The world is still a little weary of Generative AI, and understandably so given the spread of misinformation in the modern age, but the entertainment industry has already found some exciting uses for it. Treefort Media founder Kelly Garner has unveiled aniPhoneapp called Storyrabbit that incorporates AI as an exciting new lens through which to discover more about the world as you step into it. Storyrabbit allows a user to select any position on a map, or simply turn on their location services, to hear stories from that spot based on various preferences, then to fall further down rabbit holes that both teach and entertain.
BelovedLord of the RingsandLostactor Dominic Monaghanserves as one of Storyrabbit’s trusty hosts, offering a filter called The Wild Guide that is attuned to the flora and fauna of any location a user might encounter or be interested in. Monaghan lent his voice to the project due to his own deep passion for nature conservation and the protection of endangered species, but it is through the help ofYounite-AI, aleader in Generative AIand XR technologies, that he can be heard crafting stories based on animals living anywhere in the world. Storyrabbit currently also offers the True Crime Guide with FBI criminal profiler Candice DeLong (Killer Psyche), the Monster Guide with Stephen Asma (Chinwag), and the Cynical Guide to enjoy a little snark.
Dominic Monaghan & Phil LaMarr Weave A Mystery In Audible Original Moriarty
Voice actors Phil LaMarr and Dominic Monaghan discuss the second season of their Audible Original series Moriarty and working with Helen Mirren.
Screen Rantinterviewed Dominic Monaghan and Treefort Media creative Kelly Garner about the inspiration behind Storyrabbit, how each guide filters the world through a different lens, and why the app contains the perfect building blocks to create a community interested in similar subjects -whether they be true crime, nature, or the paranormal.
How Storyrabbit Came Into Being & Got Dominic Monaghan On Board
Screen Rant: Man, I’ve been playing with this Storyrabbit app, and I have not been able to stop. There are so many cool different categories and things you can do on it, and I found out about Monarch butterflies right here in my neighborhood from your lovely voice. Tell me about how the concept of Storyrabbit evolved and what drew you to it.
Kelly Garner: I think all of us at some point have been walking through a park, or going on a hike or traveling to some interesting place, and had the sense that there’s a history here. Sometimes it’s actually quite difficult to figure out the context for places and easily learn about them. In doing a lot of travel this past summer, I had this realization - like an actual, “Aha!” lightbulb moment - about what we were doing with Treefort’s premium storytelling across all genres in audio. Would it be possible to take any data source or any location or point of interest and make an interesting story about it? Not just famous places, not just historical landmarks, but any intersection or part of the LA River. You realize, “Wait a minute, there used to be an orange grove here stretching over the entire valley.”
That led to a cascade of realizations that, based upon all of this data and knowledge that we have experienced as a human race on this planet, it’s really exciting to be able to unlock all of that knowledge and create something that tells a story. It doesn’t just read a Wikipedia page; that’s not what this is. We’ve spent a lot of time with the algorithms and with the technology itself to make sure that we’re really achieving something in the storytelling that people will find entertaining and informative. You want to lead with the stuff that’s interesting and, as it turns out, there’s cool stuff all around us everywhere. Finally, there’s a way to decode the world.
Dominic Monaghan: I’ve known Treefort Media for quite a while now. We partnered on an Audible original drama called Moriarty, which I think has done two seasons and is close to doing three. This is a company that, in a lot of ways, specializes in the audio world.
Kelly had talked to me about this idea of trying to understand the planet on the basis of curiosity and being told stories. It’s great that you’ve found the Monarch Butterfly in the place where you live, but imagine how much this app opens up if you’re lucky enough to be traveling to places that you’ve never been to before. You actually want someone to tell you stories about that place through different filters, whether that’s history or nature or true crime. It’s a very fun way of understanding the world; a playful or even cynical way of looking at these places, just to give you a little medicine for the sugar that you’ve been swallowing for so long.
I think Kelly and I as friends have always been interested and intrigued by how stories are told around the world and how that colors the way that you understand it. It just seemed like a very on-brand idea for the way that I travel. I go to places that I’ve never been to before, and I’ve rarely been to the same country more than once or twice, but I usually go in without any information whatsoever. It’s about exploring curiosity, it’s about exploring the unknown, and every so often being given the opportunity to go down these little rabbit holes that you are interested in, it just opens up a different way of traveling.
