Randy Olson spent half of his career as a Harvard-PhD scientist and the other half as a Hollywood screenwriter. His love for theory combined with his love for narrative, and he built an “ABT Framework” to describe the fundamentals of narrative.
ABT stands for “and… but… therefore…” It contends of an assertion AND perhaps another, BUT then a contradiction and conflict to that perspective. THEREFORE, there comes a resolution. In this book, he explores this framework in detail and then extends its application to a long list of domains, including business, entertainment, politics, religion, and science.
As someone who almost became a religion scholar, his analysis of religion should have been cut from the book. It’s not very good or very keen. The ABT framework can be seen all the way back to Jesus’ statements and Bible stories (αλλα, δε, και, ανα), but he discusses none of that. Listening to him opine about religion is like listening to a pastor rant on ignorantly about science. Just leave it to the professionals. Yes, the ABT applies to religion very well, too, but it’s not well explained here.
I’ll also admit that he goes on about contemporary politics a bit much for my tastes. The book will become (has become?) dated very quickly. He’s clearly on the left, which is fine, but he loses some objectivity in applying it only to his causes. He does acknowledge that Richard Nixon and Donald Trump demonstrate the techniques well, but he’s quick to realign himself as their critic in the next sentence. If his analysis is to become lasting, he needs to be less partisan in his telling.
I now work in science and deeply appreciate his contributions to scientific communications. However, because he covered that domain of knowledge in other books, he shortened his treatment on science in this book. His contribution to the ABT will be felt most deeply there over the long term, I suspect. It’s nice to see it applied to other fields and should be applied there. Nonetheless, because of his erudition in one field, his message just doesn’t resonate as fundamentally as it does in science.
Narrative is Everything: The ABT Framework and Narrative Evolution
By Randy Olson
Narrated by Virtual Voice
Text copyright (c) 2019
Independently published
Audio copyright (c) 2025
Independently published
ASIN B0G65LPKJ3
Length: 8:37
Genre: Communication
www.amazon.com