Power of Narrative 2025: Full Schedule

2:00pm EDT

Check-in opens

Friday March 28, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

Head to the registration desk to check in!

Friday March 28, 2025 2:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

3:30pm EDT

Opening Keynote: Connie Schultz

Friday March 28, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Keynote

4:45pm EDT

Building community through newsletters

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Terrace Lounge

Boston Globe newsletter editor Diamond Naga Siu discusses how newsletters are a powerful two-way platform to build community with your audience. The session will focus on meaningful reader engagement, thoughtful community building, and leveraging the full potential of different newsletter platforms.

Speakers

Diamond Naga Siu

newsletter editor at The Boston Globe

Diamond Naga Siu (first name is two words) is the newsletter editor at The Boston Globe. She is helping lead the newsroom’s newsletter expansion and loves meeting readers in their inboxes. Diamond Naga previously authored the daily 10 Things in Tech newsletter for Business Insider... Read More →

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Terrace Lounge

Breakout

4:45pm EDT

Finding and Crafting the Human Experience

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Conference Auditorium

Readers are drawn to human stories. Line Vaaben, "existential editor" at the Danish newspaper Politiken, generates ideas, supervises, and writes stories about what it means to be human. In this session, she shares the newspaper's success with this focus, along with tips and tricks on how to find and craft journalistic stories that generate longer reading times, increase subscriptions, and capture attention.

Speakers

Line Vaaben

writer and editor for Politiken

Line Vaaben is an immersive journalist and 'Existential Editor' at Politiken, Denmark. She his the author of the authoritative Danish textbook about narrative journalism and a prizewinning narrative non fiction book about femicide. In her current job she is coaching, editing, and... Read More →

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Conference Auditorium

Breakout

4:45pm EDT

Snitch City: Crafting Compelling Narratives Across Platforms with The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Metcalf Small

How do you transform a deeply reported investigation into a
compelling, coherent narrative that sings on multiple platforms? The
Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team is doing just that. A year after their
award-winning series, Murder in Boston, the Globe just launched a
Spotlight podcast franchise. Hear from Globe Head of Audio Kristin
Nelson, Spotlight Editor Brendan McCarthy, and reporter Dugan
Arnett detail ‘Snitch City,’ the new investigative series that pulls back
the curtain on police misconduct and confidential informants

Speakers

Dugan Arnett

Investigative reporter at The Boston Globe

Dugan Arnett is an award-winning investigative reporter on TheBoston Globe's quick strike projects team. Since joining the team in2021, his work has spanned a variety of subjects with a focus ongovernment accountability, policing, and the criminal justice system.In 2021, he published... Read More →

Brendan McCarthy

Editor of The Boston Globe Spotlight Team

Brendan McCarthy is the Globe's Spotlight Editor. He oversees theSpotlight Team and the quick strike investigative team.He previously served six years as deputy projects editor. Duringthat time, he led the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize forInvestigative Reporting. The “Blind... Read More →

Kristin Nelson

Head of Audio at The Boston Globe

Kristin Nelson is Head of Audio at the Boston Globe, working withproducers, editors and reporters to capture the Globe'saward-winning journalism for audio audiences. She is anexperienced journalist, documentarian, story editor and audioproducer. Between 2007 and 2022 she worked with... Read More →

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
Metcalf Small

Breakout

4:45pm EDT

The Devil in the Details of "Beyond All Repair"

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

East Balcony

Amory Sivertson, host/reporter of the investigative crime podcast "Beyond All Repair" from WBUR and ZSP Media, breaks down several examples from the reporting and writing process of the series where the details made all the difference. In an oversaturated genre of an oversaturated medium, the care and attention you pay to those little nagging details is often what makes your work singular and memorable. And in "Beyond All Repair," it led to a break in the case…

Speakers

Amory Sivertson

Host and senior producer for WBUR Podcasts

Amory Sivertson is an award-winning host and senior producer for WBUR Podcasts. She's the reporter/host behind the investigative series Beyond All Repair and co-host of Endless Thread, a podcast exploring wild, wonderful stories born of the Internet. Amory is one of the founding producers of Modern Love: The Podcast and a producer emeritus of the popular advice show Dear Sugars. When she's not making podcasts, Amory is making music, trying new desserts, and... Read More →

Friday March 28, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT
East Balcony

Breakout

5:45pm EDT

Break and refreshments at CitySpace

Friday March 28, 2025 5:45pm - 6:45pm EDT

6:45pm EDT

Flashpoint: Protests, Policing, and the Press screening and panel discussion at CitySpace

