It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. What a great idea on iHeartRadio. Welcome to
Maria's Mutts and Stuff with me. I'm so thrilled because not of course,
he is an award winning filmmaker, he's a producer, he's a director.
But he's a returning guest and I love returning guests. It is Stephen Latham.
So, Steven, you know we spoke back in twenty eighteen. Do
you believe that for the first time. It's crazy. I'm so glad we're
back. It's really fun to be to be together again. Absolutely. So
it's very exciting news Shelter Me TV. Because of course I follow you on
social media and I keep in touch with everything that's going on. But you
have all new episodes that just started recently. Let's talk about about that.
Yeah, okay, I'm thrilled to announce, you know, we are.
Previously we'd been working on these episodes and finally they're available to the public.
So we have a whole season nine nine new episodes to tell these incredible stories
about the human animal bond, remind people the amazing animals at the shelters,
and just stories to inspire people and make them fall in love again. Well,
I saw the first episode about Dog Mountain up in Vermont, which I
mean I've heard of it for years, from many years ago. One of
my cousins went there and kept telling me I must go. And anyway,
I watched the episode, the first episode, and I'll tell you because I
lost my dog two months ago. I was sobbing. But it was so
therapeutic and it was just it's such a perfect episode. So let's tell the
listeners a little bit about Dog Mountain for those who aren't familiar with it.
Well, Dog Mountain is a magical place. It's in a town called Saint
Johnsbury and northern Vermont, and I highly encourage people to make the trip to
make the pilgrimage because it is a beautiful place. What I really want wanted
to accomplish with that episode was to explore grief, just like you know,
you lost your pet. I actually was on my own grief journey. I
had this great Dane mix named Blue who was you know, it was really
just my heart and Soul is just a dog that I was connected to and
and he had passed and I you know, was going through you know,
just as horrible we all know that we all have feeling who love our pets,
how terrible it is. And I had, you know, been just
doing some research and I came across this place in Vermont that's on one hundred
and fifty acres and they have in the middle of it, they have a
chapel and people come from all over the country, all over the world to
go and honor their pet. So they go into the chapel and they'll literally
put photos or write poems or hand drawn pictures, anything they'd like to do.
They sort of, you know, just remember their pet, and you're
you walk into the chapel and it just takes your breath away because there are
just thousands upon thousands of notes and images and it's all about love and it's
all about you know, what our pets mean to us. And as someone
in the film says, they said, it's the happiest place in the world
to be sad. Perfect. Yeah, And that's what we wanted to accomplish.
We wanted to acknowledge that the grief is real and that you can have
sadness and gratitude at the same time. But the cool thing about Dog Mountain
is then you walk outside the chapel and dogs are ripping around and then you
start laughing and you realize, like these animals, we go through tough times,
but man, is it worth it because these animals are a blessing.
It's true and I'm pretty sure someone actually even said that it's you know,
only if other dog owners, other cat owners, other pet owners understand that
bond and how devastating it is when we lose them. And at Dog Mountain,
because I'm Yvonne who was there with dog Vinci, who's also been on
Maria's mutts and stuff, and you know, she was hugging someone who was
a stranger who she had just met, who was also there because she had
lost her pet. So it's definitely shows that universal bond. And you know,
you you show showed that in the film. It just showed all of
us that we all share that as pet owners, you know, and that's
that's the community that we all we all go through and and you you're when
you're there and you're seeing people and talking to them. I mean, people
come up and they they revisit the chapel and you know, they're the walls
are so thick with pictures and photos. Is that you know they it's it's
like three feet thick of just everybody going in there on their pets. So
when you're there, you could spend hours upon hours reading these notes, but
you're around other people that have gone through the same thing, right, And
Yvonne, who's such a lovely person, so as you know, having her
on, you know, she had this incredible dog on Long Island named dog
Vinci, who could paint, and it was such a special bond that they
have, and Dog Vinchi passed away unexpectedly same time when I lost my dog.