How Storyrabbit Uses AI To Enhance The Listener’s Experience
“What if we design all the guardrails, but we don’t actually have to physically be recording every single thing?”
Screen Rant: I love that Surprise Me feature on the app, where you can click it, and it just gives you something randomized so you can literally dive down a rabbit hole. I think that Storyrabbit utilizes AI in such a brilliant way, as a tool that teaches us the best of what’s around us. Can you talk about how Storyrabbit utilizes AI and location-based features to enhance the storytelling experience for users?
Kelly Garner: Before we had these tools available, I had a similar dream. “Wouldn’t it be cool to essentially be able to listen to a podcast wherever you are in the world about a place?” But the world is a really big place and physical production takes a very long time. I’ve been in TV, film, and video for the past 20-plus years, and the reality is that sometimes even a limited podcast series that’s 10 episodes could take a year to make. There’s not enough time to even consider covering the entire Earth.
These AI tools have really allowed us to think about scale in a really profound new way where the challenge is, “Can we apply this great kind of storytelling and captivating sort of short audio stories? How do we do that globally?” And it never would’ve been possible before if we’re just out there in the field trying to record and then edit and do all that stuff. We do that on lots of podcasts, but with this, we did an experiment and said, “What if we design all the guardrails, but we don’t actually have to physically be recording every single thing?” That’s allowed us full coverage of the world.
If you’re listening to Dominic Monaghan’s guide, for example, The Wild Guide, you could be in a park down the street or you could go on the map to a place in Antarctica and hear a really fascinating story about the local nature. Well, there’s a lot of ice there, so maybe that’s not the best place.
Dominic Monaghan: They have narrators on the app telling you all about the world or the filter that you happen to be looking at. For those narrators to get that much information about our planet as a whole, they would have to spend years in a studio. Instead of spending years, I think I was in there for about three hours, just reading stories about octopuses, about creatures that live in trees, and even stories about nature. From there, they put it through an artificial intelligence engine that can then use their voice to tell stories everywhere. Otherwise, I’d have to be in the studio seven or eight hours a day every day until I’m 80 - and I’m going to be dead by the time I’m 70, man. I’m moving too fast!
Screen Rant: Can you elaborate on how the app’s interest and location-based features work to personalize the audio journey for the user?
Kelly Garner: I think one of the trends that we’ve really seen at Treefort is that entertainment is heading to a much more personalized place where you’re choosing what you want to be looking at and listening to, and you may not look beyond social media to make that realization. Everyone has different interests, and you might be obsessed with history or sci-fi or something else. Maybe you’re traveling with a child who isn’t interested in sci-fi, but they’re interested in anime.
It’s this idea that you can choose your own filter into the world, and then essentially it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure for the world. You can really literally point anywhere on the map and hear captivating stories. What we’re really trying to do is give people those realizations and moments of discovery that you don’t have to go to a faraway place to achieve.
You can learn things about your neighborhood that you had no idea about if you’re into true crime. We have one of our hosts of a show called Killer Psyche we’ve been doing for a long time now, Candice DeLong, who’s a former FBI criminal profiler and psychiatric nurse. She’s the original Mindhunter, and we designed a persona for her that allows her filter on the world so you can listen to true crime stories in your own neighborhood for better or worse.
Say you’re traveling somewhere, and you just want to hear true crime stories that happened around the Eiffel Tower. We’re not trying to say there’s a monolithic way to storytell. We haven’t banked all of these stories, so each story that you create is unique. Then if it’s a good one and you liked it, you can share with your friends. Hopefully, they’ll spread the word as you all learn about new stuff.
Each Storyrabbit Host Has Their Own Filter, And Dominic Monaghan’s Is The Wild Guide
“There are so many different aspects of nature that are hidden to us.”
Screen Rant: You have various filters, like The Wild Guide, which teaches us about nature. As the narrator of The Wild Guide, what kind of stories and experiences can listeners expect from it?
Dominic Monaghan: I’ve always been interested in the disaffected part of nature, or the road less traveled. Of course, elephants and tigers and gorillas and lions are animals that I’m also interested in, but because of the charisma value of those animals and the accessibility, they’re going to be okay. They’re going to get looked after because these are symbols of nature.
