Russ Johnson is a writer, satirist, photographer, filmmaker and former broadcaster.
His media career began at age 16 when he hosted his first solo radio program, a weekly jazz show on Minneapolis radio station. While in college, he became News Director of University of Minnesota Public Radio then moved on to CBS’s WCCO-TV where, among other duties, he did satirical bits on The Bedtime Nooz, celebrated as being a forerunner of Saturday Night Live while writing for the Brave New Workshop, whose alumni include Louie Anderson and Al Franken. He went on as a news reporter at McClatchy Broadcasting in Sacramento and NBC’s KRON-TV in San Francisco. He left broadcasting to attend graduate school and teach broadcast journalism at San Francisco State University while hosting on the air at KABL Radio in San Francisco.
Johnson founded Travelmedia Communications in 1984, which took him to more than 60 countries on film, video, photography and writing and consulting assignments for national tourism offices, cruise lines, airlines, trade organizations, NGOs, and universities. He has worked on sustainable tourism projects and strategies for the UN Development Programme and the Asian Development Bank while producing videos, books and web media for the six countries of the Mekong Region, Nepal, the State of California, Sonoma County, California, the Pacific Asia Travel Association, and the University of Hawaii, among others.
His editorial work includes an award winning TV series on California prisons, a one-hour feature on the coup d’etat in the islands of Fiji for American Public Radio, a series of documentaries on the homeless and supportive housing sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a documentary on the future of travel with author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke. He has also written about travel and technology for the Los Angeles Times, Wired and other publications. He served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Travel Association and on its Sustainable Tourism Committee.
Russ is Editor and Publisher of the pioneering web travel magazine, connectedtraveler.com, which Lonely Planet has called “Armchair travel at its best.” His audio features have been heard on public radio stations across the US. Russ has been a featured speaker at international conferences on the subjects of sustainable tourism and travel technology and for many years served as master of ceremonies at the annual conferences of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, as well as being its “voice” on CNN and the BBC. He also moderated the travel technology and photography sessions at the New York Times Travel Show, where he and his wife Pat produced the Connected Traveler Technology Showcase.
Russ Johnson is author of the illustrated humor book Gone Astray, twenty short essays that create Downton Abbey in a Duck Pond, a travel guide to where to go AFTER you die, explain opera, and what happens when you mix the DNA of a standard poodle with that of a woolly mammoth, among other subjects. It and his book Tales of the Radio Traveler, which weaves radio lore with stories from is world travels, is available in book, ebook and audio book editions in bookstores and on Amazon. Russ Johnson is host of the podcast Russell Johnson – Gone Astray, available on all major podcast networks.
He lives with his wife Pat, a fine artist, in Sonoma, California. They have produced more than twenty short documentaries about non-profit organizations ranging from nutrition education and art for kids, to job services for teenagers. Many have appeared in the local movie theater as trailers.