Hi there!

This week we put our newest project out into the world. For our brilliant clients at Lenovo, we created this AI explainer, a scrollytelling piece that tells us how AI can be leveraged to help make everyone smarter. It narrates some very compelling stories using simple, accessible language for a lay audience, starting with how LLMs interpret human data input, to how they, for example, create ‘a portrait of a labradoodle painted in the style of Van Gogh’. There’s also a story of how AI is used with edge servers on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile to protect a rare seabird called the pink-footed shearwater from raccoon-like coatis, and one of how predictive AI is helping patients with neurodegenerative disorders.

Putting together a project like this is a team effort, and always starts with breaking down what the goal is, what the key stories are, and how we can best use technology and media (words and visuals, in this instance) to reach our goal in the most beautiful way possible. We hugely enjoyed working on this - if you’d like to know more or have an idea that could use our help, give us a shout.

This wouldn’t have happened without Justin Eure, Stuart Gill and Charlotte West - thank you so much.

Have a good weekend wherever you are!

Anjali

What the Late Quincy Jones Taught Me About Creativity (2-minute read)

Why Democrats Won’t Build Their Own Joe Rogan (11-minute read)

How To Build a Sustainable Workflow for Story Formats (7-minute read)

Getting Comfortable With Complexity: Jody Osman of the Propeller Group on the B2B Buying Process (8-minute watch)

Title Drops (website)

Kareem Rahma’s American Dream (11-minute read)

A Pretty Girl, A Novel with Voices, a Ring-Tailed Lemur (4-minute read)

The Final Flight of the Airline Magazine (13-minute read)

Marcelo & Karolina, the Fastest Names in the NYC Marathon (4-minute read)

The Onion’s Magical Election Touchscreen Provides Unique Insights (3-minute watch)

How we can help you

Storythings is the content marketing agency of choice for some of the world’s most forward-thinking B2B brands and organisations. Here are 2 reasons to get in touch. 

1. “I want to tell better stories” – You’ve been creating content but it’s not having the impact you need. Talk to us about our Content Audit Workshop.

2. “I need help making things” – You know what you want to make, but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation or newsletter. We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

What the Late Quincy Jones Taught Me About Creativity (2-minute read)
This week, amongst everything else that happened, the music world lost a legend. Ad veteran John Hegarty talks about the time he met Mr. Jones on a flight. And in the Guardian, here’s a piece about Quincy Jones as the hit-making legend who changed pop history.

Why Democrats Won’t Build Their Own Joe Rogan (11-minute read)
Taylor Lorenz has been doing some good work since she set off on her own and started publishing her User Mag newsletter recently. Case in point: her analysis of how the Republicans won the US election by funding the bejeezus out of it: “This imbalance when it comes to online influence is no accident. It is the result of massive structural disadvantages in funding, promotion, and institutional support. And understanding why Democrats can't (or really won't) cultivate an equivalent independent media ecosystem that rivals what the right has built is crucial for anyone who hopes to ever see the Democrats back into power.” 

How To Build a Sustainable Workflow for Story Formats (7-minute read)
Our own Matt Locke brings us part 5 of a 6-part series on how to find your story. Particularly relevant for B2B brands looking to mine the mountain of stories they are likely sitting on, this series is also useful for anyone who wants to know about the practicalities of making a series of stories work as a brand: “When we talk to clients who have tried and not succeeded with setting up their own podcast or editorial series, it’s never because they didn’t have great stories to tell - it’s because they didn’t develop and maintain a sustainable workflow.”

Getting Comfortable With Complexity: Jody Osman of Propeller Group on the B2B buying process (8-minute watch)
Part of LinkedIn’s On The Road series, Jody Osman, Chief Growth Officer at Propeller Group talks about the complexity of the B2B buying process in this video: “I think the key thing is having communication that’s relevant to each different stakeholder. It’s important to be on all of their radars early doors, rather than being an afterthought when it comes to the sign-off process.”

Title Drops (website)
Dominikus Baur and Alice Thudt have done a large-scale analysis of title drops: when a character in a movie says the title of the movie they’re in. It’s a “large-scale analysis of 73,921 movies from the last 80 years on how often, when and maybe even why that happens.”

Kareem Rahma’s American Dream (11-minute read)
Interesting profile of Kareem Rahma, the creator and host of Instagram format ‘Subway Takes’, TikTok format ‘Keep the Meter Running’, as well as YouTube format ‘The Last Stop’: “In 90 seconds or less, “Subway Takes” (and, to an even greater degree, its half-hour YouTube spinoff, “The Last Stop”) routinely captures something that the average cry for attention on the internet never does — an actual human being mapping the nonsensical course of a train of thought.'“

A Pretty Girl, A Novel with Voices, a Ring-Tailed Lemur (4-minute read)
Yes this link sounds like the title of a newsletter, rather than an individual link, but let me explain: it reminds me of a format that became one of our most popular when we were publishing How We Get To Next a few years ago - the reading list. The origin of that format was in the interesting links that the editorial team found while putting together each month’s articles. This is a version of that, where the Paris Review staff ‘comb through dozens of soon-to-be-published books, for ideas and good writing for the Review’s site. Often, we’re struck by particular paragraphs or sentences from the galleys that stack up on our desks and spill over onto our shelves. We often share them with each other on Slack, and we thought, for a change, that we might share them with you.’

The Final Flight of the Airline Magazine (13-minute read)
United Airlines’ in-flight magazine goes digital, marking the end of an era. This is a beautiful long read on the memories of making in-flight magazines like Hemispheres, in this case for 32 long years, but it is sad too: most of the archives have gone.

Marcelo & Karolina, the Fastest Names in the NYC Marathon (4-minute read)
A bit of levity in a very politically heavy week, this is an analysis by Joe Hovde of the results of the NYC marathon, which includes data on participants’ age, gender and city of origin.

The Onion’s Magical Election Touchscreen Provides Unique Insights (3-minute watch)
The US election is over, but however it is you are feeling, do watch this and it’ll give you the laugh you’ve been looking for!

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That’s it for this week! We hope you enjoyed our curation of stories. Ask everyone you know to subscribe - we’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading. Till next week!

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the rest of Team Storythings