Foreword by Jennifer Galvin
[00:00:00]
It’s easy to think about history as something finished, a completed story. Decisions were made. Chapters closed. Lessons were learned. But then there are moments when history doesn’t feel finished at all. And big questions come back. Issues we thought were settled are uncertain, and rights we thought were secure are at risk. Celebrated breakthroughs and achievements feel fragile and must be defended over and over again. It becomes painfully obvious how easy it is for progress to unravel.
That’s the feeling I couldn’t shake when I started this project. I wanted to spend time with someone who’s survived such history, not looking for certainty, but just for some perspective. Someone who has lived through moments when democracy felt shaky, when fear and division threatened public life, and who somehow emerged with their curiosity, humor, and humanity intact. The kind of person whose wisdom isn’t abstract, it’s earned.
[00:01:12] That interest led me to Dr. Wilmot James at Brown University’s Pandemic Center. His life embodies many of today’s defining questions about democracy, science, and human dignity. He grew up in South Africa under apartheid rule and was imprisoned as a student activist. Fighting for freedom and survival, he rose to the front lines of global health leadership.
He worked with Nelson Mandela, supported Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and became a Member of Parliament and the Shadow Minister of Health.
Today, his work at the Pandemic Center focuses on some of the most urgent issues we face, from disease outbreaks, biosecurity and chemical and biological weapons to the future of democratic institutions globally. When he told me he wanted to share his story, I felt honored to record it. We did so in a small studio tucked inside Brown University’s Rockefeller Library. No cameras. No audience. Just a microphone, memory, and time. As a filmmaker, that choice felt refreshing. While I know the power of visual storytelling, making these recordings reminded me that sometimes we need to close our eyes and just listen to see clearly. That’s the spirit of Listening to Shadows.
Told by Wilmot, this anthology unfolds across five narrative audio essays. Together, they form a portrait of one remarkable life, but each part stands on its own. Think of them less as chapters in a sequence and more as photographs in a home. You don’t have to experience them in order. You can begin wherever you like.
[00:03:06] Wilmot’s story offers both a warning and a guide. Forged in social change movements and tested in public health crises, he has witnessed democracy rise from the ashes of apartheid, lived through the devastations of public health misinformation and disinformation, interviewed assassins in witness protection, probed the case of missing biological and chemical weapons, and learned to spot the early signs of authoritarianism.
But this series is not just about one man’s past. This series is about the questions that one man’s life allows us to ask in a world still learning the same hard lessons.
How do we make leaders?
What does democracy require of people?
Why do societies keep repeating the same mistakes?
What does justice really feel like?
And what responsibilities do we inherit from those who came before us?
[00:04:06] The civil rights leader John Lewis once said, “Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant.” Perhaps that is what this project is really about. Not nostalgia. But the chance to learn from someone who has lived through extraordinary history and discover what one man’s life can illuminate about our own.
This is Listening to Shadows.