Friday March 28, 2025 6:45pm - 8:00pm EDT

Keynote

9:00am EDT

Morning Keynote: "The Hero": Story in an age of disenchantment

Saturday March 29, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

It's recommended that attendees read Dan's story, The Hero, before this keynote: https://wapo.st/4bFFcY3

Speakers

Dan Zak

reporter, The Washington Post

Dan Zak is a journalist for The Washington Post, where he has covered a variety of local, national and foreign stories, from deadline writing to long-form features. He is the author of a nonfiction book titled "Almighty: Courage, Resistance & Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

Keynote

10:15am EDT

Agents Meetings: Joy Tutela BY APPT ONLY

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

If you would like book a meeting, please send the following to bupowerofnarrative@gmail.com by Friday, March 7 with the subject line "PON meeting request":

A brief overview of the proposed book
A list of primary sources
A writer biography
A list of 3-5 comp titles
A proposed table of contents

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

Agent meeting

10:15am EDT

Frenemies of the People

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

Conference Auditorium

Trump has promised to go after critical journalists and media organizations in his second term. The lesson from around the world is that his surest path to success is driving a wedge between the media and the public. In this session, Joel Simon, founding director of the Journalism Protection Institute at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, will show how journalists can fight back by deepening the connection to their audience and coming together to build strong defenses.

Speakers

Joel Simon

Founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism

Joel Simon is the founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, part of the City University of New York. Previously he served as the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He writes on press press... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT
Conference Auditorium

Breakout

10:15am EDT

The Craft of Disability Memoir

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

Terrace Lounge

Disability memoir has a long history: life writing is one of the most powerful ways that disabled writers and activists have developed a vocabulary for understanding human experience beyond the "standard" or the "normal." But what does it mean to write a disability memoir, within all the cultural tropes that already exist about disability? What new insights can this form unearth? And when can disability memoir become hybrid, intersecting with other genres such as reporting and criticism? In this session, Rachel Kolb, author of the upcoming memoir Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice, will interview Andrew Leland, author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, for an engaging cross-disability conversation about these questions and more

Speakers

Andrew Leland

writer, audio producer, editor, and author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight

Andrew Leland is the author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, which was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize. He has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, Art in America, Radiolab, New York Magazine, 99 Percent Invisible, and elsewhere... Read More →

Rachel Kolb

writer and scholar

Rachel Kolb is a writer whose work explores communication, language, and disability as central components of human experience. A graduate of Stanford University, she was the first signing deaf Rhodes scholar at Oxford before receiving her Ph.D. in English literature from Emory University... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT
Terrace Lounge

Breakout

10:15am EDT

The Operative Word Is Power: Sharing narrative power vs. wielding it

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

East Balcony

Join Dionicia "Dio" Roberson of Generocity.org as she walks through the concepts of Narrative Sovereignty and Narrative Empowerment. We’ll discuss how these principles can inform your approach to people-centered storytelling, as well as what tools or resources we can access and share to balance the naturally-occurring power differential between storyteller and subject/source.

Speakers

Dionicia V Roberson

managing editor at Generocity

Dionicia Valencia Roberson, who also goes by Dio, grew up transient and chronically unsheltered across many cities, including Boston. As such, Dio learned firsthand the ways in which stories about people - whether true, kind, or neither - can impact them in real time, for better or... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT
East Balcony

Breakout

10:15am EDT

Your Bestselling Book Idea

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT

Metcalf Small

What makes for a compelling, commercial book idea? Sr. Editor Ariel Curry and six-figure ghostwriter Liz Morrow share the best practices they've learned for crafting an argument that sells. They introduce six ways to find your "big idea" and simple frameworks that will make your book a must-read!

Speakers

Ariel Curry

Writer, editor, and author of Hungry Authors: The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Creating, and Publishing a Nonfiction Book

Ariel Curry is a writer and editor at Ariel Curry Editorial with over 10 years of experience in traditional publishing. As an editor, she enjoys brainstorming and outlining new book ideas, bringing clarity and purpose to prose, and helping authors find resilience in their writing... Read More →

Liz Morrow

writer and author of Hungry Authors: The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing, and Publishing a Nonfiction Book

Liz Morrow is a writer and collaborator, partnering with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and business experts to bring their books to life. She specializes in personal and professional development and memoir. Morrow has worked with recognizable names and "Big Five" publishing houses... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am EDT
Metcalf Small

