#131 - Notes on Stories, Storygraph and Songs
Education Coffee is a 2xWeekly Newsletter on People, Ideas and Culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I share five inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts.
1. Learning from People
On Episode 57 of #LearningStories we chat with Harsh Panchal on his career as a Graphic Designer and Art Director. Harsh is a visual storyteller who has navigated the journey from graphic designer to art director with creativity and strategy. With a sharp eye for design and branding, he has led diverse projects, pushing creative boundaries. In this talk he shares his insights on evolving in the ever-changing world of design.
2. Learning from Ideas and Questions
This is my favourite TED talk on the power of stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Here is a brief summary of the same from the TED website
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blog
Nadio Odunayo built Storygraph in 2019. It is reading application that allows you to easily track and learn about your reading habits with a wide range of charts and graphs. As a user of the app you can see how your reading develops over time and use that to help you find and discover new books. It is a refreshing take on the book discovery application. In this podcast she talks about why she built this application and website and what problem it solved for her as a reader.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Interstellar (2014) made me feel small in an out of this world sort of way. I understood this story a lot better the second time. Saw it in IMAX this time. What a story! What visuals! What sound! Christopher Nolan is a visionary.
But the cast brought these characters to life in this scary fictional world where the earth is coming to an end and we need to look for life beyond! One thing I really liked was the fact that the main character stated that when he was out in space he really missed the finiteness and structure of life on earth. He wanted to be with his loved ones for his limited life and work towards some goal in that limited life. This didn’t seem to happen in outer space or maybe did not happen with the same connective strands that we have here on earth. Something about that stayed with me. Also made me realize how fragile our planet really is and how we really need to take care of it like family. We don’t have an another planet like Earth in our galaxy and we don’t have the technology to find another planet like ours right now. So we better pull up our socks and do what we can to protect this beautiful world we call home.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
My favourite band has released a new album and here is a preview of Automatic (2025) by The Lumineers. You can listen to all the songs in the album in this playlist.
In this video they speak about how they made a music video for this album. I love exploring these videos to develop an understanding of the stories behind songs and why they matter to the artists putting them out into the world.
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I look forward to writing weekly editions of this newsletter this year. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. You can also review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link (100+ newsletters here). You can email your thoughts, feedback or recommendations to abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com. I love connecting with other writers and learners on the Internet.
Abhishek