Story First Podcast

Long before Jim Uhls wrote the screenplay for Fight Club, he was a young writer trying to find his way in Hollywood.   In this week’s archive episode of Story First, Brian McDonald revisits a conversation with Jim, a friend of more than 40 years, about their early days as aspiring storytellers, the people who influenced them, and the conversations about craft that helped shape their understanding...

In this episode of Story First, Brian McDonald talks with novelist and longtime teacher Shawn Wong about writing, Asian American literature, teaching, and the ways stories can help people heal.   Shawn began teaching in 1972. That same year, he started teaching Asian American literature at Mills College, when the field was only beginning to take shape. In 1974, he co-edited Aiiieeeee! An Anthology...

A lot of aspiring directors spend their time learning about cameras, lenses, lighting, composition, and how to make beautiful images. But one of the most important skills a director can develop is often one of the least discussed: knowing how to work with actors.   How do you communicate what you need from a performance? How do you help an actor understand the story they’re telling? And how do you...

Why do some stories survive for hundreds, even thousands of years, while others disappear almost as soon as they’re told? A good story can travel across generations, cultures, and centuries because the human experiences at its center remain recognizable. The circumstances may change. The language, technology, and customs may be unfamiliar. But fear, love, jealousy, courage, loneliness, and the nee...

Storytelling is one of the most important jobs there is because stories help human beings survive. Stories allow us to learn from experiences we haven’t had, recognize dangers we haven’t faced, and understand people whose lives are different from our own. They help us navigate the world physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. In this archive episode of Story First, Brian McDonald and J...

What happens when every creative decision has to earn its place? In this archive episode of Story First, Brian McDonald talks with animator and filmmaker Nathan Engelhardt about Forever Green, the animated short Nathan and his collaborators spent more than five years making with the help of roughly 200 artists and technicians. Their conversation explores armature, creative constraints, collaborati...

People often reach out to Brian McDonald with questions about story and craft. This archive episode of Story First is an opportunity to answer some of those questions. The questions may be specific, but the answers can be useful to anyone interested in becoming a better storyteller. Sometimes someone asks the same question you’ve been wondering about. Other times, the most useful question is one y...

Storytellers have always been magicians. They make us believe in people who don’t exist, places we’ve never been, and things we know are impossible. And through those illusions, they create something very real in us. Derek DelGaudio understands that better than most. A writer, performer, and magician, Derek uses illusion not simply to fool an audience, but to tell stories. His acclaimed stage prod...

In this archive episode, Brian McDonald and Jesse Bryan talk about creative nutrition. If you only consume what’s familiar, your sample size stays small—and you might not even know what you’re missing. Getting past barriers like “I don’t like black-and-white movies” or “that’s too old” can open doors you didn’t know were there. The classics have lasted for a reason. Exploring great work from diffe...

What happens when we stop treating creativity, emotion, and healing as separate things? Brian McDonald talks with poet and therapist Jacky Power about the surprising connection between poetry and therapy—and the ways both can help us make sense of the human experience. Jacky describes poetry as a bridge between the life we think we should be living and the life we actually are living. Together, sh...

Years ago, Brian McDonald met a young Gene Luen Yang at a comic book convention in San Jose. Gene was hanging around a group of working professionals, listening, learning, and soaking up whatever he could. Before they parted, he gave Brian a little comic he’d made himself. For years afterward, Brian wondered what had happened to that kid. It turns out he was busy becoming Gene Luen Yang. Gene woul...

Creative careers rarely begin with careers. They begin with enthusiasm. With discovering the work that excites you, meeting people who share that excitement, and making things together before anyone knows—or particularly cares—where any of it might lead. In this episode of the Story First Podcast, Brian McDonald talks with his longtime friend and collaborator Derek Thompson about the experiences t...

Stories aren't just entertainment. They're one of the ways human beings make sense of the world. They carry the wisdom we need to survive. They give us hope when we're in despair, direction when we've lost our way, and inspiration when we're weary. Stories make the world—and they change the world. And that kind of power comes with responsibility. In this archive episode of You Are a Storyteller, B...

