The People Are Supposed to Be in Charge: A Meta-Narrative for this Moment
This short two-pager explores how a simple and powerful meta-narrative puts words to what people already feel, and illustrates how we can use it to highlight the agency we all have in this moment.
From Independence to Interdependence: Building the Conditions for Collective Agency in the Next 250 Years
Drawing on interviews across democracy, philanthropy, organizing, and civic life, this project explores a central question: What conditions make meaningful collaboration, democratic participation, and collective agency possible?
In the Hands of the People: Resource Roundup
Inspiration, guidance, and practical support to craft authentic, inclusive American stories and use the US@250 moment to help move our nation closer to its promise.
From Independence to Interdependence: Building the Conditions for Collective Agency in the Next 250 Years
On July 8th, Think Big Alliance hosted a community conversation on building the conditions for collective agency in the next 250 years.
How Organizations Can Partner with Artists to Bring Narrative to Life
On June 10, Think Big hosted an online conversation about how communicators, advocates, organizers, and narrative strategists can partner with artists and use creative approaches to bring narrative strategy to life.
Reclaiming Control Together: Building Narrative Power Against Authoritarian Populism
A new framing science brief from Topos Partnership looks at how powerlessness, disconnection, and distrust can fuel authoritarian appeals — and, crucially, how advocates can respond with narratives that foster agency, solidarity, and engagement.
A New Toolkit for Putting Families at the Heart of Economic Narrative
On April 28th, we gathered for the launch of the new narrative toolkit: Narrative Power for Kids and Families: Rewriting the Story of the Economy.
In the Hands of the People: Social Tools
Our new social media toolkit offers ready-to-use posts, visuals, and messaging guidance to help communicators tell a more honest, inclusive, people-powered American story as the country approaches its 250th anniversary.
In the Hands of the People: A Workshop for Communicators
As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, we gathered communicators, advocates, organizers, and creative partners to explore how we can tell a more honest, inclusive, and resonant American story.
In the Hands of the People: A One-Pager
Our new one-pager is your quick-start guide to the powerful narrative framework that can help us move our nation closer to its promises.
Community Conversation: Communicating Truth Through the Noise (December 2025)
On December 11th, we convened a timely conversation on how to communicate truth in an era of mistrust and misinformation. Topos Partnership shared key…
Think Big Brief: Communicating Truth Through the Noise
What can the research tell us about how people come to accept new information as true? And what strategies can help communicators break through when truth itself is being challenged?
Community Conversation: In the Hands of the People (November 2025)
In November, we gathered to grapple with a big question: Can the 250th be our moment to tell an authentic, hopeful American story that celebrates and honors our progress toward equality, freedom, and opportunity while igniting the will to keep striving for a nation that truly fulfills these founding ideals?
In the Hands of the People: A Narrative Guide
Explore our free US@250 Narrative Guide, created with Topos Partnership, for the full narrative framework and the research behind it.
A community conversation with the Trans Agenda for Liberation Narrative Lab (October 2025)
In October, we invited the Trans Agenda for Liberation Narrative Lab to share research and resources that help us speak up boldly and effectively for trans…
Southern Mindshift Project
Working closely with policy and organizing partners across five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Missouri), this Topos/EARN EPI collaborative project starts with the cultural common sense and builds on this knowledge to co-create messaging strategies that can cut through the noise.
Framed: A Series
FRAMED is a series designed to highlight framing choices in the real world and to think through the consequences of those choices together. Through brief, focused discussions of recent articles, speeches, stories, ads, etc., we hope to spark conversation and learn from each other.
Community Conversation: Uplifting a Community Story of the Benefits of Unions (May 2025)
In our May 2025 Community Conversation, we shared exciting new research from Topos that focuses both on community support for unionization efforts AND…
Community Conversation: America @250 – Shaping a Story of Belonging (March 2025)
On March 19, 2025, the Think Big Narrative Learning Community gathered for a timely conversation on how to shape inclusive, forward-looking narratives…
Think Big Brief: Beyond Blame – Villains, Villainy & Heroic Solutions
What happens when we focus on the villain without fully reckoning with their villanous actions (villainy)? Think Big teamed up with the Topos Partnership to explore what social science reveals about the power of villains in advocacy storytelling — and what we miss when we fail to include their harmful actions.
Community Conversation: Beyond Blame: The Role of Villainy (February 2025)
On February 27, members of the Think Big Narrative Learning Community came together for a rich discussion on the role of villains and villainy in persuasive…
Community Conversation: Amplifying Community Voices for Lasting Change (January 2025)
In January 2025, the Think Big Narrative Learning Community came together to explore how state-level advocates in Alabama and Maine are weaving big-picture…
Met Group: Housing as Well-Being
Written by guest author Jennifer Messenger from the Metropolitan Group, this article explores how framing economic conversations through the lens of well-being can drive meaningful impact.
