Ethical Storytelling

Today we sit down with Michael Kass, the founder for the Center of Story and Spirit, a Los Angeles based project that grew out of his passion for helping people in organizations discover and harness the power of their stories to create change.

In this episode Michael shares when he first realized the power of story and gives practical tools for practitioners to create a storytelling culture within their organization and with their supporters.

Today we get to sit down with Katie Basbagill, a photojournalist and mixed media artist who has spent the last decade of her life focused on global human rights issues. She has taken her camera to six continents and nearly 50 countries documenting the interconnectedness of humanity to bring human rights issues to light.

In this episode Katie shares what ethical storytelling means to her, what she feels responsible for as a photographer and how turning the camera on herself taught her how much courage it takes to tell your story.

In this podcast we bring you stories from the field. Each guest shares their unique viewpoint as well as their personal successes and growth in the pursuit of ethical storytelling.

Today we get to hear from Adam Sjoberg, a commercial director and documentary filmmaker. His two feature films include “Shake the Dust” – a hopeful film about breakdance in places like Colombia, Cambodia, Yemen, and Uganda – and “I Am Sun Mu” – a film about a North Korean dissident artist who creates satirical paintings about the North Korean regime as well as images of hope. Both films are available on Netflix.

In this episode Adam breaks down what he sees as the foundation of ethical storytelling, how he decides what nonprofits to work with and what standards he applies into his own work, as well as how he has learned to integrate his subject’s voice in the storytelling process.

Today we get to hear from Carter Quinley, the Thailand Ambassador of Freedom Collaborative, an online platform which resources, connects and equips the anti-trafficking community across the globe. Additionally, she is the Strategic Partnerships Manager at Nvader, an organization which professionally investigates cases of trafficking and child sexual exploitation and prosecutes offenders.

In this episode Carter highlights how story has played a role in the growth of the anti human trafficking sector, what they are doing now to evaluate that process and why it’s important to set story standards to guide staff, journalists and donors who come into our organizations.

Today we get to hear from Regina Evans, an Oakland native and owner of Regina’s Door, a vintage clothing boutique which serves as a sanctuary for survivors of sex trafficking, homeless youth, and young artists. She’s a survivor leader in the fight against modern day slavery, a playwright, poet and performer.

In this episode Regina reminds us about the importance of the survivors voice, why listening is the first step in ethical storytelling and how sometimes we have to think beyond story to create social change.

Special thanks to Kyle Hara and Quad House Media for editing this episode.

Today we sit down with April Kirby, a videographer and visual storyteller living in Dallas, TX. Her work with nonprofits has taken her all around the world. And though she has more than a decade of production experience, April is just getting started in the kind of work that fuels her soul.

In this episode April talks about what drew her to nonprofit storytelling, the first time she realized her power as an editor, and how discovering the process of ethical storytelling is shaping the direction of her career.

Today we sit down with Nikole Lim from Freely in Hope, a speaker, educator, and consultant on leveraging dignity through the restorative art of storytelling. Her work is centered around shifting paradigms of how stories of trauma are told by platforming voices of the oppressed—sharing stories of immense beauty arising out of unexpected places.

In this episode Nikole describes the role of the nonprofit in the storytelling space, the moment she realized story can be a process of identification and healing and how in spite of our differences there is something in our humanity that always unites us.

Welcome to the Ethical Storytelling Podcast! In this intro to our first series, ‘Ethical Storytelling 101’, Rachel Goble and Heidi Burkey share why they started this podcast, what ethical storytelling means to them, and what you can expect from our first series.

The second webinar in our training module, Storyteller Ethical Storytelling: How To includes panelists sharing their experiences from the perspective of writing, photography and filmmaking. A download link of a recording of the webinar which includes presenters’ slides is available upon checkout.