Harmony Labs

"A deep story is like values tied up in a coherent syntax, an operating system that sits underneath and makes possible all the applications we interact with on the surface."

Brian Waniewski and Riki Conrey explore why the work of change isn't about rewriting people's stories, but about fitting your story inside the one they're already living.

Read how we're extracting and articulating deep stories from research findings across 13,000 respondents, combined with behavioral media data from the Narrative Observatory:

The Deep Story and Making Change How social change interacts with the values and stories people are already living

We’re honored to be named a 2025 grantee by the Nielsen Foundation! Their support helps us power our partners with data-driven storytelling strategies and reshape how audiences engage with climate narratives. We’re excited to learn alongside this inspiring cohort and harness the power of media to drive positive social impact.

Learn more about the projects:

Nielsen Foundation announces 2025 Data for Good grantees - Nielsen Foundation The Nielsen Foundation is pleased to support six organizations in 2025 through our annual Data for Good grants program...

What does racial equality look like onscreen?

Our new report examines how over 100,000 viewers engaged with nearly 2,000 streaming shows and movies in 2024, revealing what makes stories about racial equality connect across audiences.

🎬 Across genres, audiences engage with stories that frame racism as systemic, and show heroes pushing against these barriers.

💫 The systemic barriers often take the form of antagonists or agents of exclusion, driving the story’s conflict and the hero’s quest for transformation.

We created this report for storytellers who want to reach new audiences with stories that match diverse perspectives on systemic change, helping more people see themselves in the journey toward racial justice and envision futures worth striving for.

Check out the full report: harmonylabs.org/racial-equality-in-fiction

If you'll be at Race Forward’s Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity convening in St. Louis this week, we’re excited to be in conversation about how narratives can build multiracial solidarity.

In preparation for the conversation, we were curious about how solidarity actually works, so we surveyed 600 Americans across racial groups to understand how it’s created and sustained.

We found that for many people outside organizing spaces, solidarity isn't a starting point—it’s the outcome of doing meaningful work together.

When people recognize shared fate and work together toward shared goals, closeness follows. Those bonds, in turn, make people more likely to take further action in solidarity.

More than a century after Durkheim first observed that structured roles create social cohesion, our data show that it’s still true across races and issues.

Read the full piece and let us know what you think:

harmonylabs.org