So the idea was, I saidy Vonn, you, you know,
you need to come and take this journey with me and we'll sort of tell
the story through your eyes. And she had just adopted another dog, and
again, the beauty of it was not to replace the dog she lost,
but if anything, it was it almost like gives people permission to like,
this is the best way to honor your pet, considering especially the crisis that
we're in right now with shelters being so overcrowded. Sure that she was able
to kind of say it's okay to and another dog needs me now. And
she certainly needed another dog because you know that's just something really important for her,
and we told part of the story of Dog Mountain with this individual who
was going through that grief and how it helped her by going there and to
honor Dog Vinci. Absolutely, and it's just it's so amazing that Dog Mountain
with the owners who both passed away, but that the community is still running
it, like I love that it is. You know, it's the when
when the owners passed away, it was such a loss and the rustees had
to come together and figure out, you know, this this is the place.
This is a place worth saving. You know, the this is this
was the vision of the owners and they were able to, you know,
make it sustainable and you can go there and they have concerts and you can
just go if you want to just go hang out and have your dogs,
you know, jump into ponds or walk the trails, or people get married
there. It's it's truly a place of joy. And that's what we wanted
to do. We didn't want to have this be an episode of grief that
was crippling. We wanted it to be where we acknowledged that pain that there's
a lot of people going through that, but you know that we'll we'll get
through this together, absolutely, and you did because also going through it,
I I totally felt that, like, okay, I can the crying was
good, it was therapeutic, and it was just it was perfect. Was
that your first time at Dog Mountain? First time where I ended up putting
a picture of my own dog on the wall. So it was it was
a challenging film to make because I was literally you were living. Yeah,
I was living it, and so it was my first time there. So
while I was actually experiencing it and going through all the emotions hero making a
movie at the same time. So so it was also therapeutic for you as
well. Yeah, it's tremendous. I honestly can't say enough good things about
about this place, and I really you know, what we try to do
with our films is to have it be the next best thing to being there.
And kind of the way you explained it where I've shared the film with
people who have lost pets and they found it very helpful because it just it
either you know, helped them get through a really difficult moment or they watched
it with one of their pets and that might be getting a little older and
maybe gave them a little tighter hug. Sure. Sure, And I also
think there's something to be said of just knowing you're not alone. I think
that's really important to pet owners because especially if you're around people who don't have
another pet, and they're always the person or the people who are like,
oh well, just get another one, as if it was a couch you
know that got torn. But being around other pet owners, it's just it's
a it's almost like a grief group in a sense. We're all like this
big group and we all get it. So, uh, that episode really
conveyed that. So thank you for doing that. Yeah, and I appreciate
you saying that, you know, I mean it really, it really is
like that. And you know, because grief is so personal for everybody,
there's not there's not like this endpoint, and a lot of people at some
point, you know, don't want to just you know, keep talking to
their friends or their family and and and for a lot of people that grief
is is personal and private. So when you go to this place, it
is just it's understood and it's welcomed, and it's just you know, you
can just be yourself and if you want to have a good cry or just
want to sit and just to think about your animal or bring another pet or
meet other people. It's it is such a healthy place to deal with loss,
right. It just it shows that it's okay. Yep, it's okay.
So tell me without giving everything away because they haven't aired yet, can
we talk about some of the other episodes, because this series has nine episodes,
correct, correct, Yeah, you're going to get a different story,
and we've got everything from a veterinarian in Los Angeles that goes to skid row
and takes care of the pets of homeless people to a story that we filmed
in the East Village where a comedy troupe called Must Love Dogs in Comedy does
dog friendly shows at a at a coffee shop called Boris and Horton and people
literally can bring their dogs to the show and all the money raise goes to
the shelters and rescues in New York City. So it's a really fun episode.
