Hey all,

Join us for Proper Fancy, next Thursday at 1PM (BST). I’ll be joined on co-hosting duties by journalist and strategic communicator Roxanne Escobales. Proper Fancy is a team show and tell that we open to everyone. It’s an hour of us all sharing the things that have tickled our fancy this month. If you’ve never joined us make this one your first. You’ll love it!

Episode 2 of our new podcast is out this week. Phoenixed tells the story of the Canadian Payroll scandal that left tens of thousands of government workers underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all. It’s been going on for years with devastating consequences for many. If you are interested in stories like the Post Office scandal you’ll love this.

OK. The Friday night curry is calling me. The weekend has officially started. Enjoy the stories and have a great weekend.

Hugh

The Tulsa Race Massacre (interactive story)

The Code: A Dove Film on Keeping Beauty Real (1-min watch)

How Your Generative AI Tools Work (interactive explainer)

The Tyranny of Content Algorithms (4-min read)

The Cloud Under The Sea (interactive story)

Campaign Spells Out the Reality of the Sewage Campaign (2-min read)

My Life With Long Covid (interactive)

Jigsaws, LA Public Library and Life One Piece at a Time (1-min watch)

Two Kinds of Attention: Narrow and Wide (4-min read)

McSweeney’s: My Comments Are in the Google Doc Linked in the Dropbox I Sent in the Slack (3-min read)

Minds and Machines: A comic series for NestaIn this comic series we produced for Nesta, we told three stories that aimed to inspire and provoke a wider debate about how we can best design and deploy hybrid human and machine intelligence to solve problems.

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 don’t know what to do” – 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 something making” – You know what you want to make but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation and newsletter.We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

The Tulsa Race Massacre (interactive story)We’re currently working on an interactive story explainer. Whenever we start projects like this we go to our collection of the best in class and unpack them to get to the heart of the magic. It occurred to me that I should share these more often as inspiration for anyone else thinking of doing explainers or interactive stories. So today I’ve included some older, but no less wonderful, interactives and explainers throughout the newsletter, kicking off with this incredible piece of storytelling.

The Code: A Dove Film on Keeping Beauty Real (1-min watch)I really like this short film on the impact of AI on beauty. Twenty years ago, Dove made a stand in challenging false beauty standards. Today it is renewing its vows to champion real beauty, with a commitment to never use AI to create or distort women’s images.

How Your Generative AI Tools Work (interactive explainer)I may have shared this when it was first published last year, but whilst I’m sharing explainers and interactive stories, this is one of the best. It shows in the most brilliant way how large language models like ChatGPT work. It’s incredible smart, clear and useful for anyone who want to understand how the LLMs are making the decisions they do.

The Tyranny of Content Algorithms (4-min read)A good read from Om Malik on how the algorithmic regression to the meme has got a grip on many of the creators he used to follow and what separates them from the ones he still does: “I compare these algorithm-driven content producers to genuine creatives—those who have earned my subscription, notifications, and even clicks on their sponsored links. Why? Because they produce thoughtful, well-crafted, and authentic video narratives that inform, educate, and, most importantly, stimulate my mind.”

The Cloud Under the Sea (interactive story)I frequently freak out family and friends when I explain to them how the internet is carried around the world by hundreds and thousands of miles of cable that sit at the bottom of the ocean. We rely on these cables for our banking, our TikToks, and most other things we do on the internet hundreds of times a day. But what happens when these fragile wires break, which they do constantly. This interactive tells the story of what and who keep one of the world’s most important infrastructures working.

Campaign Spells Out the Reality of the Sewage Campaign (2-min read) Sometimes the message doesn’t get through so you need to spell it out. AMV BBDO’s campaign for COPI shines a light on sewage spills in UK waterways with the help of a faecal-inspired font. Pretty disgusting to look at, even worse to swim in.

My Life With Long Covid (interactive)Giorgia Lupi has lived with Long Covid for over 3 years and recounts her experience in this interactive essay from the NYT.

Jigsaws, LA Public Library and Life One Piece at a Time (1-min watch)A gorgeous short video about Ramon who has donated more jigsaw puzzles to LA Public Library than he can remember.

Two Kinds of Attention: Narrow and Wide (4-min read)Austin Kleon on why watching the eclipse was a letdown and how it made him think about different kinds of attention – narrow and wide attention – with links to other interesting articles on attention: “McGilchrist says we have to have both kinds of attention in our lives — the problem is when one kind of attention starts to dominate the other. His theory is that we’ve become a culture that is predominately skewered towards the left hemisphere’s way of paying attention and this way of paying attention is changing the world, mostly for the worse.”

McSweeney’s: My Comments Are in the Google Doc Linked in the Dropbox I Sent in the Slack (3-min read)"Once you find a link, you’ll download the 17 GB PowerPoint file, which is password-protected. You’ll need the password from our company password document. This should be in the shared Z:// drive that was set up in 2002, and to open the Excel sheet, you’ll need to make sure your computer is running on Windows 98. From there, you’ll use the password to open the company’s orientation PowerPoint and find the link to the main Dropbox folder. The Dropbox contains all the links to the Box folders, which contain all the links to the Google Drive folders, which nobody can see, hear, or touch. This is where things get tricky.”

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.