Stanford Storytelling Project

Exploring story craft and practices to create personal and social change

Founded in 2008, we explore all forms of stories, from myth to memoir, in all kinds of media, from print to performance. We sponsor courses, workshops, grants, and a live event series that give students an opportunity to appreciate the way stories work, work on us, and can work for us. We also produce two podcasts that feature the research and creative work of the Stanford community: the award-winning State of the Human and our new fiction and poetry show, Off the Page.

Considering Racial Justice

We’ve put together a playlist of SSP-produced pieces from over the years that investigate and consider structural forms of racism.
Gathering: The Latest Episode of State of the Human

What do we gain from gathering? In this episode, we’re thinking about how coming together can change us.
Preserving: A new episode of State of the Human

This episode investigates the act of preserving, a decision made in the present, regarding the past, looking towards the future. What can we learn from what we choose to preserve? What does preserving reveal about our values?
Meet SSP's student producers

Meet the student producers who bring stories to life at SSP
Learning Medicine: A new episode of State of the Human

We're asking: how are students learning to practice medicine, thoughtfully?
Listen to Materializing, an episode of State of the Human

What ideas exist behind material objects? In this episode we're going to look at stuff — things we can see or hear or touch — to try to understand the intangible, like memory history or bias
Listen to stories from our 2019 Braden Grantees

The Braden Storytelling Grant is a grant for students to learn to research, craft, and produce an audio documentary

Podcast
State of the Human is our award-winning podcast that deepens our understanding about common human experiences, such as Joking and Dying. Off the Page is a podcast of stories, essays, and poetry from Stanford’s writing community.

Events
Each year, we invite celebrated storytellers of every kind — poets, journalists, filmmakers, dramatists, comedians, novelists — to come to campus. Past guests include Neil Gaiman, Ira Glass, Cheryl Strayed, and Alice Walker.

Open Meeting
Join our Open Meeting every Friday from 1:45 – 2:45 pm for our series, How I Made It. Sessions will feature SSP alum and a professional storytellers as they pull back the curtain on their productions for outlets like Radiolab, 99 Percent Invisible, NPR, and more.

Courses
We offer 8-10 courses each year that explore how to use story craft and practices to create personal and social change. Some of our recurring courses include Narrative Design, Counterstory, Sound Stories, and Documentary Fictions.

Writer’s Studio
The Writer’s Studio is a weekly, free workshop series open to all students from all majors. Come study the art of writing in intensive, fun, hands-on workshops with instructors from Creative Writing, the Storytelling Project, and other arts programs.

StoryLab
StoryLab’s mission is to help Stanford Students, faculty, and staff learn the craft of storytelling. Meet one-on-one with a Storytelling Project staff member to build vivid, compelling stories out of your research, personal experiences, and insights.

About Us
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.

Braden Grant
The Braden Storytelling Grant is a grant for students to learn to research, craft, and produce an audio documentary based on oral history archives or interviews conducted by the student.

Story Exchanges
Story Exchanges are special workshops, often held in residences, that give students an opportunity to witness and share on another’s stories.