We've got a really cool episode that Kristin Chenowith and it's about She wrote
a book called What Will I Do with My Love Today? And it's all
about kindness. So we organized during National Volunteer Week across the shelter. We
had kids and families go into shelters to read to the animals, and it's
a really cool show to kind of say there's lots of things you can do
to support your local shelter. If you're not ready to adopt or foster,
there's still ways you can do and the animals really need us, and there's
things that you could do by just going there and spending time with the animals
and helping the network them online. So that's a really cool episode. We
have another one where it's a grooming academy where underserved people, people that have
challenging backgrounds, whether it be substance abuse or homelessness or formally incarcerated, that
they're given a free scholarship to go to a grooming academy that's worth seven thousand
dollars each and they groom shelter pets to help them get adopted. But if
they graduate, their guaranteed a job to be a professional groomer. So really
cool way of second chances for pets. And then we focus on a story
on homeless cats of community cats that are living on the streets, and we
feature an organization called Fixed Nation in Los Angeles that literally spaes and neuters cats
to try to help with the population problem. And it's a really incredible group.
And we did a one day filming where the veterinarians did this high volume
space hooter and they fixed twenty two cats in one day. Wow, that's
amazing an incredible talent from the veterinarians, but also really impact try to overpopulation
on the streets. Then we have this really cool stories that take place in
Green Bay, Wisconsin where a cop loves animals so much that he stops by
the shelter in the morning and then he takes dogs on ride alongs to help
them get adopted. That he's got a pop star named Max who while he's
on tour, he performs free concerts at shelters and it just it's a real
it's a real joy. And that episode is hosted by Paula Abdul. And
we also have a story where we did a senior dog adoption event and we
show the largest event where photographers from all over the country came to a shelter
and they they took photos of every single pet that was available for adoption to
kind of show remind people that these animals are literally just waiting at their she
your local shelter for people to open up their hearts and open up their homes.
And now if you ever, if your listener has ever thought about adopting,
I begged them to go to their local shelter because now's the time.
Yeah, now's the time. So all of these episodes are so varied,
and I'm sure they're all wonderful in their own way, and there's probably I
hate asking you this because they're probably they're all like your children. Did you
do you have a favorite of the of the New Nine? Well, so
you know each one is what I really love about this series is that they
they're so different. There's this isn't like template that they really you know,
we really go and tell these amazing stories. I'll tell you the two that
really that really spoke to me was Dog Mountain for sure, just because that
was so deeply personal and I feel like a lot of that kind of came
through that I was, you know, dealing with're dealing with such a sensitive
issue, and the producer and director was feeling the same way as the viewers
of right right, Yeah, of course. But the one that we did
with the the is called Shelter me the street vet. This This got doctor
is doctor Kwan Stewart. He had just won the twenty twenty three CNN Hero
of the Year Award, and the work that he's doing with homelessness is really
kind of emphasized the type of storytelling that I like to do, which is
trying to tackle these larger social issues through companionables. So you know, instead
of saying watching a film about homelessness or just talking about the numbers like there's
tens of thousands of homeless people, this was so up close and personal on
skid Row where the pet was the ridge, and it allowed for just having
conversations, you know, with Bob who's in the film, and just to
hear their background, how they you know, they got to be homeless and
what life is like on the streets. And we really humanize the story.
But it always reminds me it's the animal that's the great connector sure, I
think animals are miracles now they are, absolutely, I agree, and they
and they bring us together and they also bring out the best in us,
and they bring out compassion and kindness and love and empathy, and that episode
sort of embodies on all the things that I that I feel really strongly about
without it trying to be preachy. We just kind of show people being good
to each other, right, right, and that's contagious to others as well.
I think when people see that contagious, I firmly believe that. Yeah,
no, I do, I really do. So let my listeners know
how they can watch and see these episodes of shelter Me TV the new ones.
So shelter Me is airing on PBS all over the country, and I'm
really grateful to pet Co Love because they make this. They make this possible.
