Hello!

We’re officially in the middle of August - where did the last few weeks go?

Today is India’s 79th Independence Day, so the country has the day off. I’ve been listening to the distant sound of drums from a nearby school for the last couple of days, as children practice for what I remember was always a big event in the school calendar growing up.

We’re having really interesting conversations with some potential clients, many of whom are faithful subscribers to our Attention Matters newsletter by Matt that focuses on the B2B content publishing cycle. If that is related to your work and you haven’t subscribed yet, please do. Even better, please spread the word!

On to the links then, that’s what we’re all here for! 😄 

Anjali

Music Discovery Is Broken, Can It Be Fixed? (8-min read)

The Killing Code: Strange Symbols in Western Australia Settlers’ Diaries Lay Bare Frontier Atrocities (26-min read)

Educating Yorkshire: Official Trailer (3-min video)

A Glossary For Artificial Intelligence (2-min read)

The Future Of Media Is A Bank (15-min read)

Criterion Closet: Danny Boyle’s Closet Picks (5-min watch)

It’s 2025. Is It Still Worth Launching A Newsletter? (14-min read)

Noah Brier: Things I Think About AI (4-min read)

How WeTransfer Succeeded Where Many Brands Didn’t (4-min read with lots of images)

Silicon Doodles and Microchip Art (2-min read)

Don’t become a B2B zombie. STAY HUMAN.

Storythings is the content marketing agency that helps you STAY HUMAN in a sea of marketing slop. If you think you’re at risk of becoming a B2B zombie, we’ve got the antidote. Click the button below for your free guide.

Music Discovery Is Broken, Can It Be Fixed? (8-min read)
One of our resident die-hard musical talents, Chris Mitchell, recommended this piece from the Drowned in Sound newsletter by Sean Adams about how music discovery has changed through the years, and what we can do to make it better for artists and all of us as listeners. Clue - the rest of media has a role: “Media, in all its forms, is a key part of our need to connect, human to human, and find communities of music fans both locally and globally online….If magazines don't have their vinyl moment, I'll eat my vintage edition of Beastie Boys Grand Royal magazine.”

The Killing Code: Strange Symbols in Western Australia Settlers’ Diaries Lay Bare Frontier Atrocities (26-min read)
This is a long read, but a hugely important and technically well-built one. It is worth reading for two reasons: you’ll learn a lot about history and colonialism, but the mysterious code that was used to obscure the intent of the colonisers that is revealed as you scroll through and toggle the code buttons make it all feel much more weighty than it otherwise might have as a more simple read.

Educating Yorkshire: Official Trailer (3-min video)
Pretty much the whole of Storythings loved this new trailer for Channel 4 show Educating Yorkshire’s latest season. Created by their in-house agency 4Creative and directed by Dougal Wilson, who also filmed Paddington in Peru and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games video We’re the Superhumans, it features actual students of Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the school where Educating Yorkshire is filmed. It’s also a one-take film, a filming technique used in the acclaimed Adolescence on Netflix recently. Here’s more about the trailer.

A Glossary For Artificial Intelligence (2-min read)
You can get a preview of the full glossary in this newsletter post by Sean Monahan in 8Ball (the full post is for paid subscribers). I think glossaries are great, and more so when it gives us the background on words and phrases that are used almost unblinkingly these days. We all need a reminder, or lesson.

The Future Of Media Is A Bank (15-min read)
Brilliant read on the future of media, attention and financial transactions. Daisy Alioto, the co-founder and CEO of Dirt Media, argues that spontaneous payments are the future of subscriptions: “Rather than subscribe to media at a set rate, users will curate their information diet through a fleet of autonomous AI agents trained on their taste and empowered to tip for it.” There is loads to think about by the time you get to the end.

Criterion Closet: Danny Boyle’s Closet Picks (5-min watch)
This is a brilliant format and has been for ages of course. But director Danny Boyle is one of the best of their recent features - so much to learn from. I came across this episode of the Criterion Closet via Robin Sloan’s newsletter, which I highly recommend; he does a mini-unpacking of this format that I also loved: “Let’s think about the format that is the Criterion closet: 1. Makes people look smarter, rather than dumber; 2. invites them to praise other artists, other work; and 3. demonstrates the way in which praise is reflected back upon the giver, a positive-sum game, with no limit to the size of the pie." ❤️ If you like this, you might also like Formats Unpacked.

It’s 2025. Is It Still Worth Launching A Newsletter? (14-min read)
Dan Oshinsky is one of the best thinkers out there on email newsletters, and in this piece he answers a question that many people have likely been thinking about. The TL;DR answer to the question is that it absolutely is worth it to still launch a newsletter, but the longer answer here is worth reading because he unpacks the complexity of this modern form of marketing.

Noah Brier: Things I Think About AI (4-min read)
Friend of Storythings Noah Brier has been making things on the internet for a long, long time. When AI/LLM’s made their appearance, it was no surprise that Noah started using them to tinker and think and make. Here he reflects on some things he’s come to believe about AI over the last few years. Not sure which one of his 29 points is the best, to be honest - they’re all good!

How WeTransfer Succeeded Where Many Brands Didn’t (4-min read with lots of images)
A look at the lessons WeTransfer applied to their engagement with creatives, by journalist-turned-brand strategist Andreas Tzortzis, who co-authored the book this article refers to with Damian Bradfield, WeTransfer’s CCO. An excerpt: “The weakness of many brand and creator collaborations,” he says, “is their focus on the short term – the next campaign, the next product launch. And both sides suffer. WeTransfer showed the merits of thinking of the relationship not as a transaction, but (hopefully) the beginning of a friendship.” We often say this to clients: the campaign way of thinking no longer cuts it in the modern media world, where everything jostles for the audience’s attention.

Silicon Doodles and Microchip Art (2-min read)
From the always dependable Kottke, a lovely collection of microchip art that chronicles how, in the early days of microchip manufacturing, designers would add tiny doodles to them, just for fun. And with that, have a lovely weekend!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading all the way till the end. Some trivia as a small reward: August 15th 1620 is when the Mayflower left Southampton, England, with 102 pilgrims on board, August 15th 1939 is when the original Wizard of Oz film premiered in Hollywood, and on August 15th 1969, Woodstock opened on a dairy farm, with a line-up featuring Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez amongst others.

Take some well-earned rest!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh and the rest of Team Storythings