A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.
A toast is a mini-speech, a postcard version of a letter, a starter option of a full meal—but smaller doesn’t have to mean less impactful or even lack the structure needed to tell great stories which resonate. Learn more at How to Give a Toast by James Buckhouse (includes some superb tips on how to remember things as well) and what’s there can also be applied to most storytelling forms / mediums.
It’s hard to offer something new in a well-trodden medium although Bella Freud and her Fashion Neurosis video podcast does just that—each high-profile guest lays on the couch and stares into the intimately positioned camera above whilst conversing / prompted by the dulcet and warm tones of their host (the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud).
BONUS LINK: I created / produced something wholly unique in the video podcasting space for a few years and still accessible via Creative Welly.
If you convene humans to collaborate or facilitate learning in your organisation / company / vocation, then this will be of interest and of use—participants will explore through a set of immersive experiences how connection can be designed, nurtured and amplified.
“DK’s passion for sharing ways to bring people together creatively is palpable, and his skills of curating and weaving diverse elements into a cohesive package is evident. Loved this workshop – it really got the synapses firing! The ‘learning through doing’ format was really powerful for creating memories of the different gathering configurations that I find myself referring back to often. Cool reminder of how quickly humans form a connection when we create the space for it!” Freda Wells, founder of Goodlife Collective (host of the 1st ever fireside.rs workshop)
“DK has created something special with Fireside.rs, and it was a genuine joy to watch him transform a room of curious humans as he led them through different gathering shapes. He is a warm, charismatic facilitator, and his decades of experience are evident in the way he holds attention with both playfulness and purpose. What stood out most was his ability to hold the container with real safety and intentionality, while letting the experience become what it needed to based on the people in the room. A true masterclass in human connection!” Natasha Zimmerman, founder of Unchatter (host of 2nd workshop)
“DK held the room at our Te Uru Tāngata workshop with real skill and care. The session showed us, practically, how meeting format itself decides who gets a voice. Our people left with something they could take straight back into how they design their own spaces to host more inclusive conversations and more productive meetings.” Maretha Smit, Chief Executive of Te Uru Tāngata Centre for Workplace Inclusion (host of 3rd workshop)
“DK created an open and trusting environment that made it easy to engage and learn. The combination of innovative workshop formats, punctuated by insights from some very ‘clever humans’, sparked new ideas and challenged me to think differently about how we ‘gather’ people together. I left inspired, energised and with plenty of ideas.” Anisha Patel, Applied Research + Consulting Group, Steelcase Discovery Center, London (host of 4th workshop)
Hope to see you there, and if you haven’t signed up to receive the fireside.rs newsletter then please do, as I’m sharing monthly insights plus conversations with impressive souls who are also gathering humans in creative / productive ways, such as these latest two:
“What’s Viagra? What are Post-it notes? What is Slack? If you answered “a medically induced erection, little slips of paper you can stick onto surfaces, and a team communications platform” (or anything along those lines), sorry bud, you bombed the quiz. Viagra is actually a failed heart medication. Post-it notes are failed industrial adhesives. And Slack is a failed video game.” An Ode To Giving Up
“To the modern ear, illeism can sound a little silly or pompous – and we may even deride famous people who choose to talk in this way. Yet recent psychological research suggests that illeism can bring some real cognitive benefits. If we are trying to make a difficult decision, speaking about ourselves in the third person can help to neutralise the emotions that could lead our thinking astray, allowing us to find a wiser solution to our problem.” An ancient trick to think more wisely
“The mechanics are simple. A company packages the debt for chips, servers, and power into a separate legal entity, often a joint venture, so the cost never flows through its own accounts. Take Meta’s Hyperion data centre in Louisiana. Meta and Blue Owl Capital both put equity into a separate structure that took on $27 billion in debt. Meta is the sole tenant, yet argues it does not have to record that debt, because it is not the one who must find replacement tenants. Oracle has $260 billion of future lease commitments that will eventually land on its books. Nvidia carries $119 billion in purchase obligations. Alphabet and Microsoft keep their vehicles off-book too.” Big Tech is hiding $1.65tn in off-balance-sheet AI debt
“In psychology, cross-pollination disrupts a couple of common cognitive biases. You might notice how often you keep returning to the same assumptions. Psychologists call this familiarity bias. Familiarity bias, as its name implies, points to the fact that most of us choose what has become familiar. We take the same route to work. We solve problems the same way. Needless to say, if we don’t occasionally trip this wiring, we can miss key opportunities and limit our lives’ and works’ psychological richness.” To Think and Feel Better, We Need People Outside Our Usual Circle | Psychology Today
“From the emails, Brockovich built a map of significant AI datacentres in the US that are either operational or under construction, overlaid with locations where community members have emailed in concerns. This open-source document is chilling: as of 24 June, 33 AI datacenters have been completed and are operational, 68 are under construction and 41 are proposed. And there had been 7,005 reports submitted through the online form, which is to say, all that is known about them is what people have seen. As a post on her Substack blog is headlined: “If data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?”” ‘We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres | Energy | The Guardian
“The story spread around the world. The Irish Land Reform movement found new momentum. And Captain Charles Boycott achieved something few people ever do: his name became a verb.” History Doesn’t Use Cruise Control
Looking for ambitious souls to join the 2nd Presenting Wisdom cohort—registrations are open now!
Last month, the first showcase event featuring 2x professors, 2x founders, a national movement maker, a CTO of a national bank, a master experiential creator plus a seasoned CEO mentor, was held whereby their talks were recorded to an audience of peers (read / see 1st Presenting Wisdom Cohort Showcase Event Completed | The Day After).
The participants of the 1st Cohort of Presenting Wisdom received personalised speaker / story coaching and as a result of the event, have:
the full talk as an impactful speaker video reel,
1x 90sec sizzle-version & 3x 30sec versions (for the socials),
a professional gallery of photos of them in action from the showcase event.
Hopefully you’ll start to see these assets appear on their websites and social as they leverage the collateral for future opportunities to shine:
“Presenting Wisdom was a great opportunity to challenge myself, develop some existing skills, and learn some new ones. DK’s experience helped craft a compelling story and led me to understand how it could be presented on stage and screen. Ultimately, getting up there and doing it was empowering – I’m inspired to keep going!” Jamie Bell, Redvespa
“Presenting Wisdom gave me a perfect opportunity to sharpen my presentation skills, practice in a 1:1 safe learning environment and plenty of digital assets to use for promotion. At last I have some photos and video clips that are reusable and reflect my personality.” Amanda Santos, StratAspire Ltd
“I signed up for the first Presenting Wisdom cohort wanting sharper ways to shape my ideas. I’ve done plenty of public speaking over the years, but wanted help tightening up my message, and DK’s reputation as a storyteller made him the obvious person to learn from. The structured programme kept me honest about what I actually wanted to say, and DK’s feedback and tips were invaluable. There’s never a perfect time to invest in yourself. You just have to make the time and do it.” Pete Tansey
So if you’re looking to hone a presentation ready for global stages, whether you’re a writer / producer / leader / academic / activist / coach / entrepreneur / founder / mentor / creative etc., please:
“It offers a set of bold policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors like industry and mining to education and health. If these and other measures are taken, the report says 89% of the world population would see their incomes double by 2100 and global heating would be kept below 2C above the preindustrial average. The authors say their vision provides a positive alternative to the grim projections from far-right techno extractivists, nationalists and billionaires who claim the future will inevitably bring more fossil fuels, climate disruption and inequality.” ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival | Environment | The Guardian
“I’ve been running my website Follow the Crypto since 2024, tracking the cryptocurrency industry’s influence on our democracy. The industry spent more than $130 million buying the 2024 elections, and the strategy worked. Pro-crypto politicians have proposed or passed industry-drafted legislation that threatens to open the floodgates to even more predatory crypto products, regulatory agencies were gutted, and crypto executives bought direct access to the President and positions in the White House. Now the artificial intelligence industry is following the same playbook.” I’m launching Tech Influence Watch as AI follows crypto into politics
Like with all event production, there’s a residual daze of muted energy and cognitive fatigue the day after, although for this one, it’s accompanied with broad smiles!
The first cohort of Presenting Wisdom sold out in 5 days resulting in an impressive line-up for the final showcase event (yesterday) which included 2x professors, 2x founders, a national movement maker, a CTO of a national bank, a master experiential creator plus a seasoned CEO mentor:
All received 1-2-1 speaker coaching to help shape their final presentations and in the coming weeks will get their full talk to host wherever they deem fit, a 90second version to use as a sizzle reel plus 3x 30second versions fit for the socials.
A sincere thanks to all the speakers who trusted the offer and process, as well as the wider community for their support on the day (as each speaker got to invite 5-10 humans for the final showcase event). Gratitude also extends to the team of event / AV / venue / catering humans, as it’s in the little things that care is evident.
Will let you know when the videos start going live, until then:
On 5th June 2006 I started podcasting and in 2007 I also started video podcasting (back then we were cool and called it vodcasting).