In the Tri State area, we are airing on w l i W
channel twenty one and beginning on July second, so every Tuesday at five pm
in July and August you'll be able to see all these episodes, and then
on NJPB PBS NJPBS it begins airing on Sunday, June thirtieth at seven am,
so it'll be every Sunday at seven am, and then across the country.
It's a check your local listings where you can go to our Facebook page,
which is on facebook dot com slash shelter MeTV, so all of our
social media is shelter MeTV and we'll list the air dates. But the best
news of all is all of these episodes we're talking about will be streaming for
free on PBS dot org in the fall. So the previous twelve episodes that
we did in the series, plus these nine new ones that we were talking
about, so twenty one will be on PBS dot org in the fall.
That it's totally free to stream on any device. That's awesome. And as
we get to a more specific date, you'll let me know and I'll post
that and let my listener listeners know as well when the fall date comes.
So if that's not all that's been keeping you very very busy, Stephen,
because you are a busy guy, and I don't know you to ever be
doing nothing like you probably never take vacation. You also have the Mustangs,
America's wild horses, well, so animals. I'm very lucky to combine my
two favorite things, which are animals and filmmaking. So I got introduced to
the wild world of Mustangs by a friend who had suggested that there was a
program where veterans organizations were pairing up wild horses with veterans with PTSD, which
I'm really supportive of. Our veterans and have done shelter me stories of out
and and I found that intriguing. But when I started doing my research,
I realized that there was a much bigger story. And I set out to
tell the definitive story about wild horses in America. And in ninety minutes,
we tell you about the history of how you know the wild horse that came
to be in modern times, to their backstory, to what's the current situation,
to who are some of the groups that are doing something about it.
And I was incredibly fortunate to have Robert Redford as my executive producer, as
well as Patty Skiolfa, Springsteen and Jessica Springs. Springsteen and and Bruce gave
me a song, So I love that. Oh my goodness, do you
realize soundtrack? You know? Because this film, I really think of this
film as sort of it's sort of my love letter to America. Yeah,
Like I feel like it's sort of we stamp your passport to go to all
these places in America that a lot of people just don't go to and remind
people that there's a lot of so much beauty and so much stuff to be
proud of our country. But also emmylu Harris gave me a song. Willie
Nelson and Diane Warren wrote an original song. Oh my goodness, that's like
phenomenal. But Bruce gave me a song. I'm sorry, I'm like stuck
on that. And you know, it was it was amazing. You know,
he had come out with a western, a Western album, and I
was waiting for it, and I'm like, because I knew there was a
track on it called Chasin wild Horses, and I'm like, and and you
know, for a song to work in a film, you know, it
has to lyrically and musically, it has to work. It I honestly couldn't
believe how perfect it was. And and we just have this scene in the
movie where you know, we're in Wyoming, it's Magic Hour, and a
band of wild horses just literally, you know, runs by us with the
cloud kicking up in the sun and it's like we had a drone in the
sky and it was. It was one of these one of those moments that
you'll never forget when you're making a movie, I'm sure. And his song
is set to that, and it's it's pretty uh, it's pretty remarkable.
Well it is, and it's pretty remarkable that you have all of those that
cast of characters, all very well known names, to help you and contribute
to your film. I mean, that's phenomenal. So, you know,
the one thing I'm so I'm most proud of is that they loved the way
that we approached the storytelling, and that was to me the biggest thing because
it's a very complicated story and you know, and you know, I'm sure
a lot of your listeners might not even know that there's still wild horses exist
because it's such an sight out of mind issue. And in ten Western states,
on our public lands, on land that's managed by the Bureau of Land
Management, there are eighty thousand wild horses out there and in captivity when the
Bureau of Land Management rounds them up, which is something that you know,
we address in the film. There's over sixty thousand that are in government corrals
that are just sort of like feedlots. So we have really large numbers of
wild horses. And what we address in the film is not only the magistry
and just how beautiful and you know, what they represent and how they came
to be, but there really is a management issue because there's federal law dictating
a lot of this. So we sort of cover all this grounds to make
sure that people understand the politics, the environmental impact, and all the elements
around wildhorses, because a lot of times, you know, the activists tend
to just try to simplify the issue and says, there's so much land out
there and let them be free. It's a nice sentiment, but there's federal
law that dictates that's not possible. Welcome people to try to change federal law,
but you show that, you know, just like with any big issue,
especially in animal welfare, you can't just wish things to be better.
