We built TimeBridge Studio because we believed every life deserves to be fully told.

Most people never have the experience of sitting down and telling their story in full. Not the highlights, not the summary — but the whole thing. Where they came from, what shaped them, what they learned, what they loved, what they lost, and what they want the people who come after them to know.

TimeBridge Studio exists to give people that experience — and to preserve it beautifully for the families and generations who will treasure it.

We are a studio built on a simple but deeply held belief: that story is how we make a life feel real and witnessed. That the act of telling — and being truly heard — is one of the most meaningful things a person can do. And that the families who receive these films will return to them for generations.

Where this began

TimeBridge Studio grew out of a simple but powerful observation: that in life’s most meaningful moments, what people reach for is story. Not summaries or highlights — but the full, real, unhurried telling of a life.

We built this business because we believed that kind of telling deserved to be captured. And that doing it well — doing it in a way that truly honors the depth of a life — required more than a camera and a list of questions. It required a methodology. A philosophy. And people who had spent their lives moving toward depth and connection.

That’s what we’ve tried to build.

Why our interviews go deeper.

Most life story services approach an interview the way a journalist would — with a list of questions and a goal of getting through them. We approach it the way a therapist would — with genuine curiosity about what a life meant, not just what happened in it.

Our interview methodology was developed by a licensed marriage and family therapist and is built into how every TimeBridge interviewer is trained and how every engagement is conducted. We don’t just capture events. We explore the emotional landscape beneath them — the relationships that shaped a person, the moments that changed them, the wisdom they’ve accumulated and never quite had the chance to pass on.

The result is something a standard biography service can’t produce: an interview that reveals not just who someone was, but who they are.

The people behind the studio.

John Binkley

Founder, CEO & Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

John Binkley spent the first part of his professional life working with his hands and close to the earth — as an organic vegetable farmer, and later as an electrician installing solar photovoltaic systems. Both careers taught him patience, the value of things that take time to grow, and a deep respect for work that has lasting impact.A period of intentional personal growth led him in a different direction. He founded and ran a men’s circle for years — creating and holding a space where men could do the kind of deep relational and emotional work that most of life doesn’t make room for. That experience, more than anything else, shaped his understanding of what it means to truly listen, and what becomes possible when someone feels genuinely safe enough to be honest.That calling eventually led him back to school, where he earned his Master’s degree in counseling and his license as a Marriage and Family Therapist. He continues to run a men’s circle today.The through line across all of it — farming, solar, men’s work, therapy — has been a persistent orientation toward depth, meaning, and genuine human connection. TimeBridge Studio is the fullest expression of that orientation. It combines everything he has learned about how people tell their stories, what they leave out, and how to create the conditions for something true to emerge.He founded TimeBridge Studio because he believes every life contains more than its owner realizes — and that the families who receive these films will spend the rest of their lives grateful that someone finally asked.

David Eckstein

Founder, Chief Storytelling Officer & Post-Production Lead

David loves all aspects of stories – writing them, hearing them, and sharing them. He is the seventh of eight children and the proud father of three wonderful daughters, all of whom play a vital role in his life story and love of storytelling.

You may have seen him on a local stage. David is a champion Moth storyteller, which means he knows from the inside what makes a story meaningful. That instinct informs everything he does at TimeBridge Studio, where he shapes raw interview footage into finished films that do justice to the person on screen.

His connection to this work is personal. When David was young, an older cousin sat down with his grandmother Tessie, who had immigrated to America as a teenager more than a century ago, and recorded a thorough interview with her. David still has a copy of that story. He has read it over a hundred times.

A career spanning technology, media, and business consulting has given David an unusually broad set of lenses through which to see a project. When people ask what he does, his answer is always the same: “I’m a dad.”

David Hollander

Founder & Lead Interviewer

Dave comes to this work through a lifetime of prioritizing connection to others. With a background in philosophy, religious studies, and history, he was drawn early to the questions that don’t have easy answers and to the elders who had spent decades living alongside those questions.

At TimeBridge Studio, Dave is our lead interviewer. He brings patience, genuine curiosity, and a rare ability to make people feel at ease; the kind of presence that turns a recorded conversation into something that provides a true window into who that person is.

His connection to this work runs deep. Dave grew up close to his great-grandmother, and deeply values the single existing home video of her telling family stories. He considers the preservation of a relative’s voice and memory as something close to a sacred calling, and that’s exactly the care he brings to every subject he sits down with.

When he’s not interviewing, Dave is raising his family, tending a small blueberry farm, and working on his writing.

What we stand for.

Depth over efficiency.

We don’t rush. A TimeBridge engagement takes the time it takes — because the stories that matter most are rarely the first ones someone tells.

Authenticity over polish.

We edit lightly and intentionally. The goal is never a perfect performance. It’s a real person, fully present, telling the truth of their life.

Care over transaction.

Every subject who sits down with a TimeBridge interviewer is entrusting us with something irreplaceable. We treat that trust as the most important thing in the room.

Connection over documentation.

We’re not archivists. We’re not journalists. We’re people who believe that the deepest gift one generation can give another is the honest story of how they lived.

If any of this resonates — if you find yourself thinking of someone whose story deserves to be captured — we'd love to talk.

A 30-minute call. No pressure, no commitment — just a conversation about the story you want to preserve.