Ten Minutes with Tamara, a video series; introduction and overview.

Ten Minutes With Tamara, a video series

Early in the CoViD-19 pandemic (April 2020) I conceived of the idea for this video series, a series of interviews with friends from around the globe – friends whose lives have been directly (or tangentially) impacted by childhood Lead exposure. I was inspired by the ease and simplicity of the Zoom-enabled “virtual” interviews between Late-night talk-show hosts and their remote guests being done as a creative adaptation to the pandemic and I said “Hey, I could do that!”

I started this video conversation series as a way to connect with my far-flung readers, friends and followers personally – and most important – to give other parents of Lead-poisoned children a voice in sharing their stories with the world. For parents in crisis and parents with questions about protecting their children alike, I wanted to have the opportunity to answer what questions I can, and to direct them to other resources, as necessary. By doing this in a video series, I make both the stories of these parents, and whatever answers I can help to provide, available to a much wider audience – hopefully creating an additional avenue for helping families around the world.

I am interviewing long-time friends — but also people I have never met before. I am interviewing parents who have been managing their child’s Lead-poisoning, and also parents who are simply working diligently to find ways to hopefully prevent their children from being exposed. I am excited to already have some amazing “celebrity” guests lined up for future interviews: journalists, pediatricians, experts in the green building arena — and even some popular “stars”, who as fate would have it, each has a very personal stake in this issue — by virtue of their own family experiences and responses to Lead-poisoning, and/or its prevention!

So far, the common thread in all these interviews is that I am talking to parents; we are all connected by this journey we are on, no matter how far along on it we may be (beyond what we might bring to the conversation from a professional perspective).

As far as a long-term goal for the series, I would like for most of the interviews to serve as an archive of stories of families of Lead-poisoned children, much in the way Stephen Spielberg’s Foundation preserves the stories of Holocaust survivors. As expressed in my documentary feature film [MisLEAD, America’s Secret Epidemic], I long-ago learned that the most powerful tool we have in educating other parents – and in protecting future generations of children – is storytelling.

While these interviews may take off in any direction at any moment [they are wholly-unscripted, and the final interviews are edited down to about 10 minutes — with captions, so parents can watch them in bed in the dark, with the sound off, as they put their kids to bed – which so many parents do these days!], the basic concept for each interview is that the guests asks me two questions, and I ask the guest two questions!

If you would like to participate in a future episode (especially if you have two really good questions to ask me!), please send me:

1. a quick e-mail with a paragraph or two about yourself
2. a headshot (or family portrait) that I have permission to use if we make a video
3. the questions you would like to ask in our video interview.

If your story looks like a good candidate for a segment, I will get back to you as soon as I have an available opportunity to film your interview! My e-mail: TamaraRubin@mac.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

Click here to see all of the related #TenMinutesWithTamara posts & videos.

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All of the #TenMinutesWithTamara videos are linked below
Listed below in the order posted online

1. Lead hazards in my home after a roof leak (January 2021).
2. Jon Fishman, Maine (12/24/20) Segment 3
3. Jon Fishman, Maine (12/24/20) Segment 2
4. Jon Fishman, Maine (12/24/20) Segment 1
5. Lead in Vinyl Blinds, (December 2020) Maine
6. Jon Fishman, Maine – Teaser Video
7. Mama Janice, Canada (12/8/20)
8. Mama Jodie, Australia (11/6/20), Segment 2
9. Mama Jodie, Australia (11/6/20), Segment 1
10. Rotting Lead Painted Siding (11/21/20)
11. Mama Carissa, Oregon (10/27/20) Segment 1
12. Avi Rubin, Oregon (11/1/20)
13. Mama Ananda, New Zealand (10/9/20)

Thanks for being here! Thanks for watching. Please stay tuned (and subscribe to the YouTube channel) for future episodes!

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama