Story First Podcast

People often reach out to Brian McDonald with questions about story and craft. This archive episode of Story First is an opportunity to answer some of those questions. The questions may be specific, but the answers can...

Storytellers have always been magicians. They make us believe in people who don’t exist, places we’ve never been, and things we know are impossible. And through those illusions, they create something very real in us...

In this archive episode, Brian McDonald and Jesse Bryan talk about creative nutrition. If you only consume what’s familiar, your sample size stays small—and you might not even know what you’re missing. Getting past...

What happens when we stop treating creativity, emotion, and healing as separate things? Brian McDonald talks with poet and therapist Jacky Power about the surprising connection between poetry and therapy—and the ways...

Years ago, Brian McDonald met a young Gene Luen Yang at a comic book convention in San Jose. Gene was hanging around a group of working professionals, listening, learning, and soaking up whatever he could. Before they...

Creative careers rarely begin with careers. They begin with enthusiasm. With discovering the work that excites you, meeting people who share that excitement, and making things together before anyone knows—or...

Stories aren't just entertainment. They're one of the ways human beings make sense of the world. They carry the wisdom we need to survive. They give us hope when we're in despair, direction when we've lost our way, and...

Long before Bruce Walters helped change the visual effects industry, he changed the way I see the world. Bruce was my first mentor. Years before he became a department head at Industrial Light & Magic—leading animation...

Comic-book writer John Arcudi has spent decades telling stories across nearly every corner of the medium. John is perhaps best known for his influential work on The Mask and his long collaboration with Mike Mignola on...

Every creative journey is different. Some people follow a well-worn path. Others discover there isn’t one—and have to build it themselves. In this episode of the Story First Podcast, I sit down with animator, filmmaker...

This week’s episode is an archive edition featuring one of the great storytellers of American film and television: Carl Gottlieb. Whether you know Carl by name or you’re discovering him for the first time, you’ve almost...

When Joel Madison and I sat down to record this conversation, we started somewhere I didn't expect: school. Neither of us fit comfortably into traditional education. We talk about dyslexia, ADHD, and what it was like...

This week’s episode is an archive edition from my old podcast, You Are a Storyteller, co-hosted by Jesse Bryan. In this conversation, Jesse and I explore a storytelling concept I call the outer boundaries. Every story...

<p>This week’s episode is an archive edition from my old podcast, You Are a Storyteller, co-hosted by Jesse Bryan.<br> <br> In this conversation, Jesse and I explore a storytelling concept I call the outer...

<p>When I first met Eddie Smith, he was a student in one of my storytelling classes.</p> <p>Since then, he's built an impressive career as a concept artist and visual developer, contributing to projects including Halo...