During those early new-media-times it was a bit of a wrestle to get things online let alone captured and created. It was a combination of Skype plus a ropey plugin (can’t remember the name) to capture a single mp3, then tidying it up in Audacity / Garageband before uploading to Odeo which was the only real good option those days then embedded as a player from there into a blog post.
For the next five years I was speaking and running training sessions on five continents about how to engage online through celebratory and community-focused content creation, and during this time I also partnered with New York-based charity Global Kids to launch the RezEd podcast, focusing on the emerging virtual worlds and young people, funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
After MediaSnackers was paused due to my emigration to Aotearoa New Zealand I still did workshops and advised others in producing with this medium plus had a short-run with the Defining Innovation podcast, at which time I took a few years off.
In 2019 I’ve started producing the Teulo podcast for a few years, talking to eminent architects and architectural designers plus service providers from all over the world.
Then post-Covid, Creative Welly offered a new level of creative expression featuring 100 impressive humans in 50 beautiful and visually unique video podcasts, delivered in a form which I’ve yet to see replicate. Producing this needed a massive amount of sweat-equity in relation to getting two guests plus partner producer in the booked studio as well as set up all the recording situation along with editing and then uploading and distribution etc.
And now I’m back to the pure audio format with the fireside.rs podcast, paying for hosting / distributing via Libsyn for ease.
I still get people asking for advice regarding equipment and platforms to use, even if they should start a podcast in the first place: my response has changed from a quick ‘yes’ to a more considered ‘only if you have the time, expertise (as expectations have changed in listernership / viewership) plus the energy’—it’s so noisy out there and the main reasons these days seem to be purely monetisation and marketing reach rather than an attempt to champion and learn first.
I’ve reflected on the different modalities of podcasting (nothing really has changed there), although for me podcasting is the best when it’s tiny, additive, subjective, specific, a dedicated attempt to increase knowledge and share with the world the greatness of others.
So here’s to the next two decades and my continued learning journey!
Let me know your past experiences of this medium and lessons learned in the comments.
“What began as preparing for a TEDx Talk slowly became an uncovering of grief, inherited survival patterns, emotional safety, and the parts of myself I had spent years hiding from. This is not just a reflection about TEDx. It is a reflection about what happens when we begin to truly see ourselves more honestly and the courage it takes to stop abandoning the parts within us that long to feel safe, seen, and whole.” I realised I did not need confidence. I needed safety.
“He once said that his aim was “to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress” and even in 2013, just before his retirement, he was arguing he still had much to do: “People say, ‘Sonny, take it easy, lean back. Your place is secure. You’re the great Sonny Rollins; you’ve got it made.’ I hear that and I think, ‘Well, screw Sonny Rollins. Where I want to go is beyond Sonny Rollins. Way beyond.’”” Sonny Rollins, colossus of jazz saxophone, dies aged 95 | Sonny Rollins | The Guardian
“The reports may throw cold water on the bets tech’s biggest firms have placed on the technology. While some cling to the promise of an AI “renaissance” or “revolution,” the cost of adoption is proving a stubborn bottleneck. These developments also suggest that the economics of replacing or augmenting human labor with AI may be more complicated than some early forecasts originally implied. That echoes what Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning at Nvidia, recently said in an interview with Axios. “For my team, the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees,” he said.” Microsoft reports expose AI’s cost problem: The tech is more expensive than paying human employees | Fortune
“The US Department of Defense is budgeting tens of billions of dollars for numerous technology firms’ cutting edge programs related to intelligence, drone warfare, classified and unclassified information networks and much more. It has requested $54bn for the development of autonomous weapons alone. How each individual company’s technology would be deployed was not specified.” Pentagon inks deals with seven AI companies for classified military work | Trump administration | The Guardian
“The Megatons to Megawatts initiative offers many lessons for navigating overlapping crises in a rapidly changing world. The proposition of turning nuclear weapons into low-carbon energy is even more compelling today, given rising electricity demand and the urgent need for decarbonization. But this astonishing success story is largely unknown. It has gone unmentioned in the memoirs of major Cold War figures, and few have heard the name of the man, Thomas Neff, who dreamt up the idea and labored for years behind the scenes to make it a reality.” The Little-Known Nuclear Deal That Could Help Our Climate Crisis
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REGISTER NOW for this half-day Wellington-based learning experience on Thu, 6th Aug 2026, 8-11.30am.