If you want to do something, you actually have to roll up your sleeves
and do something about it. Do something. It's not a spectator sport,
you know, this is a participatory sport that if you want to actually,
you know, do good for the animals, you actually have to do something
about it. Sure, no, that makes sense, And with your movie,
it's like knowledge is power because just like you said, I'm sure many
people aren't aware of the wild horses, that they're even out there, or
how many the number like eighty thousand, that's more than I would ever think.
You know, I realized that I learned that from your trailer, like
wow, and I think that's just something that people don't know. For someone
who's listening, how what can they do to help? Besides after they watch
your movie? When that because we're going to talk about when they can watch
it? But how can because it's it's a topic that people are probably just
learning about now hearing about it, or aren't as familiar as say, as
like a shelter animal. What can you know the average Joe or Jane do.
So we just had our premiere in Los Angeles and we had a panel
discussion afterwards, and just like me, I didn't know a lot about this
issue to begin with, which was realized like, hey, I need to
tell the story and I need to tell it responsibly and properly. And when
we did our premiere, you know, over three hundred people were attended and
in the panel discussion, nobody left the theater because they wanted to know more.
Sure, And that's what the film does is create this foundation of like,
Okay, this is the building blocks to kind of expose you to what
the story is and what sort of the rules of the game are so people
can learn more. But there's there's a few things that people can do if
if they're really interested in the wild horse issue. First of all, it's
it's seeking out credible sources of information that are following things politically. That's happening
in DC, and that's happening, you know, with the government agencies that
oversee the wild horses. So there are groups like Return to Freedom, which
that we we feature in the film, and they do they have a sanctuary,
two sanctuaries in California, so they actually bring in wildhorses onto their sanctuary
and they educate children and people can go there. It's not available to the
public where you can literally that's and most people will see wild horses more in
a sanctuary environment than they will in the wild because a lot of these places
in Colorado, Wyoming they've had are really difficult to get to. But there's
other places like the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States. They
are working diligently on these issues and work with a lot of the different stakeholders.
Because one of the things that's again that makes things complicated and things that
I'm not particularly you know, enjoying myself, is that on the public lands,
the wild horse I mean, I have so much respect for the mustang,
I mean in busting is a magnificent animals, right. But the public
lands, which are our lands, were really never taught about this stuff in
school. But they're are land. They're mixed use, meaning on that land
you also have recreation, you have hunting, you have other animals, you
have other endangered species. You have your ranchers to have grazing rights for cattle,
for livestock, cattle and sheep. You have mineral rights, so you
have companies that are doing oil and gas drilling. All these things happen on
our public land. So that's why I was saying, when you educate yourself
for all these groups to understand it, you can't just say, oh,
there's millions and millions of akers, just let them be free, because it's
really complicated, complicating. They're in the middle of this nexus of things that
are less than desirable. Even though, like I said, I have deep
respect and appreciation for the wildhorse, and they deserve they deserve better, they
deserve better management, and we really need to be doing things right now in
order to preserve them for future generations because things that are happening in Washington,
DC are going dictating things for the next ten to twenty years. And what
we know for sure is that for the years to come, the plan is
to get to round up by helicopter, which everybody hates about twenty thousand wild
horses a year every year, and so it now is the time for people's
voices to be heard. So the last thing I would say about what people
can do is they're elected officials, they're congress people, their senators in DC
really important just to hear even if you were to phone, calls, emails,
letters to say I care about the wild horse issue, what are you
doing about it? Can you give me any updates? Because every call,
every email is logged, and elected officials, when they hear from their constituents
and they know what the issues are they aware of, they keep track.