Breakout

11:30am EDT

Headline Keynote: Susan Orlean

Saturday March 29, 2025 11:30am - 12:45pm EDT

Keynote

12:45pm EDT

Lunch

Saturday March 29, 2025 12:45pm - 2:00pm EDT

2:00pm EDT

Agents Meetings: Sarah Khalil BY APPT ONLY

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

If you would like book a meeting, please send the following to bupowerofnarrative@gmail.com by Friday, March 7 with the subject line "PON meeting request":

A brief overview of the proposed book
A list of primary sources
A writer biography
A list of 3-5 comp titles
A proposed table of contents

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

Agent meeting

2:15pm EDT

Navigating Lived Experience: Objectivity, Ethics, and Positionality in Narrative Journalism

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

East Balcony

What happens when the stories you report intersect with your own lived experience? Panelists Andrew Leland, Rachel Kolb, and Darcel Rockett will tackle the complex challenges journalists face when reporting on communities they belong to or are deeply embedded in, and how to navigate "objectivity" in these instances. Panelists will discuss the ethical considerations, responsibilities, and nuances of managing one’s positionality in narrative journalism.

Speakers

Andrew Leland

writer, audio producer, editor, and author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight

Rachel Kolb

writer and scholar

Darcel Rockett

Reporter at The Chicago Tribune

Darcel Rockett is a consummate storyteller and writer whose work centers on narratives for and about populations/communities who need to be heard. An avid documenter of the Black experience, she continually aims to shine a light on the many facets of race and culture. She is currently... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
East Balcony

Breakout

2:15pm EDT

Social Storytelling: Connecting with Readers Online

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Conference Auditorium

The best journalism today lives on websites and in print outlets – and increasingly, users may not see it there. The 2024 election was the first in which more Americans got their news from social media than websites, print or any other source. As that gap continues to grow and trust in news institutions erodes, there’s a real opportunity to more effectively reach people, but it requires a bit of translation — creative rethinking of how to bring people news in a format they’ll engage with, without sacrificing journalistic standards.
With 5 years experience leading editorial at Snapchat (and a decade in journalism prior), Ben Reininga will lead a discussion on reaching users where they are. This will include ways to consider social media storytelling in how we assign and craft stories, how to handle shorter attention spans while maintaining rigor and quality, and navigating a landscape of multiple platforms and formats in a world of limited resources.

Speakers

Ben Reininga

former head of editorial at Snapchat

Ben Reininga is the former head of editorial at Snapchat, where he established partnerships with major news organizations, built protocols to fight misinformation, and worked to create a more engaging and diverse content experience. Prior to that he spent more than a decade in editing... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Conference Auditorium

Breakout

2:15pm EDT

The Personal and the Political: Weaving personal narratives within broader societal contexts

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Metcalf Small

In this session, narrative journalists Melissa Ludtke (author of Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside) and Mike DeSocio (author of Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America) will explore the art of blending deeply reported journalism with personal storytelling to reveal the broader societal forces at play. By drawing from their own experiences and in-depth reporting, Melissa and Mike will discuss how to navigate the delicate balance between the intimate and the universal, weaving personal memoir with rigorous reporting to amplify complex issues.

Speakers

Melissa Ludtke

author of Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside

When Melissa Ludtke was 26 years old, she challenged Major League Baseball in federal court – and won. Her charge was gender discrimination. She pursued her rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which led to women in sports media gaining equal access... Read More →

Mike DeSocio

author of Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America

Mike De Socio is an independent journalist and author who writes about social justice and solutions. His first book, "Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America," was published in 2024. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Metcalf Small

Breakout

2:15pm EDT

Unauthorized: Tools, Tactics, and the Ethics of Biography

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Terrace Lounge

Biography is a rich genre but rife with challenges both practical and ethical. Brendan O’Meara discusses why unauthorized biography is superior to authorized, offers organizational tips for the task, while also delving into what feels inherently exploitative about biography and how best to proceed in the face of it.

Speakers

Brendan O'Meara

host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Brendan O'Meara is the host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where he talks to tellers of true tales about the true tales they tell. He's also a journalist and author of two books, his latest coming out in May 2025 via Mariner Books titled "The Front Runner: The Life of... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Terrace Lounge

Breakout

3:30pm EDT

Magazine Pitches

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

East Balcony

Our editors will listen and react to story ideas, offering helpful feedback and suggestions for how to get that writing assignment. Submit your fully-formed pitch for a magazine story to srkess@bu.edu by Friday, March 14.

Due to limited time, we'll select about six pitches. Those with selected pitches will present their ideas to the panel on Saturday, March 29.

