Storytelling

Storytelling

At the heart of my work lies a passion for telling stories of community, stories of discovery and stories that make clear confusing issues. What sets my storytelling apart is that I don't play favorites with platform: I can tell the story in multiple ways, and make a study of audience to determine what platform I will ultimately use.

I'm a prolific writer for web, long-form and social media. I can also shoot and edit photos, video and produce audio features I record, mix and edit myself. Below, please find selected samples.

AUDIO

• Non-narrated audio storytelling (pitching, facilitating, recording, editing, mixing, writing):

  • Ginnie Peters and Trent Andrews share how they found support in one another after farmer suicide hit close to home (recorded for StoryCorps in Perry, Iowa)

  • Tracia and Patrick Kraemer giggle over finding love at a nudist park (recorded for StoryCorps in New Orleans, Louisiana)

  • Elizabeth Vega and Jamell Spann remember the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo that captured their meeting during protests in Ferguson, Missouri (recorded for StoryCorps in St. Louis, Missouri)

  • Russ Dixon and Walter Dixon recall what it was like to be reported dead as a Korean War POW — and what happens when you return home alive (recorded for StoryCorps in Waynesville, Missouri)

  • Mickey Willenbring shares how sheep farming helped her overcome PTSD from her time in Iraq and connected her with her Native American roots (recorded for StoryCorps in Eugene, Oregon)

  • Adam Roseman and Rick Rosenthal share how a Jewish man from Georgia became Santa Claus (recorded for StoryCorps in Atlanta, Georgia)

  • Tom Gasko and Donnie Pedrola tackle how you love someone with an insane hobby…a hobby, say, like collecting vaccuum cleaners (recorded for StoryCorps in Rolla, Missouri)

• Field recording, editing, mixing:

  • Take a peek inside 'Mio Nonni's Casa,' Twitter grandparents Marcia and Tim Dorsey's rehabbed stone house in Carondelet

  • ‘We don’t wear a bunch of tutus and crazy outfits:’ Roller derby leagues make comeback in St. Louis with top-ten teams

  • 9 months after move, St. Louis nonprofit still uncovers history-filled rooms at old North Side YMCA

• Interview + editing:

  • Famed mountaineer Conrad Anker, star of ‘Meru,’ shows U.S. national parks' importance in new film

  • A noted architect’s journey from Japanese-American internment to Washington University in St. Louis

  • The refugee perspective you rarely hear: Grace Jo shares her story of defection from North Korea

  • St. Louis' amateur radio operators experiment during the total solar eclipse

• Talk show segment conceptualization, booking, pre-interviewing:
  In the past two years, I've booked and prepared over 200 talk show segments. Here are some of my favorites.

• Clayton was once home to a thriving African-American neighborhood. Now, it’s little-known history.

• Little-known St. Louis museum holds part of world’s largest private original manuscript collection

• ‘The Revenant’ is nominated for 12 Oscars. Here’s the St. Louis connection you didn’t know.

• East St. Louis native Charmaine Savage returns, starting a magazine to highlight the good

• SLU student, Syrian-American fashion blogger is rocking ‘modest fashion’—to international attention

• What you saw, what you heard: St. Louis on the Air's Solar Eclipse Special (2-hour live special I was the lead producer of)

WEB

In one year alone, for St. Louis on the Air, I wrote over 400 web stories and Facebook posts, crafted over 3,500 tweets with over 3.5 million impressions and posted over 100 Instagram photos and stories. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites.

• Books N Bros’ 11-year-old founder wants to help boys love reading at an age when they often don’t (later picked up from reddit by Mashable, Huffington Post, CNN, NBC, and more, causing the interview to go viral | also produced)

• Curious Louis: City’s last surviving Mississippian mound, Sugar Loaf, to be preserved this summer (also produced)

• Overtime rule set to impact nearly 300,000 in Missouri, Illinois blocked by federal judge — for now (also produced)

• Meet St. Louis native Harry Edwards, the man behind the Black Power protest at the ’68 Olympics (also produced)

• In 1904, St. Louis hosted the first Olympics on American soil. It was kind of a mess.

• What is your political mood? St. Louis voters weigh in on Election 2016 (also produced)

• What’s a confused, new transplant to St. Louis to do? Well, now there’s an app for that (also produced)

• Continuing coverage of the grand jury decision, Ferguson and area business (weeks-long live blog)

• 6 things to know about the Aug. 21 solar eclipse over St. Louis, from an author who has seen 5 (also produced)

• Love in the face of suffering: North St. Louis native Cheeraz Gormon pairs activism and poetry (also produced)

• What you need to know about the Oct. 9 presidential debate at Washington University (also produced)

• St. Louisans on Islamophobia: ‘The real face of Islam is the face you see in front of you right now' (also produced)

View all writing for St. Louis Public Radio here | View all writing for St. Louis Business Journal here

Twitter Sample 1, 2 | Facebook Sample 1, 2 | Instagram Sample 1, 2, 3
 

CONTENT MARKETING

• Break Out Your Barbaric Yawp: Join Karen Karbiener, Columbia Summer Lecturer and Walt Whitman Scholar, in a ‘Song of Myself’ Marathon (for Columbia School of Professional Studies)

• Sabrina Anastasio: Narrative Medicine in the International Year of the Nurse (for Columbia School of Professional Studies)

• ‘A Moment of Questioning:’ Exploring the Architecture of the Past to Help Inform the Present Moment (for Columbia School of Professional Studies)

• Nathaniel Hill: Idea For Now-Booming Broadway Startup Was Born in Business Certificate Class (for Columbia School of Professional Studies)

LONG-FORM WRITING

• Mississippi River Rats: Meet the people who form the currents of Missouri's flourishing river culture (print version, Missouri Life)

• The Original Startup Scene (Missouri Life)

• The Burger Kings (Missouri Life)

• Into the Wild: Friends and Family Continue to Search for Nick Coppola (Vox)

PHOTO/VIDEO

• Facebook Live for St. Louis Public Radio

  • Checking out the Isamu Noguchi ceiling in the U-Haul building

  • Interviewing MTV host Dave Holmes

  • Missouri GOP Gubernatorial Debate

  • So you want to start a podcast, STL?

  • Understanding Missouri's ballot measures
    

• Facebook Live for NPR

  • Nearly two years after Michael Brown’s death, young people are gathering in Ferguson...
    

• Produced video series for Center of Creative Arts

  • In My Shoes 365
    Part of a social media campaign I conceptualized, wrote and produced to fund-the-need of 120 pairs of dance shoes for underserved students. Through this campaign, COCA raised $5000+ in 24 hours.
    

• Photography samples