Linen Suit & Plastic Tie

What goes into creating scores for films and theater plays? Remember IMAX theaters and that epic countdown before the movie starts? Why is music NOT the universal language? Come find out about all of these things with Greg Pliska! Greg is a composer, conductor and orchestrator whose diverse career includes award-winning work in theater, film, TV, podcasts, etc. (CBS Evening News and Face the Nation, IMAX, HBO Feature Presentation, Hulu, Manhattan Night, Trust). Through stories from his diverse music work, Greg introduces us to storytelling in music, how music helps storytelling in film or theater, and why music, like many other storytelling forms, connect us as humans.

What is Product Marketing? Why is storytelling crucial to it? How has remote working changed storytelling and the way we communicate? This week, we do a deep dive into all these things Carolina Arguelles Navas, Group Product Marketing Manager at Snap Inc. Through Carolina's lens, we look into how we can better connect with others while in front of our cameras, understand why and how to "listen", and learn to tell stories that are relatable, honest, and true.

Just what is the F in FinFluencer? This week, we talk to Austin Hankwitz, a personal finance & investment influencer on TikTok. Having kicked off his influencer career in Feb. 2020, Austin now has almost half a million followers on TikTok. Through Austin's lens, we get to learn what storytelling means within TikTok's unique platform and format, his goals and vision as an investment influencer, why anyone can and should look into investing, and how content creators can more effectively connect brands with audiences in a relevant, storytelling-based way.

The LSPTPod is excited to host our first live podcast with UCLA Anderson’s MSBA program & Snapchat Sr. Financial Analyst, Sarah Nooravi!

With 30K+ LinkedIn followers, Sarah has many titles, including Sr. Financial Analyst at Snap, LinkedIn Top Voice in Analytics & Data Science, a Women in Big Data leader, Teacher, Mentor, and many more. We learn about her career journey, her insights on data storytelling, her advice to aspiring data professionals, and how to thrive in today's tech world. Our UCLA MSBA live audience also joins in on the conversation by asking insightful questions of their own. This is not one you want to miss!

You probably know about Marvel, DC, and their rivalry, but do you know how they came to be? This week, we talk to Reed Tucker. Reed is a journalist at the New York Post and author of Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC. A true expert & authority on the Marvel-DC rivalry, Reed reveals to us the origins and creeds of Marvel's and DC's comic book stories, how their respective corporate structures shaped their storytelling approaches, and the tricks that Marvel adapted from its Comic Universe to the MCU. Slugfest will be adapted into a TV show of the same name, executively produced by the Russo brothers and narrated by Kevin Smith.

This week's expert storyteller is Alex Segura, Co-President of Archie Comics. Alex is a comic book veteran - we learn about how a comic is built, the comic book industry, the Archie brand, the Riverdale reboot, and the neo-noir elements of Taylor Swift? Alex Segura is the author of the acclaimed Pete Fernandez Mystery series and Star Wars' Poe Dameron: Free Fall. Alex has also written a number of comic books, including The Archies, and contributions to the Eisner Award-nominated Where We Live anthology. He is the co-creator and co-writer of Lethal Lit, from iHeart Radio, which was named one of the Five Best Podcasts of 2018 by The New York Times.

You have seen many ads and marketing campaigns on social media platforms, but how much do you know about the thoughts and efforts behind them? This week, we are talking with Eric Toda. Having worked at Facebook when it was still up and coming, Eric has helped shape social marketing to what it is today since its very beginning. After leading digital and social marketing at Nike, Snap, Airbnb, Stitch Fix, etc., Eric is now back at Facebook as the Global Head of Social Marketing. From Eric's perspective as a pioneer of the field, we learn about what social marketing is, how a company's brand focus evolve over time, the key role of storytelling in social marketing, and the significance of telling the truth in social marketing.

How do superheroes stories from the comic book become animated TV series? This week, we find that out with Kevin Burke. Kevin Burke is an Emmy-nominated Writer and Producer for numerous animated TV series, including Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, Rocket & Groot, Transformers, Star Wars Resistance, Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters, My Little Pony, and more. Kevin introduces us to macro vs. micro storytelling in TV producing and writing, the profound responsibilities and messages that animation carries for young audience, as well as balancing consistency and novelty when rewriting popular stories such as Spider-Man and Star Wars.

This week, we are talking with Brent Dykes, author of Effective Data Storytelling. With over 15 years in analytics consulting at companies such as Omniture, Adobe, and Domo, Brent has worked with some of the most well-known brands in the world, and he is now leading Insights & Data Storytelling efforts at Blast Analytics. He tells us about the three pillars of data storytelling: when data story is/isn't necessary, how to build a narrative with your data, and more.

What Animal Be Cutest if Shrunk Down To The Size Of Cat? This week, we are talking with Matt McGowan, Director and General Manager Canada at Snapchat Canada. Matt graduated from Oxford with his MBA in 2004, since then he has served on multiple boards, led multiple companies to multimillion-dollar exists, served as Head of Strategy at Google, and is now an early-stage venture partner at C2 Ventures. In this week's episode, Matt talks about his unique career path, discovering things he didn't want to do, and how targeted questions can bring people together.