They keep itally all those messages, and with wild horses because most people don't
know about them because it is so out of sight, out of mind.
It's usually an issue that is much lower on their priorities. And that shows
what happens legislatively when trying to protect the wild horse. Right, okay,
so well, the first step for the listeners, our listeners will be to
watch your documentary. So when will and where will they be able to see
the Mustangs America's wild Horses. So we have the We're just starting to get
our air dates, which is very, very exciting. So it's going to
be on PBS for broadcasts on television in the New York area. We just
got those in the last couple of days. So we're going to be showing
on Channel any W ANY channel thirteen on Sunday, July twenty first at six
thirty pm, and then on WLIW channel twenty one. We're going to be
in primetime on Thursday, August twenty second at eight pm. Nice and then
PBS has a World Channel and it's just you have to have to look for
it, but it's actually a standalone channel and we are airing across the country
at one unified time on Monday, August twenty sixth at eight pm Eastern Time.
The World Channel Monday August twenty sixth at eight pm, but we'll be
airing all over the country. Our social media handle is the Mustangs Film,
so plural the Mustangs Film, and we'll also be streaming for free on PBS
dot org in the fall. Wow I love this, So that will be
step one for the listeners who aren't aware of anything with the Mustangs. But
this is your this is your first assignment is to watch the film. So
Steven, I you know, I'm so fascinated by everything that you do.
I'm so I admire you so much. I don't even want to ask you
what's next for you because I feel like everything is like exploding and blowing up
right now. I'm a good have something to share if you'd like to hear
it, of course, of course I do. Tell me I'm finishing soon
principal photography on a new episode of Shelter me that that's going to be relevant
to every single one of us, all of your listeners, you meet,
all of us. So it's an incredible story about the latest cancer treatments for
dogs. Wow. Literally, we're following several clinical trials that are being done
for cancer treatments for dogs. But but here's the kicker is these treatments that
we're following which are having dramatic impact on like with immunotherapy on everything from osteosarcoma
to mouth tumors to all kinds of tumors and dogs that get and you know,
all of us dog owners have experienced dogs getting cancer. So the treatments
are exciting, are coming are going to be available to us regular people soon.
But these treatments what they're learning from the dogs, as the dogs are
literally healing or extending their life, are now being applied to human clinical trials.
But when I see animals being miracles that you know, literally the clinical
trials that are being done with dogs have already moved into human clinical trials,
and it's only because of what we learned with the dogs, and the entire
cycle is being expedited. So these dogs are not being experimented on, they're
getting really the most advanced clinical trial treatments, and then the ones that are
showing to be really successful are moving quickly into human clinical trials. And in
this episode, we're not only going to be showing dogs that had osteosarcoma that
have less than a year life expectancy that are now seven years later after treatment
are living their best life, but also humans who have had osteo sarcoma,
which also have a very grim outcome, people that are alive today and living
their life cancer free because of these treatments. So we're in the middle of
an incredibly exciting episode that will be actually airing on PBS in January of twenty
twenty five. Wow. Okay, so we are going to talk again before
that airs. How's that need? Yes? Indeed? All right? Well,
Stephen Latham, thank you so much for your time, for everything that
you do. The world is a better place because of you. Trust me
on that one. And I really truly mean that, and I thank you
and keep doing what you're doing because you're teaching us, you're helping us.
I mean this whole thing with dogs and cancer. I mean honestly, my
dog lived eleven weeks because he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. So that's right,
passed away from osteosarcoma. And and these these treatments that are happening right now,
are are are changing the game. Wow, Maria, I just want
to thank you for being a hero to the animals as well, and uh
and your listeners for caring. It's it's a it's a big deal, and
we we really need more people to kind of we we share the planet with
the animals and we need to continue every day to see, uh do a
little bit more kindness for the animals. You're absolutely right, Well, thank
you and thank you It was a delight as always, Maria, I really
appreciate it.