It’s time to start making a difference in the real world
This is our tool, the ABT Narrative Template:
_____ AND _____ BUT _____ THEREFORE _____
Here are just a few of the organizations we’re working with: World Bank, Pfizer, U.S. Forest Service, USDA, National Park Service, FAA, NOAA
Here is our goal: to make WORKING CIRCLES happen all over the place.
A WORKING CIRCLE is a group session where graduates of our NARRATIVE TRAINING program use the ABT Framework to develop and strengthen the core narrative of a project, proposal, paper, presentation -- any material that needs to eventually be communicated either to fellow specialists or the general public.
_____ AND _____ BUT _____ THEREFORE _____
Here are just a few of the organizations we’re working with: World Bank, Pfizer, U.S. Forest Service, USDA, National Park Service, FAA, NOAA
Here is our goal: to make WORKING CIRCLES happen all over the place.
A WORKING CIRCLE is a group session where graduates of our NARRATIVE TRAINING program use the ABT Framework to develop and strengthen the core narrative of a project, proposal, paper, presentation -- any material that needs to eventually be communicated either to fellow specialists or the general public.
The Narrative Gym Series
In the spring of 2020 we developed the ABT Framework Course consisting of 10 one hour sessions for 30 participants plus individual half hour Working Circle development sessions. Month after month, we have run the course as we’ve drawn in a team of 20 instructors and advisors. The course gave rise to this initial short book which has now been adapted to other disciplines, coauthoring with our team members.
FOR SCIENCE
(Graduate Students and Postdocs)
(Graduate Students and Postdocs)
Original
Business
Law
Politics
The ABT Course
The ABT is fun. (Here's an article about it.) The course is part of the larger concept of THE NARRATIVE GYM, which refers to anything that exercises the narrative part of your brain, including the course, the podcast, the books, and Working Circles that are part of the course.
The ABT is fun. (Here's an article about it.) The course is part of the larger concept of THE NARRATIVE GYM, which refers to anything that exercises the narrative part of your brain, including the course, the podcast, the books, and Working Circles that are part of the course.
The course provides three main benefits
Introduction to the narrative tools (in particular the ABT Framework and the Dobzhansky Template).
Start of the journey towards developing “narrative intuition.”
Social “entrainment” meaning the habit of developing narrative structure through a 5 person group called a Working Circle.
MEET THE TEAM...
Mike Strauss
Science
Dianna Padilla
Science
Park Howell
Business
Doug Passon
Law
Shirley Malcom
Science
Rick Nelson
Science
Brian Palermo
Acting
Nancy Knowlton
Science
Matthew David
Film
Dave Gold
Politics
Marlis Douglas
Science
Keisha Bahr
Science
Julie Claussen
Science
Liz Foote
Conservation
Michael Bart
Science
David Pullan
Business
Sarah Jane McKechnie
Business
Patty Limerick
History
10 One-Hour Sessions
ABT Ambassadors
We’ve asked some of the instructors and graduates of the ABT Framework Course to help us as ambassadors in propagating a wider understanding of the power and ubiquity of the ABT. For each one, they tell about one INSTANCE of seeing the ABT in the real world, and one APPLICATION they have made of the ABT Framework to their own work.
About Randy
Hi, my name's Randy Olson, and I’m a scientist-turned-filmmaker. Here’s my story ...
Hi, my name's Randy Olson, and I’m a scientist-turned-filmmaker. Here’s my story ...
Randy Olson (left) receives the 2020 John P. McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication from the American Medical Writers Association. Center: Kimberly Mankiewicz, Director, Center for Health Communication, University of Texas. Right: Long time ABT collaborator Dr. Mike Strauss, former head of Office of Science Quality Review, U.S.D.A./A.R.S.
The ABT Time Podcast
The ABT Time Podcast is co-hosted by Dr. Randy Olson and Dr. Jen Martin, head of Science Communication for University of Melbourne, Australia. It was launched in spring, 2021. The podcast has a specific focus on the ABT Narrative Framework as a part of the Narrative Gym concept for conditioning the narrative part of the brain.
The ABT Time Podcast is co-hosted by Dr. Randy Olson and Dr. Jen Martin, head of Science Communication for University of Melbourne, Australia. It was launched in spring, 2021. The podcast has a specific focus on the ABT Narrative Framework as a part of the Narrative Gym concept for conditioning the narrative part of the brain.