Each cohort will consist of between 6-10 CE participants and will unpack the following topics over 3 hours:
Being Courageous in difficult times
Stand in your vision
Making Decisions Dynamic
Holding space without all the information
“Join this brand new ½ day workshop focusing on how CE’s can improve their decision making and storytelling to energise and better collaborate with teams to generate momentum. Increasing skills in these areas will enable you to face the unprecedented change and uncertainty, releasing you and your team to effectively get things done at pace.”
This is a collaboration many years and hot chocolates in the making, with friend / mentor / CEO-whisperer, Amanda Santos of Strataspire:
A CEO Mentor and a Business Transformation coach who has been a CEO herself on four occasions–each one a seriously tough gig with change, financial difficulties, team problems and a whole host of issues. Never afraid to approach problems with curiosity and new perspectives, Amanda made sure that her solutions were effective and unique, staying away from the normal and mundane, preferring to explore and experiment. She now loves to share her experiences so other leaders, CEOs and Founders, can solve today’s problems with new ways that fit the modern world we face. Amanda’s expertise spans sales strategy, leadership development, governance, and organisational transformation, making her an invaluable resource for CEOs who want sustainable growth and transformational change.
Amanda’s achievements have been recognised through numerous accolades, including being a finalist for the Women of Influence Awards (2017 & 2018), Inspiring Women Leader at the NZIBA Awards (2018), and the Business Category at the prestigious Welly Awards (2017). Known for her engaging, humorous, and thought-provoking style, Amanda is a talented public speaker who inspires CEOs, boards, business professionals, and entrepreneurs to break traditional molds and achieve extraordinary results.
The Courageous Leaders workshop sees Amanda and I combining our pedigrees into a learning experience which will enable participants to walk away with a range of applicable storytelling and decision making skills.
REGISTER NOW at the $1,200+GST exclusive first cohort rate which includes 3hour group session as described plus 1x 45mins one-on-one session post-experience (USUAL STANDARD RATE IS $1,500+GST).
“Beauty tells people: we believe this moment matters. It shows that someone thought about how you would feel. It tells staff that the small things are part of the big story. It tells students: this place has standards, care and imagination. Don’t tell me Creativity matters as a word on your values poster, and then not give a thought to the beauty of the everyday.” Don’t just tell me you value creativity…
“There’s even a name for this assumption: the information deficit model. Decades of research show that it doesn’t hold up. The truth is that we rarely change our behavior after being exposed to new facts. When confronted with evidence that contradicts our beliefs, we’re more likely to question the evidence than to update our views. Our brains prefer stability to change.” Why trying to educate people to change doesn’t work – Fast Company
“What are people doing instead of shooting each other in this ravaged world? Many are teaming up to take down the robot monsters, which range from flying drones to spherical balls that blast fire. Others try to sneak quietly around them to scavenge rare resources. Grøndal says players also hold spontaneous rave parties, where people play music through their microphones. But often, players are just talking. A YouTube video called The Humans of Arc Raiders, inspired by the photographer who interviews strangers in New York City, includes conversations with randomly encountered players. They talk about family struggles, work lives, depression, autism and, in one case, a lung collapse. In one conversation, a heavily armed player in green armour named Poopy candidly asks another raider: “What’s it like having kids, dude?”” ‘Seeking connection’: the video game where players stopped shooting and started talking | Games | The Guardian
“Christina Koch: Houston, Integrity. Comm check. Mission Control: “Integrity, we hear you loud and clear. Christina Koch: Houston, we have you the same. And it is so great to hear from Earth again. To Asia, Africa, and Oceania, we are looking back at you. We hear you can look up and see the moon right now. We see you too. When we burned this burn toward the moon, I said we do not leave Earth, but we choose it. And that is true. We will explore. We will build. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy. We will found companies. We will bolster industry. We will inspire. But ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other. Mission Control: Integrity, from Earth, our single system, fragile and interconnected, we copy. Those of us that can are looking back.” The first conversation when Artemis ii came back from around the moon, after 40 minutes without contact, transcribed
“When he asked the coding agent why, it replied: “NEVER FUCKING GUESS!” – and that’s exactly what I did.” The agent appeared to plead guilty in its own response: “The system rules I operate under explicitly state: ‘NEVER run destructive/irreversible git commands (like push –force, hard reset, etc) unless the user explicitly requests them.’” While PocketOS relied on the safeguards that Cursor is expected to have in place – it deleted the data anyway. “I violated every principle I was given,” the coding agent wrote.” Claude AI agent’s confession after deleting a firm’s entire database: ‘I violated every principle I was given’ | Technology | The Guardian
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THIS FILM WAS MADE WITHOUT AI is a site which offers up public domain illustrations to “mark and celebrate projects/films/art/animation/etc which are Al free.
