(From left) AHRI GOLDEN, 34, award-winning radio producer; TANIA KETENJIAN, 33, radio producer and contributor to such shows as Studio 360 and The World. Both are founders of Thin Air Media, whose documentary Born will air on public-radio stations nationwide this fall. Shot on location in the Mission by Keeney + Law.
You might expect community to be the watchword that radio producers Tania Ketenjian and Ahri Golden live by. After all, Ketenjian describes their preferred subject matter—such rites of passage as birth and the postpartum phase—as "the common experiences that people need to talk about but don't." And their work is itself a kind of community property: Although each has her strengths—Golden (who lives with her husband and their young son in Berkeley) conducts the interviews, Ketenjian (who shares a Noe Valley house with her husband) does the initial edits, Golden handles most of the negotiating, Ketenjian the Web and graphic design—the lines between who does what get a little blurry. "It's all enmeshed," Golden laughs. It shouldn't need to be said that they finish each other's sentences.
But entrepreneur is equally applicable—not in the retire-by-the-time-you're-35 sense of the word, but as in creating something that will live on beyond you. Their first documentary, Birth, spawned a tour, supported by national and local sponsors, in which the pair met with groups of people across the country to talk about birth. Now that the tour's over, Ketenjian and Golden have created a guide for those interested in organizing their own Birth Tour event.
"People have said we're like the Kitchen Sisters," Golden says. "Our styles are very different, but there's a similar way of being entrepreneurs outside the system—it does feel like we're following their lead."
Web Exclusive:
Where did the name Thin Air Media come from?
[both laugh]
Tania: Ahri's genius!
Ahri: I was on my bed, and my son was sleeping, and I was just writing in my journal, trying to come up with a name. I was putting all the names together and then said [gasp], "Ahri and Tania!" Thin Air is Ahri Tania—our names mixed up. And Thin Air Media is T.A.M., which is Mount Tam, which is where we first met after she moved back here [pointing to Tania], and which is where I got married, so there's just like...
T: And, you know, Thin Air like when you go up into thin air and you're in kind of a different state and...
A: and you see more clearly...
T: you discover new things, you see clearly—we thought of, you know, looking out...
A: It just works.
What's your guilty pleasure?
T: Do I have a guilty pleasure? Well, I mean—guilt is intrinsic to my character, so... living?
A: I love [voice drops to a whisper] shopping.
T: Oh, really?
A: I do. I love Crossroads [Trading Company]. I'm not exorbitant in my spending, I love going to Crossroads because it's really—it's a very artistic experience, because nothing's alike... and so you go through—and I don't know—I love to shop there. It's a little weird.
But in terms of the dark side of life—the shadow, if that's what you're referring to—I think it's interesting, because while [Tania and I have] a very professional relationship, it's also very intimate and very personal, and it's very therapeutic, really. Especially in the work that we do, you have to experience life's edges, and you have to experience discomfort and challenge to be able to have, I think, any insight into what we're talking about here. So, you know, Tania and I are very in touch with our dark side, and we communicate about it often.
T: What dark side?
A: Oh, yeah, right! I mean, our husbands are certainly there, but there's something about us that feels like a very strong sisterhood—I mean, we are really not afraid to share everything. Sometimes, when we're on IM, we really work out deep shit.
T: Yes, IM is a total guilty pleasure. That is my guilty pleasure! Because I'm supposed to be working but I'm just IMing away...
Can you give any advice to people being interviewed on the radio? A: You know—it's funny—in the times that I have been on the other side of the interview, I do headstands. Because it calms me down.
T: Ahri is not an example of the common woman.
A: But the idea is to get into your body and out of your head—if you can go for a walk, do that. I think that having the breath be full and having presence—breathing is really important, and if you're not thinking about that that…[her voice vanishes]
T: Sometimes I tell [interview subjects] "You're doing everything right—there's nothing you're doing that's wrong here."
A: Or people will see the mike and be like, Whoa, and then I'll say, "You'll forget that it's there."
T: And they do.
A: And they do.
(On Golden): Marc by Marc Jacobs Fiona faille dress ($328) at Marc by Marc Jacobs, 415-447-9322.
(On Ketenjian): Sara Lanzi halter dress ($1,800) at Harputs market, 415-225-5523. Jewelry, models' own.
