The Story Art & Science
Creative and cerebral theories on storytelling, from neuroscience to Nabokov.
- Latest post
- 28 Feb 2023
- Article Count
- 18

Why doctors are turning to fiction to heal their patients—and themselves
In hospitals across the world, doctors are putting down their scalpels and picking up novels to better understand the sick.
28/02/23

Did A.I. just become a better storyteller than you?
ChatGPT can write you a poem, an essay, or a Cormac McCarthy novel about a frog on a bicycle. Is this the end of human storytelling as we know it?
18/12/22

How to bring down a government using numbers
Reporters tend to prefer words. But as award-winning data journalist Jack Kerr explains, sometimes a simple spreadsheet and a graph are all you need to make headlines.
21/11/22

Would your dream like fries with that? How marketers are coming for your dreams
Advertisers want to insert commercials into your dreams. And according to this group of scientists, they're pretty close to having the tech to do it.
08/09/22

Kurt Vonnegut graphed the world’s most popular stories. Do his diagrams tell us something important about humanity?
The Slaughterhouse-Five author believed there were just eight different story 'shapes'—and that they might be of interest to anthropologists. The anthropologists thought otherwise. But why?
08/09/22

Where writers write: photos of famous writers’ writing rooms
Warning: may cause decor envy.
30/06/22

How Andrew Mueller pulled off one of the most interesting careers in journalism
The rock critic-turned-foreign correspondent reflects on a wild career—and shares his tips for those just starting out.
30/06/22

Listen to this 238-hour playlist of every song Murakami has ever written about
Three thousand songs. One very dedicated Spotify user.
01/05/22

Writing behind bars: browse 220 years' worth of prison newspapers
It may not be your standard summer reading. But this collection of prison newspapers from 1800-2020 offers a compelling insight into human creativity.
30/04/22

Margaret Atwood on storytelling as a tool of tyrants
Long before Putin convinced Russians he needed to liberate Ukraine of Nazis, author Margaret Atwood was observing how the powerful used stories as a tool to oppress.
18/04/22

12 steps for making “iconic” TV shows, according to noted storytelling genius Jeff Bezos
The bazillionaire once listed a dozen storytelling elements every Amazon TV show had to include. They say more about our obsession with rules than they do about making good TV.
18/04/22

Why country songs are the tabloid journalism of music (and tabloid journalism is the country music of news)
They're often derided for their ‘so bad they’re good’ wordplay. But there’s a skill to crafting the perfect country song title—and journalists would do well to take note.
18/04/22

The 6 best podcasts that know how to tell a story
Proof there’s more to podcasting than Joe Rogan.
18/04/22

Battle of the brands: how today’s politicians are sold as products on a shelf
If Labor versus Liberal sometimes feels like Campbell’s Soup verus Heinz, that’s no accident.
01/04/22

The three secret language rules you obey without realising
Ever wondered why politicians flip-flop but never flop-flip? It’s just one of the obscure language rules you didn’t know you knew.
22/02/22

How to vaccinate an island, according to science
To build trust in COVID vaccines, the island of Jersey turned to behavioural scientist Steve J. Martin. His advice? Use language, not logic.
20/02/22

Four TED Talks that will make you a better storyteller
Got an internet connection? You got yourself a crash course in storytelling, care of these wisdom-imparting videos.
01/11/21

Sixty-nine pages of writing advice from Werner Herzog, Flannery O’Connor and more or less every other artist who’s ever put pen to paper
Here’s that inspiration you were looking for.
02/05/21