders across the world. This series was called Borders. It was however canceled in 2020
Bright Trip and YouTube: Johnny has a YouTube channel with 723,000 subscribers. He talks about his projects, traveling expeditions, and American history. He still keeps up with his Border style videos. Johnny is the co-founder of Bright Trip Inc. with a mission of building a video-based travel education platform. Bright Trip recently launched a course on language learning with Nathaniel Drew
Current Work: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnny put out a video documenting the U.S. response to the pandemic and was featured on the front cover of the New York Times
Advice: Against all odds, Johnny Harris continues to thrive as an international multimedia generalist, and he has quite a lot of life experiences to share