Andy Seiler: Andy Seiler: The Good Life Network and the Art of the Local Story

Episode Summary

Andy Seiler tells Nebraska's stories for a living. As the founder of The Good Life Network, he's building a homegrown entertainment platform — short films, mini-documentaries, and profiles — focused on the people and small businesses quietly doing remarkable work across the state. A pastry shop in Cortland. Copper mug makers in O'Neill. A small-town curling competition. A professional boxer. Andy is putting them all on the same screen, on his own terms, without an ad break in sight.

About Andy Seiler

Andy Seiler is a Lincoln-based filmmaker and the founder of The Good Life Network. Originally from Texas, he came to Nebraska to attend Union College, took a year to teach English in Prague, and worked at Outpost 12 Studios in Lincoln before moving to Colorado for a stretch in outdoor television. He came home with his wife Rachel and their three young children to build something for the place that had become home. The Good Life Network is available on Roku, on the web, and across social platforms — and it's growing one story at a time.

About the Conversation

This is a conversation about taking the long way around. Andy talks about almost becoming a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot (until a colorblindness test ended that plan in about a week), about a year teaching English in Prague, and about the homemade Valentine's video he salvaged for his brother — the moment he realized filmmaking might be the thing.

He talks about coming back to Lincoln, working remotely for an East Coast production company through the pandemic, and quietly hating it — because he was in Nebraska but never actually in Nebraska. The Good Life Network grew out of that frustration: a chance to go meet the people whose work he was curious about. Lindsay at Happy Raven Pastries in Cortland (who is also, it turns out, a psychiatrist). Clyde Johnson, the professional boxer. The Handle Bend copper mug makers in O'Neill, whose basement doubles as a youth baseball practice space.

Throughout, Andy keeps returning to a few quiet convictions: that being behind the camera is the most honest place to listen from, that local stories deserve to live somewhere other than between two advertisements, and that the subject of a story should always get the final say in how it's told.

Conversation Highlights

• The Dave Grohl mug — a Christmas gift from his sister — and the lost silver thermos mug he's still trying to find
• A week of wanting to be a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, ended by an eye exam
• A year teaching English in Prague
• The Valentine's video for his brother that became a turning point
• Outpost 12 Studios in the old Gold's Building, and a first taste of professional video work
• The Good Life Network — a Nebraska-made entertainment platform, available on Roku and the web
• "How It's Made Nebraska" — and the partnership with Timco that started it
• Lindsay at Happy Raven Pastries in Cortland — pastry chef, psychiatrist, and a reason people drive to Cortland
• The Handle Bend copper mug makers in O'Neill, and the small-town curling competition in southern Nebraska
• Filming Clyde Johnson, the boxer, and what he learned about mental strength
• Why every guest at The Good Life Network gets final cut
• Why Andy doesn't want advertising to shape the storytelling
• "Video books" — long-form, slow stories built for the living room, not the For You page
• Coming home from Colorado, and the moment Lincoln felt like home
• What Nebraska gets right that the big cities don't
• If he were mayor: property taxes and better parks
• Three kids, seven and under

The Mug

Andy brought a Dave Grohl mug — a Christmas gift from his sister, currently his favorite. But it isn't really the mug. The mug is a lost silver thermos from RPI, the kind that fits in every cup holder and never burned your lips. He's googled it. He's image-searched it. He's accepted, mostly, that someone, somewhere, is enjoying it. If you happen to have it, he'd like a word.