Emily Timmer is a filmmaker, writer, coach, and endurance athlete whose creative life is deeply shaped by movement. Raised in Washington State and now based in Los Angeles, Emily has spent her life toggling between running and storytelling — using the same principles of patience, repetition, and presence to guide both.
In this episode, Emily opens up about her journey through competitive running, her experience entering rehab for orthorexia, and how learning to run healthily reshaped her relationship to both her body and her work. She shares how writing a short novel during that time reignited her storytelling path, eventually leading her toward filmmaking and an MFA in Directing.
We talk about training for her upcoming 50K, finishing the ninth draft of a feature film centered around an ultramarathon, and how endurance sports continue to inform her creative process. Emily reflects on loss, grief, and the role of somatic connection in healing — including how losing her best friend to cancer has found its way into her current script.
The conversation also explores run club culture, community building, the pressures of brand involvement, and why Emily believes the running boom may be in a fragile bubble. Along the way, she shares what it means to “rest in motion,” why she sees herself as a jazz filmmaker, and how movement helps her stay balanced, embodied, and creatively alive.
This episode is an honest meditation on discipline without punishment, creativity without isolation, and the quiet power of listening to the body — on the page, on the road, and in life.
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