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Seth Godin on Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs on Analogies, and 100+ Tools From Do Lectures

          10 stories we've enjoyed this week      
A black woman with orange hair and a purple head covering blows a yellow bubble out of her mouth. Inside the animated bubble are the words "Speak Your Truth".
Hi All,
Just the one thing from us this week.

We've been working with Experian on a project called Identities of the World, which is about financial inclusion in countries such as India, Columbia, and Peru. During the first lockdown, we made a couple of films about two people trying to build businesses in remote locations in Peru.  

Teddy lives in the Amazon rainforest, and Agustina lives in a rural community in the north. Agustina wasn’t allowed to go to school and is now illiterate and Teddy’s community is too remote to access government services. This follow-up film shows how, after seeing the films, Experian helped them overcome their challenges.

Get in touch if you would like to find out more about how we use stories to help different kinds of organisations understand the challenges of their customers.  

OK. Have a really great weekend.
Hugh
The Short Story
The Storytelling Lessons I Learned From Steve Jobs
(8 min read) 

What Happens When You Call All 1500 People in Your Contacts List
(36 min listen)

Inside the Apocalyptic World View of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
(Interactive story)

Seth Godin: "In the moment before it's ready, that's when it's ready"
(2 min read)

The Tell-Tale Signs of a Successful Intellectual Life is Weirdness
(6 min read)

Do Lectures: 100+ Tools For An Easy Life
(List)

Television Is in a Showrunning Crisis
(30 min read)

What You Can Learn From The CIA's New Tone of Voice
(6 min read)

The Periodic Table of Storytelling
(1 min read)

The Feelings - A Humorous Animation For Mental Health Week
(2 min watch)
Seven abstract cartoon characters, each depicting a different emotion. One is the shape of a tear drop. One is spikey. One is like a dark cloud. One is like tangled ball of thread. One is all sticky and its feet are sticking to the floor.

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial. 

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 
 
The Full Story
The Storytelling Lessons I Learned From Steve Jobs
Tony Fadell started his 30-year Silicon Valley career at General Magic, the most influential startup nobody has ever heard of. Then he went on to make the iPod and iPhone, and start Nest. In this excerpt from his new book, he writes about how he saw Steve Jobs use analogies to tell brilliant product stories. Via Rosie and Faris' Strands of Genius.
(8 min read)

What Happens When You Call All 1500 People in Your Contacts List
I dived back into Reply All and really enjoyed this episode in which the host, Emmanuel Dzotis, attempts to call everyone in his phone's contact list. The idea was inspired by the work of Soraya Perry. I would have liked to hear her included in the episode talking about her own project, but it's a good episode all the same. 
(36 min listen)

Inside the Apocalyptic World View of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
I let this story slip by in my stream many times but eventually gave it a click after it was recommended by Darren at Storythings. It's simple but effective storytelling that highlights how frequently he uses two common words to divide a country. 
(Interactive story)

Seth Godin: "In the moment before it's ready, that's when it's ready"
A very good short piece on the importance of tension and showing your work: "Paul wants the group to be excited. He wants George to be happier. Most of all, he wants John to like his songs. That’s his fuel. And Paul’s practice is simple: Bring the work forward. Play a song before it’s ready. Because in the moment before it’s ready, that’s when it’s ready."
(2 min read)

The Tell-Tale Signs of a Successful Intellectual Life is Weirdness
Tyler Cowen is an American economist and writer. In his podcast, Conversations, he talks to thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between. He's a big thinker who has the ability to make everything interesting. Here, David Gasca summarises what he's learned from listening to 100s of hours of those conversations. I really liked Tyler's thoughts on the value of understanding context before jumping into new experiences.
(6 min read)

Do Lectures: 100+ Tools For An Easy Life
List lovers are going to enjoy this. Those nice people at Do Lectures have put together a list of 100+ useful tools to make life easier. The list breaks down into 10 categories including tools for writing, research, productivity, design, wellbeing and more. 
(List)

Television Is in a Showrunning Crisis
This is a great long read on the problems TV is facing in developing talented showrunners. The explosion of streaming and demand for more TV has stretched the old, ad hoc training system to its breaking point: "There simply are not enough experienced showrunners to head all the shows being made. Moreover, shorter episode orders and script writing for a whole season finishing before production has begun has robbed new writers of concrete experience they would have gotten even a few years ago. When those writers go on to pitch their shows, there’s a chance they’ve never seen one of their scripts actually get filmed. And, again, there aren’t enough experienced showrunners to pair with them."
(30 min read)

What You Can Learn From The CIA's New Tone of Voice
The CIA's website has had a bit of a refresh. And with it comes a new tone of voice. Nick Parker has taken a snoop around. It turns out that it has the shortest, starkest, and bluntest About page ever. But that doesn't matter because it says everything it needs to say. 
(6 min read)

The Periodic Table of Storytelling
All the classic storytelling elements in one poster. 
(1 min read)

The Feelings - A Humorous Animation For Mental Health Week
The Feelings follows a group of seven emotions working in healthcare, including Power Less, Rising Dread, Red Rage and Deep Sadness. By animating the real emotional states of first responders in a child-friendly aesthetic, the video is able to talk about a serious topic in a safe way. 
(2 min watch)
We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings
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