A podcast from
Pilcrow & Vane

True stories about the people who tell them

What makes a good story?

There is a mystery inside good storytelling. A kind of alchemy. How do the people who do it best actually pull it off? Writer-editors — and longtime collaborators — Nadia Ferreira and Margot Reyes have spent a year trying to find out.

Join them as they sit down with every kind of storyteller — reporters, animators, chefs, brand leads — and take apart the work of making something that carries past the noise.

Hosted by
Nadia Ferreira
Portrait of Nadia Ferreira — photo by Candace McDaniel (StockSnap, CC0)

Nadia Ferreira is a reporter whose work has run in The Quarter, Meridian, Bright Wire and The Sunday Ledger. She is the co-author of two books: Rough Cut, with the animation director Pia Solvang, and Held Together, with the engineer Omar Haddad.

Margot Reyes
Portrait of Margot Reyes — photo by Alexander Krivitskiy (StockSnap, CC0)

Margot Reyes is a writer and the former editor-in-chief of Basin magazine. As editorial lead at Pilcrow & Vane she has overseen the redesign of Field Almanac and helped companies from freight to biotech build editorial programmes that hold up.

Season 01

True stories about the people who tell them UNDERTOW
“Doubt is not an obstacle in front of the work. Most days, doubt is the work.”
Low Country essayist Imogen Parr
“When someone eats a dish and it puts them back in a kitchen from thirty years ago, we have done the job.”
— Verano Room chef Ansel Briggs

More lessons on storytelling…

At Pilcrow & Vane we put reporting, strategy and design in the same room, so that a company can own what is true about itself and say it out loud. We call the practice slow editorial.

Halfway through every episode of Undertow, someone from our team shares a lesson of their own, pulled from years spent working with some of the most scrutinised brands in the world. Listen below, read more at slow-editorial.studio, or send a line to hello@pilcrowvane.com.

Noa Kilbride — photo by Jake Nackos on Unsplash

Building a whole world out of one frame, with Director of Photography Noa Kilbride

0:58

Saying the hard thing out loud, with co-founder Elias Vogt

1:24
Tessa Marchand — photo by Thanh Xuan Nguyen Ly on Pexels

What plain design actually costs, with Head of Creative Tessa Marchand

1:41

Why vulnerability survives the edit, with Executive Producer Ruth Abiola

0:47
Sam Oyelaran — photo by Korede Adenola on Pexels

Where discovery actually happens, with Editorial Director Sam Oyelaran

1:11

Reading the room before you write a word, with strategy lead Hana Weiss

1:29
Cora Lindberg — photo by Foto Sushi on Pexels

What most briefs get wrong, with Head of Strategy Cora Lindberg

1:33

Building a world inside a scripted series, with Story Editor Marcus Dell

1:06