An Iterative Cycle

At the Story Lab, we merge narrative traditions with research and impact. Our stories are designed to inspire meaningful change, backed by data. It's about more than simply conveying information or entertaining audiences, it's about making progress that benefits society and provides for a thriving and sustainable future.

Impact storytelling doesn't stop at project completion. We work to place the content in front of the right audiences, evaluate its impact and bring that experience back to the Lab for informing narrative experimentation on the next project. This continuous evolution ensures that we're always on the leading edge of science communications, focusing on narrative that gets results.

What is Impact Storytelling?

Impact Storytelling isn't marketing and promotion. Like journalism, it's willing to wade into controversy and nuance and employ narrative tools to explore the world in all its complexity. 

But unlike journalism, impact storytelling does have an agenda. It aims to point society toward big solutions based on the best available facts and data, and to move audiences toward action. It builds emotional connections to real people experiencing real situations, and it builds upon our university's historic land-grant mission of serving the public through engagement with research and scholarship. 

In impact storytelling, audiences aren't passive observers...they're empowered to become part of the answer to the biggest questions our society faces, armed with rigorously acquired knowledge that gives them agency and the opportunity to join our mission to help fuel a thriving world.