Every time I drive past an In-N-Out burger in Austin, I think of my grandfather.

When the In-N-Out chain arrived here in 2013, Austinites were offended. Locals thought the wave of transplants from Californians had gone too far.

Turns out that the burger chain belonged to the latest wave of entrepreneurs arriving from the West Coast. 

Burger entrepreneurs were in their sublime moment during the 1930s and 1940s in Southern California. Imagine Los Angeles as the Silicon Valley of burgers in a bun. 

LA was the center of hamburger innovation and creativity, the site of origin stories not only of In-N-Out burgers and McDonald’s but of Bob’s Big Boy restaurants. Big Boy restaurants are part of my story, beginning with a warm glazed doughnut.

Sharing more about my personal connection to the Big Boys, plus their fascinating history and unique business expansion on my latest Substack: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe

Immersiveness seems to be up in the air, like AI.

In a moment when we’re trying to understand where we humans fit into a future with robots infused with artificial intelligence, it can be challenging to sense the boundary between our analog and digital worlds.

I was able to see what the hype was about at The Sphere, a new home to extravagant immersive experience in Las Vegas that blends digital storytelling with real life and how this type of storytelling fits into our five senses.

Read all about it on my latest Substack, the first installment in a series on senses: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe 

My fascination with fog horns – yes, fog horns – emerged from other hidden artifacts and people that fill our landscape.

Fog horns and other industrial sounds create ambiance – they send messages of alarm or comfort along the water.

While spending a few months this year in the San Francisco Bay area, I heard the foghorns and found them both reassuring and contemplative with their rhythmic lulling, invisible, and visible presence.

Industrial sound is a topic I’ve been exploring lately as I work on one of my upcoming films: how the presence – and absence – of industrial sound played into our lives throughout history, and how modern-day sound (or lack thereof) plays into our lives today.

Read more about it all here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe

This month on Substack, I am sharing a fascinating story from my island camp in Maine… “Part 2” continued from last month’s essay on the “real” Green (and I’m not talking about the color).

Bob and I arrived on this island during the 1980s, not to escape the mainland or modern contemporary culture, but to explore, find some adventure, and to satisfy some irresistible curiosity that drew us to find out about islands in our view from our summer home on the mainland.

My curiosity took me through ages of captivating history about the very land our family steps foot on every summer. It’s a little eerie, and there is both uncovered evidence and unresolved mystery here.

Read the story here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe

Islands are both magical and mythical. Maine has almost 5,000 islands, if you include some that lean inland. (The rocky granite coastline was the subject of a documentary film I recently produced, The Long Coast.)

While the film didn’t dig deep into island life, it did portray the hard surfaces and intemperate weather that shaped a coastline populated by resilient, rugged, and imaginative individuals.

My latest Substack newsletter shows what it is like to camp along this rugged coastline, and shares some of my thoughts on what islands really are. 

Read it here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe

When was the last time you had permission to play, tossing out rules for a night?

I attended a magic show earlier this month, an intriguing dance of entertainment and storytelling.

I hadn’t thought much about magic until that night when the connection between magic and how technology is now able to fool us into believing we can live in multiple universes, or multiverses.

Sharing more about this topic, with a deep dive into a few other illusionist stories from the past, in my latest Substack newsletter.

Read it here: robynmetcalfe.substack.com/subscribe