Transom Story Lab
For over twenty years, APM has been helping people tell their stories. Now, we are developing a new experiment to do just that: The Transom Story Lab.

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Our Mission

The Transom Story Lab will support creators, with the intent to bridge differences, strengthen communities, connect to our environment, and create significant work. We will value both art and science and dedicate ourselves to creativity and public service.

Our hope is to serve as a model for new media centers around the world similarly committed to powerful storytelling in audio and other media.

TRANSOM

“Dreamers need tools and tools need dreamers, and that's why we need a lab like this; to explore and to set new standards for what's possible.”

Robert Krulwich, Radiolab

Why Transom Story Lab?

Audio storytelling is booming...

Today there are 26 million more consumers of spoken word audio than eight years ago, while nearly half of all Americans consume some amount of spoken word audio content every day.

…but we still don’t hear one another

Even as audio takes off, there is an erosion of listening to the people around us. Communities are fragmenting. Neighbors are isolated from one another. Empathy and understanding are in decline.

We believe that story — and storytellers — are critical to bridging this gap and meeting the opportunity of audio’s extraordinary growth.

OUR PLAN

We will foster the audio arts

Through residencies, audio festivals, accessible recording studios, retreats, collaborations, and workshops, the Transom Story Lab will create space for the kind of storytelling that gets people listening — and better yet, hearing one another.

Workshops & Collaborations

Between residency sessions, the Story Lab will house workshops and other storytelling opportunities, including key collaborations with independent producers. Some of those programs are described below:

IMI Fellowship

A residential storytelling workshop for short-form video makers. Fellows will spend a month in Woods Hole receiving instruction from a workshop leader and special guests.

Story in Science

Workshops for scientists to learn how to communicate their work to the general public.

Music for Story

A workshop for musicians and storytellers to explore the shared language of sound design.

Audio Storytelling for the Helping Professions

Workshops for nurses, aid workers, firefighters, etc. Participants will learn the basics of audio story production and learn to integrate storytelling into their current work.

Poets of Place

An experiment in localism, this workshop will help narrative artists make exceptional podcasts with local and national appeal.

Festivals and Awards

We hope to make Woods Hole the home of a festival for mission driven audio storytelling made around the world.

A Physical Home

The Transom Story Lab team is pursuing the purchase of a building in APM’s long-time home in Woods Hole on Cape Cod.

The space will ideally house residents and instructors, a recording studio, an industrial kitchen, a small performance center, and break-out rooms.

We are seeking financial partners who can make this vision happen in the village.

Woods Hole, MA

Support from the Radio & Science Community

“The Marine Biological Laboratory supports Atlantic Public Media as they enable scientists and journalists to become better partners in the science communications process.”
Nipam H. PatelDirector of Marine Biological Laboratory
Nipam H. Patel
“Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution supports the Transom Story Lab's commitment to unite art and science, encourage education and creativity, and benefit the local community through their programs”
Samuel HarpVice President of Advancement
Samuel Harp
“The potential here to inspire and impact the media landscape as we know it today — from the individual to the collective experience — is vast and thrilling!”
Julie ShapiroRadiotopia
Julie Shapiro
“The Transom Story Lab is a spot on idea. The pioneering residency will seed new works and forms, build community and new, unimagined collaborations."
The Kitchen SistersIndependent Radio Producers
The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva.
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How you can be a part of TSL

We are looking for supporters, financial and otherwise, who can help us realize this vision. If you would like to make a donation to the Transom Story Lab, you can do so on our support page.

For larger gifts or other ways you can support, please contact us.

TRANSOM

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