650,000 HOURS IS PRESENTED BY
Creative Strategies Media in association with Spark Media and Buddster, LLC
CREATIVE STRATEGIES MEDIA
Founded by award-winning writer, producer and director Dara Padwo-Audick, Creative Strategies Media delivers memorable factual television as well as digital and multimedia programs that get ratings and results. Prior to forming Creative Strategies Media, Dara served as an executive producer for Discovery Studios, producing programs for Discovery HD Theater, Science Channel, and Animal Planet. She also served as a producer and director for National Geographic Television and the National Geographic Channel. Her programs and series have appeared on Animal Planet, CBS, Discovery Channel, ESPN, FOX, Lifetime, Military Channel, National Geographic, Outdoor Life, PBS, and all over the Internet. Dara is member of the Producers Guild of America. Her independent documentary, Bhutan: A Kingdom of Happiness, was featured in several film festivals around the globe. Dara is a member of the Producers Guild of America.
SPARK MEDIA
Under the guidance of award-winning director and producer Andrea Kalin, Spark media strives to entertain and inspire audiences—changing one family, one community, and one struggle at a time. Spark’s work focuses on creating stories that connect people and ignite social change. Spark’s programs have appeared on PBS, American Public Television, World Channel, Smithsonian Channel, MTV, Fox, Netflix, Vme, FreeSpeech TV, and in theaters around the globe. Spark's award-winning feature documentaries include: Red Lines, No Evidence of Disease, Worlds of Sound, Soul of a People: Writing America's Story, Allah Made Me Funny, Talking Through Walls, Prince Among Slaves, The Pact, and Partners of the Heart. Andrea is a member of both the Producers Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. Learn more at Sparkmedia.org.
BUDDSTER, LLC
Ken Budd’s company produces content for television, books, magazines, websites, and other media. Ken has made 150+ appearances on TV and radio, including NBC’s Today, CBS This Morning, CBS’s The Early Show, and National Geographic Weekend, as well as segments on CNBC, Al Jazeera English, C-SPAN2’s Book TV, and Martha Stewart Living Radio. Ken’s writing credits include The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, National Geographic, The Chicago Tribune, and Huffington Post. His essays have won gold from the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association; his book The Voluntourist won silver from NATJA and in the annual Nautilus Book Awards.