For me, I see it all as one complete entity. An elephant to me is as interesting as an elephant shrew or any other minuscule animal. I want to know about them. Again, looking at the world of nature through my particular preferences for the listener will take them on roads and journeys that they could never even think; that they wouldn’t go to before because they never even heard of the animal. That’s what I certainly like about my view of nature; it’s a mystery every time you get to a different place because there are so many different aspects of nature that are hidden to us. This is an app that shines a light on that secret world that we’re all living in.
Nature is one of the things that I’m very interested in and that moves me in terms of the way that I travel, but I like the idea that you might wake up one morning and say, “You know what? I want to roll the dice.” You change the filter on the world that you’re looking at and, boom, now you’re doing something that younger adults might do. Now you’re doing something that’s all about museums. Now you’re doing something that’s all about the history of the city that you’re in. It’s a really intriguing way to think about how we learn, and usually the most effective way to learn is to be entertained while it’s happening.
Screen Rant: How did you ensure that there was something for everyone on Storyrabbit, and can we expect more of these filters coming soon?
Kelly Garner: I think that we have a pretty long product roadmap and a lot of new features that we’re going to be unveiling over the coming weeks and months, which is really exciting. We could not possibly encapsulate everyone’s interests because you can’t serve everybody. But I think at the same time, that’s where we’re going, and we’re building out this marketplace within the app where we will be bringing on more subject matter experts, more domain experts, more personalities and influencers and celebrities and people that have a very unique take on the world.
We will always be updating, and there will always be new stuff. We’re also working on a feature that essentially will suggest things around you that you might find inspiring or interesting. If you don’t want to look for stuff, we’ll give you a hand in finding some of the cool stuff to get you started.
Screen Rant: What impact do you think Storyrabbit will have on listeners, particularly those that are passionate about the outdoors and wildlife?
Dominic Monaghan: Well, the great thing about people that love wildlife is that they’re going to protect it. My hope with this app is the people who are not necessarily too connected to wildlife, who might find themselves stumbling down a rabbit hole about it, will change their minds completely about their outlook of the world.
I was lucky enough to do a nature show for three years for the BBC and for Travel Channel, and my mission with that show was to change people’s minds about animals that most people are scared of. Because as we talked about earlier on, elephants, tigers, gorillas, and orangutans are going to be okay. We’re going to look after them. It’s the ones that people hate; that people feel deserve to die because they don’t like them. Just because you dislike an animal doesn’t mean you have the right to kill it. It shouldn’t necessarily work that way.
With Storyrabbit, hopefully you’re exploring pretty deep into the nature guide and realizing that there are animals out there that you not only didn’t know existed but are now curious about. And if you’re curious about something, you’ll want to preserve it.
Storyrabbit Is Ready To Take You Down Unexpected Rabbit Holes
“Even though you’re starting in a specific location, where you end up might be entirely different.”
Screen Rant: What does the Rabbit Hole feature entail, and how does it enhance the listening experience for the user?
Kelly Garner: Essentially, we designed Rabbit Holes to pull three different topics out of the main story that we think are compelling threads and could lead you either deeper down that specific topic or take you to a slightly different topic that might be totally different.
For example, one of our guides is the Monster Guide, and this is Stephen Asma, who’s the co-host of our Chinwag show that we do with Paul Giamatti. It’s a really fun one; he’s written a book on Monsterology, and he is the expert on monsters worldwide. I was listening to a Bigfoot story recently up in Washington state, figuring there’s probably some Bigfoots up there to listen to. And the story thread actually led me down to a goblin in Vietnam I had never heard of, which then led us to this ghostly apparition in Hawaii that I had also never heard of. But all the stories had links to one another.
Even though you’re starting in a specific location, where you end up might be entirely different. And as a listener, I think that that can be really exciting because you feel like you’re discovering something, and you’re having a hand in the storytelling. It’s not just us saying, “Here’s 30 minutes that you have to listen to this one thing.” you’re able to decide where you want to go with things, and if you want to change it up, it’s very easy to change guides. “I’ve been Iistening to a lot of paranormal stuff, and now I just want to kind of listen to music or sports.”
Dominic Monaghan: We’re always on the go as humans. Especially when you get to places that you might not have been before, there’s usually an agenda while you’re there, so we tend to find ourselves busy in new places. You need the convenience of being able to check something that you’ve got in your hand to be like, “Oh, you know what? I have 20 minutes before my lunch starts,” or “We got here early, and I have 15 minutes to spare before my taxi shows up. What’s around here?” Then you get a ping, and you may quickly go have the experience and then continue on with your day.
