Start Here / Never Stop Podcast: Pailin Wedel '04

Pailin Wedel '04 is a Thai-American video journalist based in Thailand and the founder of TwentyFifty Productions in Bangkok.

In 2017, she received a Whicker’s World Funding Award for her documentary, Hope Frozen, a film probing the ethics and morality of cryogenics and the meaning of death.

Wedel has worked on documentary programs for television, including commissioned half-hour episodes for Al Jazeera English’s current events documentary reportage program, 101 East. The episodes included, “Myanmar: Free and Fair?” following two women activists as the country prepares for its first nationwide credible elections in fifty years; “Tainted Robes” about how scandals involving Thai monks are rocking the nation; and “Vanishing Sea Tribe” about a nomadic tribe in Thailand and their survival in the modern world.

Her work centers on themes of faith, trauma and adaptation to the modernity. Aside from her television work, Wedel also regularly films pieces for The New York Times, National Geographic, Monocle and The Wall Street Journal. Before diving into freelance, Wedel was the Asia Interactive producer for the Associated Press, where she directed online visual and interactive coverage for the region.

She began her career as a photojournalist in 2004 at The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, but quickly fell in love with video narratives and taught herself video production.

In her spare time, she teaches short courses on video and mobile journalism and contributes to the acclaimed Instagram feed @everydayasia.

Check out more Start Here / Never Stop Podcast episodes at mj.unc.edu/SHNSpodcast.