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Conches and Chaos
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
May 19, 2026
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I binged the new Lord of the Flies adaptation on Netflix because I thought there might be an adolescent health story hiding in there. I mean, it is Adolescent Health Month after all.
And there was!
Unfortunately, though…
It bored me. To tears.
It was very “If I pitch outlets using Lord of the Flies as a frame in my story idea, it BETTER get picked up, or else I wasted 4 hours of a weekend😭”
Pitches sent, still pending btw…
But here’s what’s funny.
Watching it sent me back to The Simpsons.
The first episode of The Simpsons I ever saw was “Das Bus”.
It is very clearly a parody of Lord of the Flies. Kids. No adults. A fragile social order. Blame. Fear. Group chaos. All that stuff.
Then my brain went somewhere even more ridiculous.
Spongebob.
At best, a nod to Lord of the Flies… The conch in the book symbolized keeping things together.
A novel that came out in 1954 got mileage in a 1998 Simpsons episode, a 2002 SpongeBob episode, and now a 2026 Netflix adaptation.
Lord of The Flies is a dark book.
But that’s what makes this so interesting.
That same core idea can take on a dark, serious tone.
It can become a Simpsons parody.
It can become SpongeBob worshiping a plastic conch shell like it has its PhD in organizational psychology.
Same source material, but different outputs.
Which raises the question:
What can social change folks learn from that?
A strong idea does not have to stay in the shape you found it.
We have the research and data.
But don’t keep it Lord of the Flies.
Make it a Magic Conch.
Science gives us that source material. A story helps us decide what shape it should take. So don’t make your message less rigorous. Instead, think about how to make it more usable.
🧠 Story Science Side Note: Deeper learning is the process where you can take something you learned from one area and apply it elsewhere.
That’s what strong storytelling can do.
It helps people carry an idea from one setting to another. From report to reel., or from Lord of the Flies to Magic Conch.
📝 Message Makeover: To keep with Lord of the Flies…
Before:
“Peer environments and gender norms can shape how adolescent boys express emotional distress.”
After:
“Jack felt emotions like fear and rejection, but he only showed anger to the others.
🛠️ The PHacilitator’s Corner:
This week, think about a classic novel, movie, fairy tale, or story everyone knows.
Then ask:
What happens if I change one variable?
Change the audience, the setting, the emotion, the conflict, or the main character.
Now connect it to a public health or social change topic you care about.
Could Cinderella become a story about economic mobility?
Could The Wizard of Oz become a story about community care?
Could Lord of the Flies become a story about adolescent emotional health, peer pressure, or group norms?(wait, I got dibs on that one😂)
Start small.
Don’t redesign the whole story. Change one element and notice what opens up.
What stays the same?
What changes?
What public health idea becomes easier to see?
L8r.