More 2008 Hot 20 Under 40 Picks
(From left) AHRI GOLDEN, 34, award-winning radio producer; TANIA KETENJIAN, 33, radio producer and contributor to such shows as Studio 360 and The World. Both are founders of Thin Air Media, whose documentary Born will air on public-radio stations nationwide this fall. Shot on location in the Mission by Keeney + Law.
You might expect community to be the watchword that radio producers Tania Ketenjian and Ahri Golden live by. After all, Ketenjian describes their preferred subject matter—such rites of passage as birth and the postpartum phase—as "the common experiences that people need to talk about but don't." And their work is itself a kind of community property: Although each has her strengths—Golden (who lives with her husband and their young son in Berkeley) conducts the interviews, Ketenjian (who shares a Noe Valley house with her husband) does the initial edits, Golden handles most of the negotiating, Ketenjian the Web and graphic design—the lines between who does what get a little blurry. "It's all enmeshed," Golden laughs. It shouldn't need to be said that they finish each other's sentences.
But entrepreneur is equally applicable—not in the retire-by-the-time-you're-35 sense of the word, but as in creating something that will live on beyond you. Their first documentary, Birth, spawned a tour, supported by national and local sponsors, in which the pair met with groups of people across the country to talk about birth. Now that the tour's over, Ketenjian and Golden have created a guide for those interested in organizing their own Birth Tour event.
"People have said we're like the Kitchen Sisters," Golden says. "Our styles are very different, but there's a similar way of being entrepreneurs outside the system—it does feel like we're following their lead."
Web Exclusive:
Where did the name Thin Air Media come from?
[both laugh]
Tania: Ahri's genius!
Ahri: I was on my bed, and my son was sleeping, and I was just writing in my journal, trying to come up with a name. I was putting all the names together and then said [gasp], "Ahri and Tania!" Thin Air is Ahri Tania—our names mixed up. And Thin Air Media is T.A.M., which is Mount Tam, which is where we first met after she moved back here [pointing to Tania], and which is where I got married, so there's just like...
T: And, you know, Thin Air like when you go up into thin air and you're in kind of a different state and...
A: and you see more clearly...
T: you discover new things, you see clearly—we thought of, you know, looking out...
A: It just works.
What's your guilty pleasure?
T: Do I have a guilty pleasure? Well, I mean—guilt is intrinsic to my character, so... living?
A: I love [voice drops to a whisper] shopping.
T: Oh, really?
A: I do. I love Crossroads [Trading Company]. I'm not exorbitant in my spending, I love going to Crossroads because it's really—it's a very artistic experience, because nothing's alike... and so you go through—and I don't know—I love to shop there. It's a little weird.
But in terms of the dark side of life—the shadow, if that's what you're referring to—I think it's interesting, because while [Tania and I have] a very professional relationship, it's also very intimate and very personal, and it's very therapeutic, really. Especially in the work that we do, you have to experience life's edges, and you have to experience discomfort and challenge to be able to have, I think, any insight into what we're talking about here. So, you know, Tania and I are very in touch with our dark side, and we communicate about it often.
T: What dark side?
A: Oh, yeah, right! I mean, our husbands are certainly there, but there's something about us that feels like a very strong sisterhood—I mean, we are really not afraid to share everything. Sometimes, when we're on IM, we really work out deep shit.
T: Yes, IM is a total guilty pleasure. That is my guilty pleasure! Because I'm supposed to be working but I'm just IMing away...
Can you give any advice to people being interviewed on the radio? A: You know—it's funny—in the times that I have been on the other side of the interview, I do headstands. Because it calms me down.
T: Ahri is not an example of the common woman.
A: But the idea is to get into your body and out of your head—if you can go for a walk, do that. I think that having the breath be full and having presence—breathing is really important, and if you're not thinking about that that…[her voice vanishes]
T: Sometimes I tell [interview subjects] "You're doing everything right—there's nothing you're doing that's wrong here."
A: Or people will see the mike and be like, Whoa, and then I'll say, "You'll forget that it's there."
T: And they do.
A: And they do.
(On Golden): Marc by Marc Jacobs Fiona faille dress ($328) at Marc by Marc Jacobs, 415-447-9322.
(On Ketenjian): Sara Lanzi halter dress ($1,800) at Harputs market, 415-225-5523. Jewelry, models' own.
More 2008 Hot 20 Under 40 Picks
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