Ben walks Glassell Park in L.A. with Bradley Jackson—screenwriter, novelist, and the documentary writer/producer behind FACING NOLAN, DEALT, MILLI VANILLI, and the Showtime sports-betting docuseries ACTION. Bradley leads Ben up his neighborhood hill as he details exactly how he ended up in a "premium economy" English castle filming a bisexual British aristocrat for his very first doc—and why he never left doc-making behind.

Bradley lays out his role as creative-producer in his partnerships with director (& future DocWalks guest) Luke Korem. We dig into doc storytelling and why structure is the only lever a doc filmmaker really controls. And he shares some b.t.s. on what it took to inspire Nolan Ryan's family to trust him with the Hall of Famer's legacy. Ben's in heaven with all this baseball talk—Bradley's got a take on Pete Rose, and we learn why a fastball that "rises" is the most American story ever told.

A teamplayer at heart, Bradley admits he's a B-minus alone, but an A-plus with collaborators—a working theory he applies to writing partners, doc partners, and the kid-juggling-bills life of a working filmmaker post-pandemic. He explains the L.A. before/after split (zero in-person meetings in a year), how he wrote his INTRAMURAL screenplay at 6:45 a.m. before clocking in at a Texas edtech job, and why your first draft is always the scrambling of a madman.

Plus: REQUIEM FOR A DREAM as a deeply unexpected gateway drug for a guy who writes comedies and baseball docs, Bill Hader as a too-intimidating dream collaborator, and Mike Schur as the better-looking, more successful 4.0 version of himself. This one's a walk-and-talk for filmmakers who juggle, rewrite, and trust that life is funnier than anything they could make up.

DISCUSSION LINKS:

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Glassell Park walk and stepping into the future 00:35 The finer Steiner: Ben's sister and Compass Learning 01:30 WINNEBAGO MAN at the Alamo Drafthouse standby line 04:30 Screenwriter, novelist, or filmmaker? 06:30 First doc gig: a London castle and a British aristocrat 08:30 "Don't belong here" as a feature, not a bug 09:30 Randy Johnson, the Big Unit, and the Mariana Trench 10:10 Griffith Park, the observatory, and the ridge 12:00 Story structure is the doc filmmaker's only lever 14:30 From creative producer to director 15:30 Central characters and intoxicating worlds 18:30 DEALT, the blind magician, and the knife-throwing dog 21:30 FACING NOLAN: who's my Texas Michael Jordan? 29:30 The plumber-pitcher pipeline to Nolan's family 33:00 13 months from first day of shooting to picture-lock 37:00 Pete Rose, the 4,000th hit, and the pre-interview cram 38:30 The fastball that "rises" and a 27-season anomaly 40:30 Failure as the working filmmaker's baseline 41:30 Why Bradley is B-minus alone, A-plus with partners 43:00 INTRAMURAL, Kate McKinnon, and Austin to LA 43:30 Pandemic split and the death of the in-person LA meeting 46:30 Lightning round: REQUIEM FOR A DREAM as a gateway drug 48:00 Advice: write every day, draft 14 is the real draft 50:30 The thing he can't stop thinking about: a new baby 51:30 MEGALOPOLIS, MEGADOC, and Coppola yarns 52:30 Dream collaborator: Duplass Brothers, Bill Hader, Mike Schur 54:30 Where to watch FACING NOLAN and MILLI VANILLI