Kitty Eisele is no stranger to storytelling. As a podcast host and executive producer at NPR, she lives and breathes the art of communication. She digs deep, interviewing guests with complex stories and relaying them in a familiar, yet exciting manner. Her vigor and enthusiasm are forces to be reckoned with – and so is her curiosity.

Her penchant for discovery led her to the Salzburg Global Seminar. In 1994, she attended a session entitled “Do Films Matter? The Moral, Artistic and Political Impact of Film.” As an American filmmaker living in a world where the Cold War had divided people between those living in the first, second or third, Kitty’s exposure to life behind the Iron Curtain was akin to that of visiting Mars. For Kitty, engaging with fellows from Eastern Europe was an astonishing experience, uncovering a gateway to a world that had previously been sealed off and forgotten.

“What did my Salzburg Global Seminar experience mean to me? Everything in the world, it blew my mind,” she said. “It was a very humbling experience to be with these people who were making films for political purposes, just simply for entertainment, to educate or express their lives. It was profound, and it hit me at heart level.”

Even though the experience took place 30 years ago, Kitty says it took months for her to process the conversations, stories and lessons learned from fellows who represented vastly different cultures and societies. She views the Salzburg Global Seminar as a gift that she revisits throughout her career, consistently offering new perspectives that echo an unforgettable, eye-opening time in her life.

She compares the ideas that she grappled with or from which she garnered inspiration to boats sailing on a lake, effortlessly crossing each other’s’ paths and beckoning any onlooker to join. At Salzburg Global, these smooth-sailing ideas welcomed any visitor to pass through a gateway to the world, one full of diversity of thought, ethnicity and political ideas. The Schloss offers this serene background for Fellows who passionately share their views or quietly consider those of others. Kitty wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, for she feels she has already been given it. Now, she wishes to give the Schloss and Salzburg Global to others looking for a global gateway.

“I can't be that age again. I can't have that kind of mind-blowing experience,” Kitty said. “But if I can give that opportunity to somebody else, you don't know what they're going to make of it. I feel like it is my responsibility to give that gift forward.”

Even after three decades, Kitty feels just as strongly about her experience as she did when it concluded. As a result, Salzburg Global Seminar is now in her will. For the next 75 years, she wishes to see her experience replicated and conversations of mutual cooperation and trust taking place between those who need it most.

“We're in this again, as I recall, this unimaginable moment. And it's in Europe,” Kitty said. “Salzburg grew from an unimaginable catastrophe because individual people were brave and thought, we have to figure out a way to build this world better…and I think that’s informing everything the seminar does.”