Ahoy there - happy Friday!

I am working from India so I can spend some time with family for the summer, and last week in my perusing of the internet clicked a link that took me to TikTok. And I was suddenly served a message that reminded me that TikTok is not accessible in this country. Sometimes you forget how acutely access to media platforms shape what you can see. So, there are no TikTok influencers here, but Instagram influencers? That’s another story. I can’t go on the roads without seeing someone posing and getting their photo taken by a mate. And don’t even get me started on WhatsApp University and the stronghold that platform has across generations here - including my parents!

If you see this today, work in social justice fields, and haven’t yet shared or had the chance to fill in our survey for our latest project, please do so by the end of the day (August 1st), before the survey closes. We’d be most grateful.

Enjoy today’s links - and have a great start to August!

Anjali

Thank You For Your Interest in Astronomer (1-min video)

Interview with Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton: On True Crime & The Creative Process (8-min read)

The Quintessential Urban Design of ‘Sesame Street’ (12-min read)

NFTS and YouTube Power Up The Next Generation of Digital Creators (4-min read)

Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes (Online Course)

Nick Cave Changes His Mind About AI (3-min read and 7-min video)

YouTube Is The Number One Media Destination For Under-35s In The UK (OFCOM Media Nations report)

Three-Minute Heroes: TikTok Made Songs Shrink But Artists Are Pushing Back (Data scrollytelling piece)

Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests In ‘Netflix of AI’ Fable, Which Launches Showrunner, A Tool For User-Directed TV Shows (6-min read)

I Saved A PNG Image To A Bird (30-min video)

Don’t become a B2B zombie. STAY HUMAN.

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Thank You For Your Interest in Astronomer (1-min video)
So you’ll need to know the context if you somehow haven’t got that info already: that tech company Astronomer’s CEO was caught on camera with their HR Head at a Coldplay concert. The company then got Gwyneth Paltrow to feature in a PR video as a response, which lit up the internet. Top marks, because now everyone knows what a previously completely unknown company actually does, and getting Chris Martin’s ex-wife to front the video was a true PR coup!

Interview with Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton: On True Crime & The Creative Process (8-min read)
Friend of Storythings Matt Klein (whose Zine newsletter is great), interviews filmmaker Charlie Shackleton, about his movie Zodiac Killer Project. The film has screened at SXSW 2025 and has won an award at Sundance. Shackleton reflects on the popularity of true crime and media feedback loops, amongst other things. I like what he says about the true crime genre today: “What's interesting, and quite canny, is that the genre has successfully consumed its own critique. Every true crime show now has a section about the ethics of true crime, or a reflexive gesture back to the audience and their motivations.”

The Quintessential Urban Design of ‘Sesame Street’ (12-min read)
Such a nostalgic and lovely read about a show I certainly loved as a child, as did many of you (I say with certainty): Sesame Street. It’s particularly important as the current American administration announced plans earlier this year to cut all federal funding for PBS, which is home to the show, and millions in funding for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind the show. Read about how the show has come to mean so much, even as it has shifted how it showcases New York through the years.

NFTS and YouTube Power Up The Next Generation of Digital Creators (4-min read)
A new 12-month diploma course in the UK aimed at content creators is open for applications. The National Film & Television School and YouTube have partnered on Creator Incubator, a course ‘for creators, by creators’. Applications are open till October 2025, the course will be completely free for the selected 12 participants, and the course will start in January 2026. Share it with your influencer, micro-influencer, and wannabe influencer buddies!

Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes (Online Course)
This is a masterclass in creativity. The New Zealand Herpes Foundation invites you to learn more about herpes by doing the Herpes Destigmatisation Course, because it is ‘officially the best place in the world to have herpes’. If that sounds bizarre, you’ll just have to click through and see what I mean.

Nick Cave Changes His Mind About AI (3-min read and 7-min video)
OK yes, this is about AI, but also, it’s about Nick Cave, and how someone who is so anti-AI sees a video of his Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song ‘Tupelo’ rendered by his friend, filmmaker Andrew Dominik, entirely in AI - and is moved enough to ask the question ‘Is changing your mind about things a sign of weakness?’. He also answers that question, but I highly recommend you watch the video first.

YouTube Is The Number One Media Destination For Under-35s In The UK (OFCOM Media Nations report)
OFCOM have released their annual report, and there are a lot of stats that will be of interest if you work in the media in any way. Key findings include that Gen Alpha go straight to YouTube when they turn on the TV, over-55s are watching nearly double the amount of YouTube compared to last year, and ‘less than a quarter of 16-24s’ in-home video viewing is now to broadcaster content, versus 90% for those aged 75 and over.’

Three-Minute Heroes: TikTok Made Songs Shrink But Artists Are Pushing Back (Data scrollytelling piece)
Hugh shared this on our Slack channel earlier this week, but I only went through it today, and I love it! The use of data has lifted this otherwise staid piece into a lovely piece of storytelling chronicling how songs used to be much longer, but TikTok in particular pushed people’s musical attention span to be reduced. Many years later, we are seeing a rise in song lengths again. Lots of interesting trivia along the way, such as the growth of ‘recession pop’ during periods of economic turbulence. Related to the subject is this new report from Canva about how data storytelling redefines communication (though the BBC piece didn’t use Canva).

Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests In ‘Netflix of AI’ Fable, Which Launches Showrunner, A Tool For User-Directed TV Shows (6-min read)
I heard about this and thought ‘surely you can’t have fully-fledged TV shows being made by AI already’. Turns out I was both right and wrong. You can, when humans partner with AI of course. Showrunner is a tool which allows creators to write, direct and produce animated TV shows powered by simulations built by the startup Fable. The creators watch and make the episodes by gathering on Discord.

I Saved A PNG Image To A Bird (30-min video)
No comment. Other than: the comments to this video are also remarkable in their own right!

That’s it for this week! If you thought there would be no mention of AI in this week’s newsletter, you were wrong, but aren’t you glad you were?!

And thanks for your compliments about this newsletter - do share it with colleagues, peers, business partners, and your frenemies. While you’re here, tell us about an ad you’ve seen recently that really pissed you off - it was our Storythings team question this week!

Till next Friday!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh and the rest of Team Storythings