The Everything's Relative Roadtrip
Los Angeles, California | Radio & Podcasts
Documentary, Family
Eve Sturges has interviewed people about their shocking DNA-discoveries for 4 years; now she is ready to explore her own identity on a deeper, more personal, level. She's touring the USA for a discussion with others about whether or not DNA matters, and to meet her half-siblings for the first time.
The Everything's Relative Roadtrip
Los Angeles, California | Radio & Podcasts
Documentary, Family
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $16,105 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
150 supporters | followers
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Eve Sturges has interviewed people about their shocking DNA-discoveries for 4 years; now she is ready to explore her own identity on a deeper, more personal, level. She's touring the USA for a discussion with others about whether or not DNA matters, and to meet her half-siblings for the first time.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Welcome to the New Reality: DNA is Everywhere, and Secrets are Obsolete.
A phone call turned Eve's life upside down.
A man named Peter called Eve in 2018 to state his belief that he was her real father; a DNA-test proved him right. Her understanding of existence, heritage, and family crashed into oblivion. At the same time, direct-to-consumer DNA tests have been exposing similar secrets at an alarming rate. 3-10% of test-takers will discover they aren't who they thought they were.
Recognizing an historical phenomenon, Eve launched her podcast, Everything's Relative with Eve Sturges. Her goal was, and still is, to raise awareness, nurture community, and create an oral history of this growing population. Since 2019, using her podcast, Eve has explored the landscape of modern DNA testing and the myriad identity crises created by the growing phenomenon of "DNA discoveries." After 100 episodes and 250,000+ plays, Eve is ready to dive deeper into her own personal journey, and take her message to a bigger audience on a larger scale.
This summer, Eve and her husband are taking the podcast, and their kids, on the road. On a trip that covers over 5,000 miles, Eve will meet other people with experiences like hers to talk in depth about whether or not DNA really matters. The quest will crescendo when Eve meets her half-siblings for the first time to participate in the discussion about what they think it means to be related by blood. Everything will be documented: audio, video, photograph, substack.
By the time Eve's van rolls back into Los Angeles, she'll have hours of interviews and footage. The dream is to create a season 6 of her podcast, AND to create a larger documentary project that focuses on the universal questions and complexities of identity, family, shame, and secrets through the lens of her personal journey.
Since launching her podcast in 2019, Eve has produced over 150 hours of content based on a traditional interview model; we feel ready to expand our creativity outside our comfort zone. Thus far, Eve has kept most of the details of her personal experience private. After five years as a host, Eve is ready to turn the microphone around and focus on herself. Her biological father lived an eclectic life; he was involved in politics, he wrote a few books, he may have been involved with the CIA (yes, really.) Eve's journey about what it means to be related to such a character is an excellent and provocative vehicle for exploring the age-old question of nurture vs. nature. The popularity of Direct-to-consumer DNA tests is only increasing every year; it's time to normalize these discussions for a changing world.
The Goal
By creating multi-media documentation on the road, Eve and Kalen will have material for a 6th Season of the podcast, footage for a documentary, and written material for a book. With these mediums, Eve wants to thrust this conversation about identity and social paradigms into the spotlight. Film segments will be palatable as individual episodes; when combined with Eve's personal journey, a feature length project is possible. Determined to succeed with a micro-budget, Eve and her family are starting from zero. All funds raised will contribute to van rental, gasoline, camera, tech, and recording equipment, fees, and all the things they haven't thought of yet. Anything beyond their goal will help with post-production costs.
Route: As Of May 14
(Subject to change)
Strathmore California, to get "the worlds best Tri-tip" from Miguel from the Season 2 of the podcast: Like Father Like Son: Jason & Miguel
Nevada City, California to spend some time with Tifin, and adoptee and astrologist, to discuss identity, fate, and the stars.
Winnemucca, Nevada: Buccaroo Hall of Fame & Heritage Museum
Boise, Idaho
Yellowstone National Park
Cody, Wyoming (home of some of Eve's paternal half-sibs!!!)
Longmont, Colorado to meet with Melanie, the only NPE interview that Eve forgot to press "record" for a do-over. to meeting up with Eve's friend Jennie, Donor Conceived Person from Season 5, If Life Is A Richard Scarry Illustration, Everyone Has a Path. (And possibly with Eve's friend from graduate school, Ben!)
Hutchins, Kansas to catch up with Kim, from Season 2 All Those K Names
Memphis Tennessee Graceland, duh. And meeting up with family friend, and filmmaker, Associate Producer Lydia Hyslop!