It’s the accessibility and the ease with which you can explore places that you end up. Travel can be overwhelming for people a lot of the time; they buy 15 guidebooks, but they don’t really know what they’re looking for. This is more of a shortcut to know what you’re looking for, and the more you interact with the app, the more it’s obviously going to learn what your preferences are, and then the world becomes even more interesting. It’s building itself.
Dominic Monaghan & Kelly Garner Explain How Storyrabbit Is Building A Community
“You’re being entertained and maybe accidentally learning something.”
Screen Rant: One of the cool things about this app is the community-building feature in it. Can you talk about that?
Kelly Garner: This is kind of an experimental path. We’re not sure if people are going to want to share these things or not because a lot of times when you’re on a tour or you’re learning something, your knee-jerk reaction isn’t necessarily to then share that knowledge. But what we’re trying to do is by making that knowledge not feel like you’re being educated, but like you’re being entertained and maybe accidentally learning something.
Dominic Monaghan: I’m not necessarily interested in the true crime of a particular place, but there are iconic crimes that have happened that have shaped cities and cultures - Jack The Ripper being a great example for London. If I were in London, instead of wanting to do the same Jack the Ripper tour that everyone else does, I can do a Storyrabbit tour and find a community of people through the app that are also doing a Jack the Ripper Storyrabbit tour. You can share where you’ve been and share places with other people, and now you found new friends in a new city with a subject you didn’t even know you were interested in, and it’s killed a day of time while you’ve been in London.
You’ll see a Storyrabbit opportunity, and when you finish that deeper Rabbit Hole dive, you can share what you’ve been reading with your friends and you can also see what they’ve been reading as well. Because of that, you have the opportunity to see what’s happening on a daily basis in your feed and you can create little communities of people interested in a certain thing. Your feed will update all the time, and I would think at some point there’ll be an opportunity for little branches of people to go off in their own little communities, sharing more and more information with each other.
Screen Rant: Storyrabbit offers such a unique way to explore the world. Can you provide any insight into some of the unexpected discoveries or learnings users have shared with you?
Kelly Garner: That’s a great question. We’ve definitely had feedback from a number of folks who learned about some grizzly true crime stuff that happened in their towns. Granted, we’re not trying to make people freak out about crime, but we’re also trying to delve into the history of crime. Even though you’re hearing about this grizzly thing that happened in 1952, so there is a level of separation, but I think there’s a lot of surprise about where notable things have happened.
We have a TV and film guide that essentially, wherever you are, will tell you a story there has been a TV show or film shot there. I’ve learned a lot about that just by living in Los Angeles, where you’re able to’t walk around the corner without running into a film shoot. I think that’s been really fun to reveal. I personally really enjoy the history guide because I feel like my knowledge of history is limited to the last 100 or 200 years, and we’re able to dip much farther back, which has been cool.
I think there’s less one thing to hook on and more that each story is seeking to give you a memorable kind of moment. And that’s a challenge, but I think we’re getting close to that. We just really want to hear from the community about what people like, what they want more of, and what they want less of. We’re a nimble team and we love the feedback.
Screen Rant: When you’re playing with the Storyrabbit app, outside of nature, what are you looking for?
Dominic Monaghan: I like history. I listen to a lot of history-based podcasts. I think one of my favorite things ever is to feel humbled and be exposed to incredible pieces of information that you never knew existed. You’re standing in the footprint of that particular event, and I think it’s quite humbling in a lovely way.
I think the thing that I’m probably the most excited to try when I’m traveling around the world in the next couple of months is the history that I never knew existed. If you find yourself in a spot and you have 5 or 10 minutes to check the app, you might realize that you’re in a place where something happened that you didn’t even know about before you jumped on the app. I like that.
Also, I like this community idea. I like this idea that we all have our little things that we’re interested in; things that we want to deep dive into. Sometimes we feel a little self-conscious about it because you’re a bit of a nerd. You’re going deeper, you’re going deeper, you’re going deeper at the deepest part of those holes is a community of people going, “Oh, we do that too,” and you guys can all become friends on the app. You’re finding like-minded people whilst exploring the world, and I think that’s the thing I like about it the most.
You can findStoryrabbitin youriPhone’s App storein the U.S. andlearn more about the project here.
