How to Find and Tell Great Stories (and Why Greatness Matters)

Too often in storytelling--especially scientific storytelling--writers present case studies instead of stories, to the detriment of patients and readers. So how do we eschew mediocrity, find truly amazing stories, and give our subjects' stories the power and respect they deserve? Former This American Life producer and Emmy winning journalist Stephanie Foo teaches you how to tell stories that sing -- and make an impact.

Radio journalist and producer Stephanie Foo has worked for Snap Judgment and This American Life.  Foo taught high school journalism after college, and began listening to This American Life and Radiolab. She eventually decided to try her hand at it, hitchhiking to a pornography convention in search of a story and ultimately starting a podcast called Get Me On This American Life. Another early audio project was a music podcast called Stagedive, where Foo succeeded in reaching a young demographic. Foo was an intern then a producer at Glynn Washington’s Snap Judgment, based in Oakland, then moved to This American Life. In addition to producer roles at Snap Judgment and This American Life, Foo has also contributed to Reply All and 99% Invisible. She’s drawn notice for work on topics ranging from Japanese reality television (a piece Flavorwire named to its list of the 20 best episodes in This American Life’s 20-year history) to race and online dating; The New York Observer praised the latter piece as one of Reply All’s “most provocative episodes.” In 2015, Foo launched her own podcast called Pilot, with each installment to serve as a pilot episode for a different genre of podcast. CBC’s Lindsay Michael named Pilot to a 2016 list of five best recent podcasts, saying Foo has “created her own playground…A place where she can try things out and see how they go.” 

This event is part of The Examined Life Conference, but is open to the public.