Soundings
Soundings is the sandbox for all student work from the Stanford Storytelling Project (SSP). SSP is an arts program at Stanford University that explores how we live in and through stories and how we can use them to change our lives. Our mission is to promote the transformative nature of traditional and modern oral storytelling, from Lakota tales to Radiolab, and empower students to create and perform their own stories. The project sponsors courses, workshops, live events, and grants, along with its radio show State of the Human.
Listen on:
Episodes
Saturday Apr 19, 2025
Saturday Apr 19, 2025
Sound Stories is a Stanford class for students interested in creating audio stories for radio, podcast, and other forms of sonic narrative. Students examine the craft elements of the audio form, popularized by programs such as This American Life, Radiolab, and Serial including skills for interviewing, scoring, and audio editing, and then work in small groups to create and produce a 10-15 minute narrative podcast episode. Here's what the students from the 2025 class had to say about the experience.
The 2025 Sound Stories class was taught by Laura Joyce Davis.
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
In this episode, Nathan, Ana, and Nia explore the importance of sustainable food practices, and how alternative, truly healthy food practices are not necessarily the most commercially produced and advertised ones. The episode aims to broaden the horizon of viewing food practices in a context beyond just your own plate.
This episode was produced by Nathan Elias, Ana Nguyen, and Nia Patton, with support from Laura Joyce Davis and the Stanford Storytelling Project's course "Stories to Save Our Planet."
Complete show notes at storytelling.stanford.edu.
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
A story of the rise of electric vehicles and their promise to make a more sustainable planet. Yet this promise has proven to be detrimental to the quality of life for the people in the Congo. Sustainability Paradox pulls back the curtain on the realities of the electric car industry, and the promising solutions that might offer real, meaningful change.
Produced by Sydney Davis and Jana Gomri with support from Laura Joyce Davis and the Stories to Save Our Planet class, a part of the Stanford Storytelling Project.
Asu Kulu - Undergraduate Congolese Student at Stanford, Anonymous Congolese Miners via Friends of the Congo https://friendsofthecongo.org/ Links to an external site.
Link to References https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GcK2hsyt8L_VyogsNTaPxsf5AgtizYzm1F9uJHLYzxM/edit?usp=sharing Links to an external site.
All music by Blue Dot Sessions
Saturday Apr 06, 2024
Saturday Apr 06, 2024
What can you expect from Sound Stories? The 2024 class weighs in.
Taught by Laura Joyce Davis through the Stanford Storytelling Project, this hands-on, workshop-oriented course is designed to teach you the fundamentals of podcast storytelling. Class work will include pitching, interviewing, scriptwriting, narration, audio editing, and sound design. You’ll learn time-honored principles for strong storytelling in any medium, as well as strategies specific to storytelling in sound. Though we focus on audio stories, the craft skills you learn here are transferable to making stories for any medium, from print and performance to film and games. By the end of the course, you will have crafted both a narrative essay and a 10-minute podcast episode that entertains, challenges, and moves your audience. All fully produced student pieces will be published in the Stanford Storytelling Project Soundings podcast.
Course info: https://shorturl.at/eLOR0