NOTE: The schedule is subject to change. Participants will be notified in advance.
SATURDAY, MAR. 22
Registration & Welcome Coffee
KEYNOTES
Lessons from a Life of Stories
A journalist built a career and life defined by the stories she found, witnessed and shared. Now, after 50 years and 5,000-plus bylines, she revisits a question that grows more urgent: Do we — or how do we — as storytellers make a difference? Jacqui draws on moments, both professional and personal — and with a nod to Frozen II — that have offered the same wisdom no matter the challenge: We must do the next right thing.
Breaking the Spell of High Conflict
Amanda Ripley is a veteran journalist and New York Times bestselling author who built her career on facts, argument and investigative reporting. Then those tactics stopped working. In a polarized and divided America, she and her fellow journalists were frequently making conflicts worse — or having no impact at all. Was there another option? Ripley will share what she has learned from years of following conflict survivors and experimenting with new, creative ways to cover our most painful divides.
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KEYNOTES
Jacopo Ottaviani & Piero Zagami
Human Connection Through Data: A Designer-Journalist Journey
What happens when a graphic designer and a data journalist meet in Beirut and decide to join forces? Through their collaboration from Code for Africa to global projects, this duo has been turning complex data into visual stories that people actually connect with. By sharing stories from their work across continents, they'll demonstrate how data can break down barriers and build understanding — even in today's AI-driven world. Because while technology evolves, there's still something magical about creating visuals with purpose and heart.
How Books (Still) Bind
While mainstream media laments the decline of reading and the fading influence of written stories, a parallel current suggests we may be underestimating the power of books to both connect and disrupt the status quo, even in today’s tech-driven era. Politicians worldwide are increasingly targeting books as instruments of dissent. Stories that challenge established norms are quick to provoke strong reactions, even in areas where official statistics indicate a lack of interest in reading. Drawing on her experience as a reader and bookish content creator in Romania, along with scientific research and touching stories from her community, Ruxandra will inspire you to (re)connect with books outside your comfort zone–and to empower others in discovering their transformative power.
LUNCH BREAK
KEYNOTES
Persuasion at Scale
How did we arrive at a world where the same mathematical principles hold such power in shaping our professional, personal, and political realities? In this session, Chris Wiggins, Professor at Columbia and Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times, unpacks the history and technology behind persuasion architectures — the systems that scale influence in the age of big data and AI. Kranzberg's first law of technology states that technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral. Chris will guide us through the history and reality of how we can use these technologies responsibly, maintaining alignment between what we value and what we create.
Photography and Time
Embarking on a project that lasted more than 4 years Laura visited various parts of Romania to explore her fascination with time and a burning feeling it was running out. On this quest, she worked with Andrei Nacu, who assisted her. After long drives and many reflective conversations, he brought a tale to her attention that acted as the foundation for her project. This inspired her to embark on an entirely new approach to making pictures. Youth Without Age, Life Without Death by Petre Ispirescu shapes this adventure. Here she reveals how she struggled to enter a new culture where she felt the frustrations of language barriers and her lack of experience in Romania. Greeted with kindness, patience, and tolerance she fell more deeply in love with Romania and the people she met. This project quickly became more than just an artistic endeavor but a huge milestone in how she wanted to approach image-making.
Did Podcasting Kill the Storytelling Star?
Over the past ten years, podcasting has erupted into a worldwide phenomenon, resulting in vast amounts of content and transforming the ways we tell stories. It inspired a rush of interest in narrative journalism and turned obscure public radio producers into stars. It was great… while it lasted. These days (at least in the U.S.), journalists and storytellers seeking to tell deeply-reported, time-intensive stories struggle to find funding and platforms. Some of the best talent has been laid off. In its place, the most powerful podcasting companies are gobbling up celebrity chat shows, mass-producing “true crime,” and ironically, pivoting to video. What’s a narrative journalist to do? Alison has spent the past 25 years working in audio, and in this talk, she sorts through the rubble — in search of a hopeful vision for audio storytelling.
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Documentary Screening
TATA
Directed by Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc
TATA weaves the intimate story of a father-daughter relationship into a larger societal and political context: tackling themes like domestic abuse, mental health, generational trauma, and healing through love and reconciliation.
CLOSING DRINKS
SUNDAY, Mar. 23
Registration & Welcome Coffee
KEYNOTES
The Personal Is Always Political
Following the screening of TATA, an awarded documentary, this talk explores a central pillar of the co-directors storytelling approach: empathy. Empathy is more than an emotional response — it is a deliberate tool to navigate polarizing mainstream narratives. The documentary invites audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about human nature, reframing these struggles within a broader societal context. In a shifting moral landscape, empathy is not only a tool for understanding but also a revolutionary act — a way to subvert the status quo and envision a more compassionate, equitable future.