Think Big Brief: Breaking the Doom Loop
How do we present injustices and wrongs in a way that engages people and allows audiences to see that a just, equitable, and joyful future is possible? Check out our framing science brief on helping our audiences break out of the doom loop.
Community Conversation: Helping Audiences Envision a Positive Future (even when it’s hard) (October 2024)
Think Big teamed up with experts at the Topos Partnership to dig into what the social science research can tell us about how we can help our audiences…
Case Study: Developing Emerging Opinion Leaders in Maine
A key challenge to advancing a progressive worldview is the lack of representation of everyday people, particularly those impacted by racial, economic, and gender injustices, as recognized opinion leaders. The Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC), in partnership with the Maine Beacon—a news website and podcast—has been working to address this gap by elevating underrepresented voices and cultivating opinion leadership among everyday Mainers.
Case Study: Empowering Voices for Change in Alabama
For too long, the narrative in Alabama has disempowered everyday people, but Think Big Alabama – a 2024 advocacy and narrative training program – aimed to change that. This four-part program, a collaboration between Alabama Arise and Alabama Values, equipped community members with the tools to drive change by addressing critical issues that matter most to them – like poverty, healthcare, and transportation.
Framed: We are the Union. We drive the economy.
Community Conversation: Exploring the Power and Potential of Well-Being Narratives (May 2024)
Well-being frameworks - approaches that set individual and community well-being as the definition of progress - are gaining traction (albeit slowly) in…
Belonging in and to America: A Short Video Series
Over the last year, we traveled from coast to coast, from city to small town, to talk with people about American identity and take an honest look at the stories we tell about ourselves, who we are, and what we value.
This short video series features some of these voices and is based on the Topos/Bridge Project jointly-released report: Belonging in and To America.
This short video series features some of these voices and is based on the Topos/Bridge Project jointly-released report: Belonging in and To America.
Framed: Legislators Playing Doctor
Think Big Community Coffee Chat: Join us on May 16th!
Exploring the Power and Potential of Well-Being Narratives
May 16, 2024 10-11am PST I 1-2pm EST
Register Today
What if shared narratives about progress…
May 16, 2024 10-11am PST I 1-2pm EST
Register Today
What if shared narratives about progress…
Opportunity Agenda: Messaging on the Supreme Court & The Judiciary
This year, it looks like many of us will need to communicate about the role of the Supreme Court. How can we do that in ways that build to a more constructive…
Advancing a Well-Being Narrative
Developed by the Metropolitan Group and RAND, this narrative guide offers some early thinking on a Wellbeing Narrative in the U.S. - a narrative shift…
Think Big Conversation: Shifting the Story of “Hard Work”
On February 27th, the Narrative Learning Community met to explore the fraught concept of hard work in the American narrative and to discuss promising…
Webinar: Beyond Bootstraps and Hustle (February 2024)
In February 2024, the Narrative Learning Community hosted a conversation on the fraught role of “hard work” in American culture. It’s an idea that…
Spitfire’s Guide to Crisis Prep & Management
Washington State Budget & Policy Center: Washington state no longer has worst tax code in U.S.
This press release does it all: Promotes the win, uses the effective "upside down" metaphor to explain a complex topic, connects revenue to wellbeing and…
ITEP: Who Pays?
Kudos to Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for the 7th edition of their comprehensive analysis of tax systems in all 50 states. Connecting "upside…
We Make the Future Action: Amplifying Organizing
A messaging resource specifically designed for organizers, this new guide offers best practices together with a practical case study example (ISAIAH’s…
Harmony Labs: How to Reach New Climate Audiences
This excellent interactive guide from Harmony Labs (in partnership with Earth Alliance) focuses on making climate culturally relevant. But the creative…
Think Big Report: Belonging In and To America
How do we get to a future America for all of us and for everyone, a nation in which belonging is co-created and power is authentically shared?
Over…
Over…
Think Big Community Coffee Chat: Join us on 12/14!
