I founded the Greats Story Lab™ to bring creators and thinkers together around a single, imaginative vision: to explore the place where ancient wisdom and modern science converge.

For me, that journey began at a young age. I never understood why we’re supposed to pick between the sciences, humanities, and professional fields in school, as though what makes us human is an afterthought to the careers we pursue. What I didn’t expect was how those worlds would collide once I was invited into the world of film & media.

In 2009, my research into storytelling and what makes great ideas stick led me to spend a lot of time on backlots in Hollywood . Finally, one day, a studio executive asked me why I wasn’t pursuing my true calling as a storyteller, and it hit me: he was right. My love of old books, movies, and technology weren’t odd, disparate threads. They were carefully woven together around a central interest: storytelling.

I’ve had the pleasure of going on extraordinary journeys throughout my lifetime thus far. From learning to code as teenager, from studying philosophy and literature and reading old manuscripts in places like the Vatican Library or Duke Humphry’s Library at Oxford, to directing on set, I’m guided by my belief that the power of the imagination draws us together. And it can make us wiser—if we form it wisely.

It’s from thinking about these kinds of questions that I doubled down and decided to create a new kind of media property, that lives at the intersection of storytelling, education, and technology. I call it edumedia™.

With the Greats Story Lab™, I wanted to create a place where other dreamers could come together—from inside and outside the Academy; a place that helps creators share projects on the power of ancient wisdom with the broader world; and a place that shatters the idea that learning, and knowledge, must somehow live in an “ivory tower,” divorced from society.

I’m thrilled that, in 2024, Courtney Becker joined me on this journey as co-founder, and to oversee day-to-day operations of the lab. As Walt used to say, “we’re just getting started.”

Today, I’m as passionate about mentoring students as I was when I taught my first college course at 21 years old. You can find me at Baylor University, where I’m Professor of Great Texts & Creative Writing, and also teach in the Department of Film & Digital Media.