The Backstory Podcast

In this episode of The Backstory, Elizabeth Parks, Editor of the International Journal of Listening, joins the team to explore listening as a practice—ethical, interdisciplinary, and transformational. They discuss listening as invitation, the risks and costs listeners face, and how to collect stories in non‑extractive ways. Practical takeaways include setting boundaries, centering reciprocity, ask...

Welcome to The Backstory's expert episode featuring sociologist Nancy Ammerman. Nancy introduces the idea of lived religion and explains how narrative methods—asking "tell me about a time," using audio prompts, photos, and PhotoVoice—help researchers build trust and surface everyday sacred and spiritual experiences. She also offers practical guidance on listening for people’s vocabulary, layering...

In this episode of The Backstory, hosts Elizabeth, Josh, and Shannon speak with Laura Everett of the Massachusetts Council of Churches about their storytelling initiative, Revelations. The conversation pulls back the curtain on project planning, ethics, and the practical steps they are taking to support storytellers. Topics include research into safety and psychographic audience insights, cohort-b...

Welcome to The Backstory, a behind-the-scenes series from Future of Faith exploring projects funded by the National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. In this episode, hosts check in on project staffing and partnerships, and share lessons about hiring, timelines, and budgeting for long-term storytelling work. Producer Shannon interviews Jon from Holy Post about how their grant am...

Welcome to The Backstory episode featuring Metropolitan AME Church ’s storytelling project. The team describes their “Come to the Table” approach built around three tables—Welcome (hospitality and church in the wild), Imagination (artists and creative expression), and Creation (climate justice). They emphasize research-driven, ethical, non-extractive storytelling aimed at engaging Black Gen Z “don...

Welcome to The Backstory from Future of Faith — a behind-the-scenes look at storytelling work funded by the National Storytelling Initiative. This episode explores how organizations translate grant support into action, featuring Ross Allen of Christian Century on cohort training, community reading circles, and efforts to "reclaim the story" of American Christianity. Hosts and guests discuss the ch...

In this episode of The Backstory, Elizabeth interviews Melissa Wigginton from Austin Presbyterian Seminary about the Austin Story Project: a grant-funded effort training story guides to lead small, embodied "story circles" centered on Jesus moments. They discuss project design, early wins (training 50 guides), challenges with participation, distribution plans, and built-in evaluation with EffectX....

In this premiere episode of The Backstory from Future of Faith, project leaders and guests pull back the curtain on the National Storytelling Initiative. They discuss early learnings from planning grants, working with master storytellers and marketers, audience and distribution strategy, and the surprising role of AI StoryBots in shaping personal narratives. Chris Leach from the National Federatio...

Welcome to The Backstory, a candid look at the roots, soil, and saplings of narrative change. Hosted by Josh Packard (Future of Faith), Shannon Hopkins (Rooted Good), and Elizabeth Coffee (Lake Institute), this podcast is a dedicated companion for the Lilly Endowment Storytelling cohort. While most people only see the "canopy"—the polished, final stories we share with the world—we’re interested in...