An informal conversation on BELONGING in and to America
Thursday, December 14th, 2023 I 12-1pm EST I 9-10am PST
Register Today
At our convening last…
Thursday, December 14th, 2023 I 12-1pm EST I 9-10am PST
Register Today
At our convening last…
Reparations Narrative Lab: Research and Tools
The Reparations Narrative Lab - launched by Liberation Ventures - focuses on narrative and culture change to build public support for reparations. Take…
Webinar: Reimagining American Identity (October 2023)
The Narrative Learning Community hosted a conversation on the role of narrative in shaping a more inclusive American identity. Angela Peoples, Co-Founder…
Voices From The South, Chapter 11: This is a Story about Shared Prosperity
Voices From The South, Chapter 10: On Government: A Call for More, Not Less
Voices From The South, Chapter 9: A People-Centered Economy is not Anti-Business
Voices From The South, Chapter 8: Centering Race, Getting to Systems (Part 2)
Voices From The South, Chapter 7: Centering Race, Getting to Systems (Part 1)
Voices From The South, Chapter 6: How “Helping” Goes Wrong
Voices From The South, Chapter 5: Wielding the Value of “Hard Work” for Our Progressive Goals
Voices From The South, Chapter 4: “Hard Work” and the Deservingness Trap
Voices From The South, Chapter 3: Mapping the Value of “Hard Work”
Voices From The South, Chapter 2: We Need a Paradigm Shift
Voices From The South, Chapter 1: An Introduction to the Southern Mindshift Project
October Learning Community Meeting: Reimagining American Identity
New Research Shines Light on the Story of Who We Are and Can Be
October 31st, 2023 I 12-1pm EDT I 9-10am PDT
Imagine a future in which American identity…
October 31st, 2023 I 12-1pm EDT I 9-10am PDT
Imagine a future in which American identity…
FrameWorks: The Terrain of Spatial Justice
Racism is built into places. It shapes who can live where, how resources are distributed, who gets a say over what happens in places, and more. Places…
NC Budget and Tax Center: Everyone contributes or this boat won’t float
Well done, NC Budget and Tax Center! This video is aspirational and explains the role corporations SHOULD play to help working people and communities.…
Webinar: From Scarcity to Abundance (August 2023)
The Think Big Narrative Learning Community gathered in August of 2023 for a deep dive into the current state of abundance framing in narrative…
Think Big Report: Abundance in Narrative
We often define abundance as a contrast. Abundance is NOT scarcity, NOT austerity, NOT competition for resources. So, then, what IS abundance?
What…
What…
SAY IT SO THEY’LL HEAR IT: Updated Best Practices Guide
Topos Partnership has released its newly updated summary of communications principles and best practices!
SAY IT SO THEY'LL HEAR IT illustrates narrative…
SAY IT SO THEY'LL HEAR IT illustrates narrative…
August Learning Community Meeting on ABUNDANCE Framing
From Scarcity to Abundance:
A Think Big Narrative Learning Community Conversation
Wednesday, August 16th I 4-5 pm EST, 1-2pm PST
Save…
A Think Big Narrative Learning Community Conversation
Wednesday, August 16th I 4-5 pm EST, 1-2pm PST
Save…
How to Save a Country: We Can Defeat Zero-Sum Politics (with Heather McGhee)
This episode of Roosevelt Institute's excellent podcast How to Save a Country features Heather McGhee, Author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone…
FrameWorks: Framing Community Safety
A new report from The FrameWorks Institute (courtesy of The Annie E Casey Foundation and the Prevention Institute) has recommendations on Framing Community…
If the federal government can’t pay its bills, then millions of Americans can’t pay theirs
The debt default stalemate is careening toward next week’s hard deadline. And while there has been solid coverage of the catastrophic consequences…
Housing Narrative Lab: Messaging Guide for Communicating About Homelessness
Check out Housing Narrative Lab's updated Messaging Guide for Communicating about Homelessness. The guide highlights key findings from national narrative…
Tax Justice Wins in Washington State: A Case Study
This is a story of advocates and organizers taking a step back and working in coalition with a commitment to work toward a lasting culture shift. It’s…
Louisiana Budget Project: Medicaid Works
Focused on telling success stories about this essential public system, uses voices of impacted people to reinforce the up-front systems language, talks…
The 19th: What would the economy look like if it worked for women?