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
East Balcony

Breakout

3:30pm EDT

The Hidden Grammar of Audio Stories

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Terrace Lounge

What are the characteristics of a good radio story, narrative series, or interview show? What kinds of reporting projects make for good podcasts? This session is for the podcast-curious as well as seasoned audio professionals. We’ll learn to identify how various audio formats speak to audiences, how writing for the ear differs from writing for the page, and how to avoid impulses that can make audio stories harder to pull together (and harder for listeners to follow). Presenter Julia Barton is a longtime story editor for public radio and commercial podcasts. She recently completed a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, and was executive editor at Pushkin Industries, where she developed and edited shows including “Revisionist History” with Malcolm Gladwell, “Against the Rules” with Michael Lewis, and “The Last Archive” with Jill Lepore.

Speakers

Julia Barton

Story editor, reporter, and producer

Julia Barton is a longtime story editor of podcasts and radio, and a 2023-24 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. As Executive Editor of Pushkin Industries, Barton helped develop the chart-topping shows "Revisionist History" with Malcolm Gladwell, "Against the Rules" with Michael... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Terrace Lounge

Breakout

3:30pm EDT

The Hitman, His Wife, and the Ethics of Narrative: Balancing Trust, Truth, and Consequences in Journalistic Storytelling

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Metcalf Small

Hannah Beech, senior correspondent for The New York Times and winner of the 2025 Hugo Shong Reporting on Asia Award, will delve into the emotional complexities of narrative journalism in this session on balancing intimacy with objectivity. Drawing on her recent experience reporting on the story of an ex-hitman in the Philippines–in addition to several other recent stories–Beech will examine the transactional nature of journalist/source relationships—how we balance the need to gain trust with the obligation to report truthfully, even when those truths might harm or discomfort our sources. She'll explore the ethical challenges of writing about people whose lives are messy and morally complex and discuss how narrative journalists can remain authentic truth-tellers while also striving for intimacy.

Speakers

Hannah Beech

Senior Asia correspondent for The New York Times

Hannah Beech is the senior Asia correspondent for The New York Times. Previously, she was the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times. She lives in Bangkok and was based earlier in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as the East Asia bureau chief for Time magazine. She has reported... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Metcalf Small

Breakout

3:30pm EDT

The Weight of the World: Community journalists on covering high-profile tragedies in their own backyards

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Conference Auditorium

Mass shootings, particularly those that become cultural touchstones in the U.S., leave indelible marks on both the communities in which they occur and on the journalists tasked with covering them. This panel brings together journalists who have reported on mass shootings within their own communities for local media outlets: The Orlando Sentinel, WSHU Public Radio, and The Uvalde Leader- News. Naseem Miller, Craig LeMoult, Meghann Garcia, and Pete Luna will explore the unique challenges of telling deeply local stories and the often-overlooked demands of local journalism in the aftermath of trauma, as well as how these tragedies have altered the trajectory of these journalists' careers and lives Moderator: Jessica DuLong

Speakers

Craig LeMoult

Reporter at WGBH

Craig has been a reporter at NPR member station GBH in Boston for 10 years, where he reports on a wide range of topics, including environmental and public health issues. Previously, Craig reported for 7 years at WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut. On December 14, 2012, he reported from... Read More →

Naseem Miller

senior editor for health at The Journalist's Resource

Naseem Miller is the senior editor for health at The Journalist's Resource. Before joining JR, she was a senior health reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered the Pulse nightclub mass shooting and was part of the team that was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage... Read More →

Meghann Garcia

Managing editor of the Uvalde Leader-News

Meghann Garcia joined the Uvalde Leader-News in October 2008 after graduating from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in government. She worked as a production assistant; staff writer covering county, city, crime, appraisal district and general assignments at various... Read More →

Pete Luna

General manager of the Uvalde Leader-News

Pete Luna joined the Uvalde Leader-News in June 2006. He was a production assistant and also took photos for nearly two years before transitioning to the circulation department, where he spent about 13 years before becoming general manager. He has won multiple regional, state, and... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Conference Auditorium

Breakout

4:45pm EDT

Closing Keynote: 2025 Hugo Shong Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Connie Chung

Saturday March 29, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Speakers

Connie Chung

Journalist

Connie Chung, pioneer news anchor and reporter, was the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News, the flagship news broadcast on CBS. Connie was the first Asian to anchor any news program on CBS, NBC, and ABC. Both were milestones in broadcast television history.She has received... Read More →

Saturday March 29, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm EDT

Keynote

5:45pm EDT

Reception and book signing

Saturday March 29, 2025 5:45pm - 6:45pm EDT