Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Musky-Goldwyn.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been interested in storytelling, so much so that when I was a little kid, I had a bad but harmless habit of embellishing just about every story that I told. I grew up in a family with a long history in the entertainment industry, so the power of narrative always felt very much a part of who I was and how I was raised. Everyone around me liked to talk… a lot.
With that said, I was a total jock from middle school through college and any artistic endeavors usually took a backseat. It was only, in a silver lining sort of way, when I got injured on the crew team at UCLA that I really committed to storytelling as a career. Creative writing classes in undergrad eventually led me to pursue my MFA in Screenwriting at USC.
After grad school, me and my then-writing partner got accepted in a wonderful television writing program at Warner Bros., which fortuitously led us into a staff writing job on the CW show ‘Supergirl’. It was kind of a dream – I got the job on my 25th birthday and stayed there for three years. I wasn’t a genre writer, but writing on a genre show helped me understand the power of messaging and how good storytelling can really affect people. It can create change – that really enticed me going forward after I left the show and started to pursue my own creative development opportunities.
As I was on that pursuit, two friends and I conceived of, built, and launched a political platform, Political Playlist. It is a nonpartisan platform that educates our users on the youngest members of Congress – the next generation of political leaders in America. Through working simultaneously on being a screenwriter and running a political media company, I’ve come to really understand what storytelling means to me. It’s about changing the conversation, about bringing important issues to light, and ideally, about keeping people engaged.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s a funny question because I think about the privilege of circumstance that I grew up with – that was pretty smooth and I hope now in my adulthood I can look back and never take it for granted. However, I don’t think that pursuing a creative career is ever smooth. There’s an immense emotional toll that comes with creating work that is so subjective.
On top of that, you pile on the frustration and difficulty that comes with navigating the business side of entertainment – it can feel like kind of a mess. I left a cushy writing job on a big network show because I felt like I had never had the opportunity to really focus on myself as a writer. The couple of years since then have been stressful and filled with rejection and missed opportunity (not to mention the global pandemic of it all).
However, had I never left the show, I would have never come up with the idea for Political Playlist. If I had never done that, I don’t think I would have understood my mission as a storyteller. It sounds silly to use the old phrase about one door closing and another door opening, but I think it’s true. The best piece of advice I have ever received from my dad is a phrase I’ve learned to live by – ‘Just do the work.’
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Did you know that only 14% of Congress is under age 45, even though the average age of an American is 37-years-old? And Millennials are now the largest voting bloc in the country? At Political Playlist, we focus on members of Congress under the age of 45 from both sides of the aisle to give our users new ways to connect to the political system and create a more informed electorate.
On our website, politicalplaylist.com, you take a quick survey and we match you with five young politicians who speak to your political interests – your ‘playlist’. Then, we send you newsletters with updates on those politicians. We also have a podcast, Political Playlist Happy Hour, which I host with my fellow founders. We have a cocktail, talk about what young politicians are up to, and hopefully make you a bit smarter in the process. I think we’re charming, so there’s that!
We really believe that wherever you fall on the political spectrum, nothing is as important as information and education. There are politicians we cover who I don’t agree with on many issues, but I’m very happy that I know about them and what they’re up to. These young leaders have a shared generational experience that is so important to the future of country. Many of them are unknown and not covered by regular news cycles. We want to fill that void in a digestible, entertaining way.
I think we can all agree that most of us are pretty stuck in our echo chambers and find is difficult to hear anything outside of them. Political Playlist was born out of a desire to change the political conversation in America.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Networking always seemed like a dirty word to me – it felt so forced and impersonal. However, after I left my job at Supergirl I found myself in the vast landscape of Hollywood without much idea of how to navigate it. I’ve humbled since and learned that networking and seeking out mentors (and even being one) can be such a valuable tool in finding forward momentum.
Most industries are all about relationships. The biggest shift for me has been really thinking more strategically about the relationships that I already have and the ones I want to have. I am the least spreadsheet-savvy person but I sat down, opened excel, and made one – writing down all the people I know and all the people I want to know. Just the act of creating that list gave me confidence. It turned out I did have relationships! I just had to pursue them.
Spreadsheet aside, I think that nothing – literally nothing – will matter more than forming a personal connection with someone. I can be a very results-driven person and often found myself setting goals for a meeting with someone while I was in the midst of talking with them. The biggest shift for me has been to not focus on what I want the end-game to be, but to find commonalities with everyone I talk to, to have fun, to relate to them. Down the road, I think that relatability and friendship that can come from it is much more powerful than a one-off goal.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: politicalplaylist.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/politicalplaylist/
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-playlist-happy-hour/id1573188250
Image Credits:
Kate Sims, Malibu Triathlon, Nate Tharp