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (another one of Eve's half-siblings!)
Dallas, Texas to meet with Brad from He's Not The First Murderer I've Ever Met, and talk about what's happened in the past few years since he's been in reunion with his biological father who was in prison for murder.
Sante Fe, New Mexico (pit stop at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo Texas on the way.)
The Grand Canyon
HOME TO LOS ANGELES
None of this can happen without your help. Please share this campaign with every single person you know. Use Instagram and TikTok to share this adventure with others, and come along in real time as they post along the way.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camper Van Rental
Costs $7,000
A Roadtrip needs a vehicle. Affordable rentals cost $125 - $250 per night. x30 nights. + fees + insurance + tax
Location Fees, Room & Board, Travel
Costs $3,000
30 days and 30 nights, prices are high and low across the country; $100 is an average we can work with.
ROAM Portable WiFi Hotspot
Costs $200
Sending content back to home base and keeping Kalen employed from the road. Its a must-have.
Film & Tech Equipment
Costs $1,500
Microphones stands/clips/tripod. Zoom Portable Audio Recorder Camera Mounts. Chargers, Batteries External Hard Drive(s), Ring Lights, Advil.
gasoline
Costs $1,000
Ford Hi5 Campervan Average Mileage: 15 miles/gallon Trip: 5000 miles National average gas price: 3.66 5000 / 15 = 333 333 x 3.66 = $1220
Podcast Post Production
Costs $1,200
Joy Rumore is Eve's ride-or-die editor, and to make a season 6, they need about $1200 for rates, fees, software, equipment.
Post Production: Just the Set Up
Costs $1,100
tiny tip of the iceberg, but it will get us going (to the hardest part): data storage, licensing, editor rates, admin, editing program(s)
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
FAMILY TEAM
Eve Sturges is licensed therapist, a podcast host, and a mom in Los Angeles California. Her podcast Everything's Relative with Eve Sturges has enjoyed over 250,000 plays and is in the top 1% of all podcasts. Her writing has appeared in places like Cosmopolitan.com, Rookie Magazine, and Severance Magazine. She published a process journal, Who Even Am I Anymore , the first of its kind, for the DNA-discovery community in 2022 and facilitates therapeutic writing groups in conjunction with Hiraeth Hope & Healing throughout the year. This roadtrip project was her idea; she'll leading the discussion about identity and exploring what it means to her in pursuit of more information about her biological family. Her favorite film is the original Jurassic Park. She's journaling the roadtrip substack: https://evesturges.substack.com/
Kalen Egan is a screenplay writer in Los Angeles California, and Eve's husband. Kalen's writing and producing credits include Kaleidoscope, The Man in The High Castle, and Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams. A lifelong cinephile, Kalen has an arsenal of filmmaking experiences, from home videos to micro-budget shorts, to big studio productions. He worked as director of development for Electric Shepherd Productions for 15+ years and is obsessed with story craft. He likes coffee, vinyl records, and board games. His favorite film is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Lily Regan, Eve's oldest daughter, will be managing the home front and production duties like content storage, social 
media, and logistical details. She is an avid songwriter, dog lover, and Sims4 aficionado. Her favorite book is All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven.
Dallas (age 8), and Margot (age 4) roadtrip roles include musical entertainment, craft-services (choosing the drive-thru) on-location photography, and knock-knock jokes. Dallas likes pizza, video games, and Disneyland. His favorite movies are They Live and Avatar 2 and 1. Margot like toys, legos, baby dolls, and her Indiana Jones costume. Her favorite movie are Superman, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.
Production Team
Lydia Hyslop, Associate Producer
Lydia Hyslop is a North Carolina-based writer, actor, filmmaker, and mother to a very precocious seven-year-old. Her first feature film, Burnout, won Best Narrative Feature at Oxford Film Festival in 2015. Last year, she received a Filmed in NC grant to support her second feature film, Sheila Got Bangs. Lydia’s favorite movie is also Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (and not just because Kalen said it first).
Joy Rumore, Podcast Editor
Originally from the Northeast, Joy Rumore is a recovering workaholic who lives with her family in Long Beach, California where she drinks too much coffee and talks to squirrels. Joy has been tattooing for over 20 years. She began a second career as an editor and podcast co-host of The Residuals: A Paranormal Podcast in 2019. She edited seasons 4 & 5 of the Everything's Relative Podcast with Eve Sturges. Her favorite books are a long list of Stephen King novels and she falls asleep to the soothing sounds of Godzilla films.