Writing and Resilience in the Global Community
James Baldwin wrote that the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. Rachel very much felt this as a teenager. She writes of how she had no hope, no vision of a future, no idea of how to build a life in which one has something to lose. Writing through trauma, forgiveness, understanding is not easy, but she found a path through traveling, through writing and through hearing the stories of other people who, like her, had found hope and resilience in others. Slowly, she began to understand the transformative power of storytelling, and how writing could be a tool for connection and healing. We’ll explore how writing gives voice to unspeakable pain, creates communal understanding, “terrible things” into pathways for freedom. As she puts it, “hope requires action, movement,” and community. Her own story will inspire our audience to make telling their story the action they should take.
Healing the Space Between Us
We are raised to think within an individual paradigm because it gives us a greater sense of control. We have the illusion that if we do this, no one and nothing will hurt us. The times we live in are also a consequence of this way of viewing existence, and here we are, in this period of humanity, experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. Knowing ourselves is essential, but it is by no means sufficient. Each of us comes from a system and lives within a system. The relational paradigm tells us that it is not enough to take care of ourselves to be well; we must also take care of one another to be well together. Living in solitude (physically and/or emotionally) is not an option for sustaining well-being; rather, it is a path to suffering. A first step towards achieving well-being is to start by accepting that we will get to know ourselves better through interaction with others, and our relationships represent the leverage to attain physical and emotional health. However, for this, we need to start from the premise that every story makes sense, even if at this moment, we cannot decipher it.
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KEYNOTES
You Should Be Listening
In this session, Kate, the author of the acclaimed book You’re Not Listening, will be in conversation with Jennifer Brandel. At work, we’re taught to lead the conversation, Kate writes. On social media, we shape our personal narratives. At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians. But we’re not listening. And it seems no one is listening to us. Why does listening matter more than ever in our seemingly disconnected world, and how can we do it better?
LUNCH BREAK
KEYNOTES
Common/Wealth: Theater as a Manifesto for Hope
Join Common/Wealth’s Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director Rhiannon White as she shares her personal story of being from a council estate in Cardiff, where she was told her story wasn’t good enough, to co-founding Common/ Wealth, an award-winning political theater company. Rhiannon will reflect on her experiences of being from a working-class background in an elite industry whilst staying true to the idea that theater should be for everyone. Common/ Wealth reimagines what theater can be, where it can be and who it can be for. Its approach is political, raw and deeply human: putting connection, community and social change at the forefront.
Storyworlds Under Conditions of Incomprehension
A discussion of the concept of a storyworld – a term that emerges from the discipline of cognitive narratology to talk about an internal mental model of how the universe works… whether that universe is fictional, ideological, theological, or “real”. Arkady will discuss how cognitive narratology, and specifically storyworld-thinking, has shaped her work as a science fiction writer, a historian, and a climate policy advocate. She’ll then turn to “conditions of incomprehension” — the sometimes-apocalyptic collision of mutually incompatible storyworlds — and how she approached the problem, both in her Teixcalaan novels and her work in energy and climate policy.
What Would We Invent if Journalism Didn’t Exist?
The journalism industry is facing an existential crisis largely of its own making. That’s a failure of storytelling, a failure of “the news” to accurately reflect and represent the world, to capture all of its beautiful complexity and uncertainty. So what would the world look like if we could reinvent informational storytelling? What if it prioritized connection, collaboration and care, and inspired collective action to address the global polycrisis? Reflecting on his own life and career, journalist, researcher and community organiser Shirish Kulkarni will share a new blueprint for journalism, that goes beyond the status quo and helps us deliver the future we all need and deserve.
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KEYNOTES - CLOSING
Legs, Hearts, Minds
I was always a fan of soccer, the game, the universe; I wasn’t a fan of a team. After my divorce in 2016, I needed somewhere for my love to go. Burnley, the side my grandfather and my mum supported, had just been promoted to the Premier League. Following the lead of my Liverpool-mad son, I began following them. Over the next several years, I grew increasingly tied to the team, the Clarets becoming something like an obsession, my principal way to forget. That was until 2023, when my mum fell sick. Her cancer journey was harrowing, but it also had its lessons. After she died in 2024, I realized that Burnley were no longer how I’d forget. Our obsessions don’t have to be distractions; they can lead to important, profound connections, even to people who are no longer here. Now, Burnley are how I remember.
Jennifer Brandel & Mara Zepeda
Who Can You Be When You Are with Me?
Join longtime collaborators Jenn and Mara as they weave together a decade of insights about human connection, creativity, and relationship-building. Join this interactive presentation and social practice experiment led by Jenn and Mara. We’ll touch on the themes of relationships, connection, and lessons learned from working,creating and collaborating together for a decade. The presentation will name current societal challenges we’re collectively feeling, and that often transcend language. Then, we’ll explore as a group simple, accessible practices that amplify power of authentic connection, life-giving friendship, intergenerational wisdom sharing, and more-than-human relationships. Let’s co-generate and dance to a new beat of our own creation!
