Shifting the Narrative Podcast
Shifting the Narrative is a limited podcast series about changing the dominant narrative around critical social and cultural issues. Over five episodes, we examine case studies where individuals worked together to change how society views the death penalty, poverty, and guns. And based on this, what lessons can we learn to apply to other campaigns?
Shifting the Narrative podcast is produced by Will Coley with Ellen Buchman, President of The Opportunity Agenda, as co-host. For press inquiries or to learn more about the podcast, see the press release about this launch.
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Will Coley has created multimedia stories and digital campaigns with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. In 2019, he produced a podcast series, Indefensible, in collaboration with people facing deportation and the Immigrant Defense Project. His audio stories have aired on NPR News, 99% Invisible, BBC World Service, and Georgia Public Broadcasting among others. He is based in Harlem, NY.
Trailer | Introducing Shifting the Narrative - The Big Story?
Listen to this brief trailer where we introduce our Shifting the Narrative Podcast
Episode 1 | What is Narrative?
Join us as we explore what The Opportunity Agenda means by “narrative” and how we can build our narrative power to change how Americans view important social justice issues. In this episode, you also get a preview of how Ellen Buchman experienced a shift in how she understood the struggle for marriage equality.
Episode 2 | On Poverty: The Power of The Camera
Fifty years ago, the Poor People’s Campaign took over a portion of the National Mall in Washington, DC. Their aim: change how Americans understand poverty. The campaign continues today. In this episode, we’ll connect with photographers who captured the movement at two key junctures and hear what they learned in the process about the narrative around poverty in the U.S.
Episode 3 | On Guns: Bridging the Divide on Stage
Gun violence is an issue that divides many Americans. But a theater company in New York set out to build a bridge by helping people with firsthand experience with guns tell their own stories on stage. What happened was not what they expected.
Episode 4 | On The Death Penalty: The Unexpected Messenger
Over the past decade, support for the death penalty has plummeted. In this episode, we look at why this happened and how one unexpected messenger, Bill Pelke, played a big part in this change.
Episode 5 | What We’ve Learned
Over the past few episodes, we introduced you to the idea of what Shifting the Narrative is and what it looks like in gun sense, the war on poverty, and the death penalty. To wrap-up the season, we bring together narrative experts to help break down the major takeaways from the series and what they mean in our day-to-day narrative battles.
Read the Report
To lay the groundwork for a sustained 21st century narrative change effort promoting mobility from poverty, criminal justice reform, and opportunity for all, The Opportunity Agenda embarked on a six-part narrative research study, with the aim of identifying the essential and replicable elements of past successful efforts, gleaning the insights captured in academic literature, consulting with diverse leaders from practice, and sharing our analysis and recommendations broadly with the field.
