SongWriter by Ben Arthur is a multimedia exploration of human experience based on the transformation of stories into songs. This exploration is delivered in the form of a podcast and related live performances, digital and print media, radio, and social media.

With this funding, SongWriter will produce and distribute thirteen episodes exploring themes of human flourishing and featuring diverse, international artists. Each episode will feature a storyteller or author who tells a story on that episode's theme, a scientist who explains the underlying mechanics and associated research, and a songwriter who performs a song written in response. These episodes will be delivered across a variety of media outputs, with approximately 20 million impressions, in order to advance scientific and spiritual information, such as the interdisciplinary sciences of human flourishing.

SongWriter aspires to ignite deep personal connections to emotional themes explored by diverse storytellers, authors, and musicians. Like a perpetual motion machine, new art is inspired by existing art, as stories written by participating authors are translated into new songs written and performed by participating songwriters. In this way, SongWriter translates dense, complicated information into emotionally resonant, personally experienced, and long-lasting art.

By integrating the scientific work on human flourishing with stories by some of the best artists working today, SongWriter reaches large, new audiences for the scientific work. SongWriter presents the scientific material within the context of stories and songs by well-known artists and uses their substantial platforms to reach people who would not otherwise engage with scientific work.

In an episode funded by a previous TWCF grant, Dr. Shira Gabriel stated in an episode, “As scientists we often don’t get an opportunity to talk to the general public in that way – we don’t get audiences in this way! For me it was an amazing experience, and one that more scientists should get.”