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Before you throw that idea away
Every Tuesday, The Productive Disruptive delivers storytelling science, message makeovers, cultural commentary, and a little rebellious hope for anyone still stubborn enough to believe communication can change the world.
Dorian Johnson
March 17, 2026
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There’s a particular kind of despair that visits when you’re trying to come up with an idea and every single one feels pre-owned.
Like somebody already wore your idea outside and you’re not tryna be an outfit repeater for someone else’s fit.
That was me recently.
Around storytelling. About freshness. About how to not sound like reheated nachos.
And then I hear this quote:
“There are no new stories. Only old stories told in new ways.”
I found great comfort in that.
It takes the pressure off constantly coming up with new stories. Instead, you could just need a new point of entry.
And look around. We all dippin in each other’s tahini(or queso, or guac, or whatever)
Common Public Health and Social Change story topics include grief, burnout, stigma, trust, inequity, behavior, power, stress, prevention, it goes on…
Humanity been humaning for a very long time. The emotional ingredients are not new.
But the slant can be.
A slant is what happens when a familiar topic bumps into something timely, strange, or specific.
Take a topic like loneliness. It’s not a new risk factor.
But loneliness in an era of remote work, algorithmic feeds, disappearing third places, and everybody being “reachable” while somehow spiritually on airplane mode?
Suddenly, it has a slant.
The topic did not become important overnight.
The entry point just changed.
Take this actual example.
Back in February, I pitched Ebony a Black History Month x American Heart Month story on heart disparities among Black Americans.
A timely pitch, for sure. But also a pretty predictable one.
Plus, cardiovascular disease has been the No. 1 killer of Americans for over 100 years. The threat ain’t nothing new.
Daylight saving time, though?
That’s where the story found a fresher entry point.
And it ran.
That’s what I mean by slant.
The connective tissue.
The thing that makes somebody say, “Okay, wait… this version of the story, I haven’t heard like that before.”
Because a familiar story can absolutely still hit if you stop asking, “Is this topic original?” and start asking other questions.
What is this story touching right now?
What does this topic collide with culturally?
What’s the less obvious doorway in?
You may not need a new topic. You may just need the doorway that makes people walk in differently.
🧠 Story Science Side Note: Our brains like pattern, but they also perk up at surprise. That’s part of why a slant works. It gives people something familiar enough to recognize, with just enough twist to make them lean in.
Schemas are mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret new information. Or, mental folders we use to sort and make sense of what we’re seeing.
📝 Message Makeover:
Before:
“Find a unique angle.”
After:
“Find the connective tissue between your story and something people are already noticing now.”
🛠️ The PHacilitator’s Corner:
Pick one topic you come back to often.
Ask yourself:
What is my core story?
What is happening around it right now?
Where do those two things overlap?
Now set a 10-minute timer and come up with 3 fresh slants:
one tied to a timely moment
one tied to a cultural tension
one tied to an overlooked point of view
That overlap is often where the slant lives.
Because sometimes the story is already there. It just needs a better doorway.
Auf Wiedersehen