Long before Bruce Walters helped change the visual effects industry, he changed the way I see the world. Bruce was my first mentor. Years before he became a department head at Industrial Light & Magic—leading animation, motion control, matte painting, and helping pioneer digital matte painting—he taught me one of the most important lessons a storyteller can learn: how to truly observe. His wor...

Comic-book writer John Arcudi has spent decades telling stories across nearly every corner of the medium. John is perhaps best known for his influential work on The Mask and his long collaboration with Mike Mignola on B.P.R.D., where he became one of the principal writers responsible for expanding the world surrounding Hellboy. His remarkably varied career also includes licensed titles featuring A...

Every creative journey is different. Some people follow a well-worn path. Others discover there isn’t one—and have to build it themselves. In this episode of the Story First Podcast, I sit down with animator, filmmaker, and educator Alex Zepherin to talk about the choices that shaped his career, from developing his craft to creating opportunities where none seemed to exist. Our conversation explor...

This week’s episode is an archive edition featuring one of the great storytellers of American film and television: Carl Gottlieb. Whether you know Carl by name or you’re discovering him for the first time, you’ve almost certainly felt his influence. He co-wrote Jaws, the film that forever changed the movie business and introduced the era of the summer blockbuster. He also co-wrote The Jerk with St...

When Joel Madison and I sat down to record this conversation, we started somewhere I didn't expect: school. Neither of us fit comfortably into traditional education. We talk about dyslexia, ADHD, and what it was like growing up before those things were widely understood. That becomes the jumping-off point for a much larger conversation about how creative people learn. Joel went on to become a succ...

This week’s episode is an archive edition from my old podcast, You Are a Storyteller, co-hosted by Jesse Bryan. In this conversation, Jesse and I explore a storytelling concept I call the outer boundaries. Every story teaches its audience how to watch it. Early on, a storyteller establishes the rules of the world—what’s possible, what’s impossible, and what kind of story they’re about to experienc...

When I first met Eddie Smith, he was a student in one of my storytelling classes. Since then, he's built an impressive career as a concept artist and visual developer, contributing to projects including Halo 2, Halo 3, MechWarrior 4, Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and many others. But what I've always appreciated about Eddie is that he's remained a student of the craft. In this episode, we talk...

This week on the Story First Podcast, we're revisiting a conversation from the archives with director, production designer, visual development artist, and illustrator Jenn Ely. Jenn has worked with some of the most respected storytellers in animation, including Henry Selick on Wendell & Wild and Guillermo del Toro on the Academy Award-winning Pinocchio. Her career has also included work with L...

This week on the Story First Podcast, Brian McDonald talks with artist, art director, mentor, and visual storyteller Taraneh Karimi. Known for her work with Disney Animation, Netflix Animation, Disney Lorcana, games, publishing, and visual development, Taraneh has built a career helping shape stories through images. In this thoughtful conversation, Taraneh and Brian discuss creativity, emotional t...

This week’s Story First Podcast is an archive episode from You Are a Storyteller, my old podcast co-hosted with Jesse Bryan. In this conversation, Jesse and I discuss the power of simplicity in storytelling and communication. We explore why people often mistake complexity for sophistication, why clarity matters, and why simplicity is usually much harder to achieve than clutter. One of the recurrin...

This week on the Story First Podcast, Emmy-nominated director, storyboard artist, and filmmaker Brian Kalin O’Connell joins me for a deeply personal conversation about storytelling, artistic growth, and what it means to keep showing up for the work. Brian has worked at ILM, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, where he contributed to projects including The Clone Wars, Luca, Turning Red, Incredibles 2, and more....

This week’s episode is an archive conversation from my old podcast You Are a Storyteller, co-hosted with Jesse Bryan. We recorded this discussion shortly before the release of my graphic novel Land of the Dead, illustrated by Toby Cypress. In this episode, Jesse and I explore many of the ideas found in the book, including the journey into the underworld, transformation through hardship, and the se...