Emily Elsner, Producer
Devin Browne, Associate Producer
Devin Boone is a writer, producer, and former reporter living in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Ian, and son, Wally. Her stories have appeared in/on: Marketplace, The World, The Takeaway, BBC’s Newshour, LA Weekly, and The American Prospect, and writing about her writing has appeared in the L.A. Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Tucson Weekly, and Capital & Main. Her favorite reading is George Orwell's "Such Such Were The Joys."
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Welcome to the New Reality: DNA is Everywhere, and Secrets are Obsolete.
A phone call turned Eve's life upside down.
A man named Peter called Eve in 2018 to state his belief that he was her real father; a DNA-test proved him right. Her understanding of existence, heritage, and family crashed into oblivion. At the same time, direct-to-consumer DNA tests have been exposing similar secrets at an alarming rate. 3-10% of test-takers will discover they aren't who they thought they were.
Recognizing an historical phenomenon, Eve launched her podcast, Everything's Relative with Eve Sturges. Her goal was, and still is, to raise awareness, nurture community, and create an oral history of this growing population. Since 2019, using her podcast, Eve has explored the landscape of modern DNA testing and the myriad identity crises created by the growing phenomenon of "DNA discoveries." After 100 episodes and 250,000+ plays, Eve is ready to dive deeper into her own personal journey, and take her message to a bigger audience on a larger scale.
This summer, Eve and her husband are taking the podcast, and their kids, on the road. On a trip that covers over 5,000 miles, Eve will meet other people with experiences like hers to talk in depth about whether or not DNA really matters. The quest will crescendo when Eve meets her half-siblings for the first time to participate in the discussion about what they think it means to be related by blood. Everything will be documented: audio, video, photograph, substack.
By the time Eve's van rolls back into Los Angeles, she'll have hours of interviews and footage. The dream is to create a season 6 of her podcast, AND to create a larger documentary project that focuses on the universal questions and complexities of identity, family, shame, and secrets through the lens of her personal journey.
Since launching her podcast in 2019, Eve has produced over 150 hours of content based on a traditional interview model; we feel ready to expand our creativity outside our comfort zone. Thus far, Eve has kept most of the details of her personal experience private. After five years as a host, Eve is ready to turn the microphone around and focus on herself. Her biological father lived an eclectic life; he was involved in politics, he wrote a few books, he may have been involved with the CIA (yes, really.) Eve's journey about what it means to be related to such a character is an excellent and provocative vehicle for exploring the age-old question of nurture vs. nature. The popularity of Direct-to-consumer DNA tests is only increasing every year; it's time to normalize these discussions for a changing world.
The Goal
By creating multi-media documentation on the road, Eve and Kalen will have material for a 6th Season of the podcast, footage for a documentary, and written material for a book. With these mediums, Eve wants to thrust this conversation about identity and social paradigms into the spotlight. Film segments will be palatable as individual episodes; when combined with Eve's personal journey, a feature length project is possible. Determined to succeed with a micro-budget, Eve and her family are starting from zero. All funds raised will contribute to van rental, gasoline, camera, tech, and recording equipment, fees, and all the things they haven't thought of yet. Anything beyond their goal will help with post-production costs.
Route: As Of May 14
(Subject to change)
Strathmore California, to get "the worlds best Tri-tip" from Miguel from the Season 2 of the podcast: Like Father Like Son: Jason & Miguel
Nevada City, California to spend some time with Tifin, and adoptee and astrologist, to discuss identity, fate, and the stars.
Winnemucca, Nevada: Buccaroo Hall of Fame & Heritage Museum
Boise, Idaho
Yellowstone National Park
Cody, Wyoming (home of some of Eve's paternal half-sibs!!!)
Longmont, Colorado to meet with Melanie, the only NPE interview that Eve forgot to press "record" for a do-over. to meeting up with Eve's friend Jennie, Donor Conceived Person from Season 5, If Life Is A Richard Scarry Illustration, Everyone Has a Path. (And possibly with Eve's friend from graduate school, Ben!)
Hutchins, Kansas to catch up with Kim, from Season 2 All Those K Names
Memphis Tennessee Graceland, duh. And meeting up with family friend, and filmmaker, Associate Producer Lydia Hyslop!
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (another one of Eve's half-siblings!)
Dallas, Texas to meet with Brad from He's Not The First Murderer I've Ever Met, and talk about what's happened in the past few years since he's been in reunion with his biological father who was in prison for murder.
Sante Fe, New Mexico (pit stop at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo Texas on the way.)
