oh, Hello

I'm Diana Helmuth (pronounced "hell - myth")

I am a nonfiction author, freelance writer, Silicon Valley startup veteran, podcast producer and cupcake baker. I'm a pretty bad gardener, but I try to do that, too.

 

My writing usually (but not always) centers on travel, humor, the outdoors, and millennial cultural trends. In 2022, my first book How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner's Guide to Hiking and Backpacking  (Mountaineers Press) won the National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional. I've been a voice on KQED, and a featured guest on the podcasts Wild Ideas Worth Living with Shelby Stanger, On Riting, and Head on Fire.

Like most writers, writing is not all I do. In the San Francisco Bay Area, I have helped numerous startups with operational growth, customer success, and thoughtful creation of first products. You can see my full business experience here.

I am currently a producer at Da7e and Neil's Pop Culture Adventure, a podcast that seeks to improve film literacy in the modern era. Before that, I produced The Storm Podcast headed by Joanna Robinson (The Ringer), Neil Miller (One Perfect Shot) and Dave Gonzales (Thrillist), and saw it exceed 4 million downloads.

I studied Cultural Anthropology at UC Berkeley and the American University in Cairo under multiple scholarships.

I have an obsession with empathy. You may have seen me dance.

I am on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, but we're having more fun on TikTok.