Check out this example of Thinking Big out loud. This article and the work behind it starts with a vision, quickly gets to what solutions would get us…
Messaging on “safety:” Some positive examples
Recent Topos' research confirms that a progressive take on “safety” is effective (and needed!). To counter efforts by conservatives to use anxieties…
Topos: Acting On Our Values is Good Economics
Progressive economic policies that focus on people's wellbeing can hit a brick wall (or at least a sturdy parapet) constructed by the current cultural…
Webinar: The Narrative Power of a People-First Economy (March 30th, 2023)
On March 30, 2023, the Narrative Learning Community came together to discuss the narrative dynamics shaping how Americans think about the economy — and…
MDCEP: Connecting policy to the impacts
Instead of the usual "the pay gap between x and y is z" this tweet leads with "x group loses y because of the gap." And then it gets quickly to what that…
Bridge Project: Reframing the Prevailing American Narrative for 2052
"Imagine a future in which American identity is untethered from white supremacy — neither white supremacist nor centered around resisting white supremacy."…
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance
Robin Wall Kimmerer considers the ethics of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy in this Emergence Magazine essay. She provides food…
Measuring Narrative Change: Understanding Progress and Navigating Complexity
In 2021, ORS Impact released a second iteration of their 2019 Measuring Narrative Change 1.0 report to dive more deeply into narrative change concepts…
How We Achieve a Multiracial Democracy
America needs a new story—one that is honest and inspiring, and that doesn’t shy away from its racial history—to guide us toward realizing a thriving…
United for a Fair Economy: Economics for Everyone Conversation Decks
United for a Fair Economy has put out a new set of resources designed to help with everyday conversations about the economy and policy. There's a conversation…
We Make the Future: Fund Our Future
In collaboration with the State Revenue Alliance, We Make the Future shares digital toolkits, research findings, messaging implementation, and more on…
Solidarity Economics by Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor
Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor invite us to imagine and examine solidarity economics – an approach grounded in our instincts for connection and community…
Darrick Hamilton on the Moral Agenda for Economic Rights
Darrick Hamilton, Professor and and founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, shares a vision for a racially…
Maine People’s Alliance: Applying a framework of solidarity economics
Check out this piece in Beacon - a website and podcast created by the Maine People’s Alliance - applying a framework of Solidarity Economics to thinking…
March Meeting: The Narrative Power of a People-First Economy
The Narrative Power of a People-First Economy
March 30th, 2023
Recording coming soon!
We the people, ALL the people, drive…
River Valley Organizing: The importance of success stories
When people come together and get a win (even a small one) - we should tell about it! Topos' research continues to affirm how important shouting out…
Maurice Mitchell: Building Resilient Organizations
There are things we can and must do to shift movements for justice toward a posture of joy and victory. Maurice Mitchell's essay delves into the problems…
Arizona Center for Empowerment: People-First Economy and tying revenue to investments
We envision an Arizona that is bright, joyful, and full of thriving communities. However, if SCR1035 passes, we cannot create an economy that works for…
Belonging, Community, and Impact: What it Means to Build a Political Home
Sojourn Strategies' new report follows up on a key finding from the organization's previous research on frameworks that connect with, engage, and inspire…
Economic Security Project: A Storytelling Guide for Guaranteed Income Advocates
A thoughtful new resource from The Economic Security Project - Building Economic Power Through Story: A Storytelling Guide for Guaranteed Income Advocates …
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes
Findings from a nationally represented survey conducted in December 2022 by Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University…
PolicyLink: Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit
PolicyLink - along with grassroots partners and housing advocates - has released a Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit "rooted in the understanding that…
Webinar: Crafting a New American Identity (December 15, 2022)
In December of 2022, the Narrative Learning Community welcomed Angela Peoples and Connie Razza of The Bridge Project to discuss their Reframing the Prevailing…
The Florida Timeline
Check out the Florida Timeline, a resource mapping state historical policy decisions in Tax Policy and Criminal (In)justice. From Florida's earliest days,…
Policy Matters Ohio: Best practice framing, all in one tweet
So much best practice framing going on in this tweet:
Giving lawmakers agency…not a vague “our tax code is riddled with breaks”...no, someone…
Giving lawmakers agency…not a vague “our tax code is riddled with breaks”...no, someone…
Join us for a conversation with Angela Peoples and Connie Razza
Thursday, December 15th I 3-4:15pm EST
REGISTER TODAY!
Imagine a future in which American identity is untethered from white supremacy…
We Make the Future: Protect our Elections Messaging Guide and Toolkit
We Make the Future's digital toolkit on how to confront false claims and protect our elections has been updated with additional narratives, content, and…
SSIR: Changing the Housing Narrative by Talking about Race and Values
A new discussion in the Stanford Social Innovation Review with Glenn Harris, Michael McAfee, and Dorian Warren focuses on narrative change lessons from…
Webinar: Democracy and Public Will (October 27, 2022)
In October 2022, the Narrative Learning Community gathered to explore a key question for progressive communicators: How do we win today’s fights while…
Community Change: Economic Narratives & Ideas Project
Community Change's Economic Narratives & Ideas Project, together with Lake Research Partners, has released new findings from quantitative and qualitative…
What do we mean when we say “Think Big”?
Think Big grew out of a big idea. Progressive advocates, organizers, and funders who came together to talk about communications strategies to challenge…