The Grand Canyon
HOME TO LOS ANGELES
None of this can happen without your help. Please share this campaign with every single person you know. Use Instagram and TikTok to share this adventure with others, and come along in real time as they post along the way.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Camper Van Rental
Costs $7,000
A Roadtrip needs a vehicle. Affordable rentals cost $125 - $250 per night. x30 nights. + fees + insurance + tax
Location Fees, Room & Board, Travel
Costs $3,000
30 days and 30 nights, prices are high and low across the country; $100 is an average we can work with.
ROAM Portable WiFi Hotspot
Costs $200
Sending content back to home base and keeping Kalen employed from the road. Its a must-have.
Film & Tech Equipment
Costs $1,500
Microphones stands/clips/tripod. Zoom Portable Audio Recorder Camera Mounts. Chargers, Batteries External Hard Drive(s), Ring Lights, Advil.
gasoline
Costs $1,000
Ford Hi5 Campervan Average Mileage: 15 miles/gallon Trip: 5000 miles National average gas price: 3.66 5000 / 15 = 333 333 x 3.66 = $1220
Podcast Post Production
Costs $1,200
Joy Rumore is Eve's ride-or-die editor, and to make a season 6, they need about $1200 for rates, fees, software, equipment.
Post Production: Just the Set Up
Costs $1,100
tiny tip of the iceberg, but it will get us going (to the hardest part): data storage, licensing, editor rates, admin, editing program(s)
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
FAMILY TEAM
Eve Sturges is licensed therapist, a podcast host, and a mom in Los Angeles California. Her podcast Everything's Relative with Eve Sturges has enjoyed over 250,000 plays and is in the top 1% of all podcasts. Her writing has appeared in places like Cosmopolitan.com, Rookie Magazine, and Severance Magazine. She published a process journal, Who Even Am I Anymore , the first of its kind, for the DNA-discovery community in 2022 and facilitates therapeutic writing groups in conjunction with Hiraeth Hope & Healing throughout the year. This roadtrip project was her idea; she'll leading the discussion about identity and exploring what it means to her in pursuit of more information about her biological family. Her favorite film is the original Jurassic Park. She's journaling the roadtrip substack: https://evesturges.substack.com/
Kalen Egan is a screenplay writer in Los Angeles California, and Eve's husband. Kalen's writing and producing credits include Kaleidoscope, The Man in The High Castle, and Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams. A lifelong cinephile, Kalen has an arsenal of filmmaking experiences, from home videos to micro-budget shorts, to big studio productions. He worked as director of development for Electric Shepherd Productions for 15+ years and is obsessed with story craft. He likes coffee, vinyl records, and board games. His favorite film is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Lily Regan, Eve's oldest daughter, will be managing the home front and production duties like content storage, social media, and logistical details. She is an avid songwriter, dog lover, and Sims4 aficionado. Her favorite book is All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven.
Dallas (age 8), and Margot (age 4) roadtrip roles include musical entertainment, craft-services (choosing the drive-thru) on-location photography, and knock-knock jokes. Dallas likes pizza, video games, and Disneyland. His favorite movies are They Live and Avatar 2 and 1. Margot like toys, legos, baby dolls, and her Indiana Jones costume. Her favorite movie are Superman, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones.
Production Team
Lydia Hyslop, Associate Producer
Lydia Hyslop is a North Carolina-based writer, actor, filmmaker, and mother to a very precocious seven-year-old. Her first feature film, Burnout, won Best Narrative Feature at Oxford Film Festival in 2015. Last year, she received a Filmed in NC grant to support her second feature film, Sheila Got Bangs. Lydia’s favorite movie is also Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (and not just because Kalen said it first).
Joy Rumore, Podcast Editor
Originally from the Northeast, Joy Rumore is a recovering workaholic who lives with her family in Long Beach, California where she drinks too much coffee and talks to squirrels. Joy has been tattooing for over 20 years. She began a second career as an editor and podcast co-host of The Residuals: A Paranormal Podcast in 2019. She edited seasons 4 & 5 of the Everything's Relative Podcast with Eve Sturges. Her favorite books are a long list of Stephen King novels and she falls asleep to the soothing sounds of Godzilla films.
Emily Elsner, Producer
Devin Browne, Associate Producer
Devin Boone is a writer, producer, and former reporter living in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Ian, and son, Wally. Her stories have appeared in/on: Marketplace, The World, The Takeaway, BBC’s Newshour, LA Weekly, and The American Prospect, and writing about her writing has appeared in the L.A. Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Tucson Weekly, and Capital & Main. Her favorite reading is George Orwell's "Such Such Were The Joys."