Why does art matter in our chaotic world?
Most people look at the 21st century and see noise. We’re here to find our voice in it — and help you find yours, too.
Join more than 10,000 artists and art fanatics who get my weekly deep-dives into the clinical necessity of art, the craft of storytelling, and the search for beauty in the world around us.
I’m Cole Haddon. I’ve spent 20 years as a professional screenwriter (creator, NBC/Sky’s “Dracula”), novelist (Psalms for the End of the World), graphic novelist (The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde), and arts journalist. I’ve been in the rooms where big stories are broken, but I’m far more interested in why a specific painting, film, or paragraph has the power to change a life – or even the world.
What You Get Every Week:
The 5AM StoryTalk Podcast: Intimate, no-BS conversations that move beyond “how-to” to find the “why” behind stories and our culture. We bridge the gap between craft and conscience with guests including:
The Filmmakers: John August (Scriptnotes), Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange), and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out).
The Truth-Seekers: NASA’s Dr. Kevin Hand, epidemiologist Dr. Anne Rimoin, and historian Dr. Surekha Davies.
The Provocateurs: Sen. Fatima Payman, First Nations artist Blak Douglas, and immigration campaigner Zoe Gardner.
The “Mini-Masterclasses”: Bonus episodes where my guests return to deconstruct a single, seminal piece of art that fundamentally shaped their world.
The Brew: My personal dispatches on the high and incredibly low points of the creative process and art life, and how to find meaning in a disposable culture.
The Weekly Question: A weekly town hall where our community gathers to debate a single topic – sometimes personal and sometimes incredibly provocative. Always challenging.
The Daily Notes: This is where our community gathers daily for high-velocity takes on film, TV, politics, and the arts.
Where to Start:
Here are five articles and podcast episodes to kick off your experience at 5AM StoryTalk…
What is 5AM StoryTalk?
The name comes from my twenties, specifically those nights that refused to end. While the rest of the world was sleeping, my friends and I were usually stumbling into a 24-hour diner or someone’s kitchen around 5am. We were exhausted, probably a little messy, and even more unfiltered than usual at that age. That was the hour when the posturing stopped and we’d get into films and music and books and what the world really meant – basically, everything that we felt actually mattered.
I started this Substack newsletter because I missed that energy. I wanted a place where we could have those same intense conversations about art and culture without the industry ego or the daytime noise. It’s about the honest and occasionally provocative talk that only happens when you’re too tired to lie and too excited to go to bed.
Stop Guessing. Start Seeing.
Whether you are a creator trying to find your voice or an arts fanatic trying to understand the beauty of the world, you belong here. Join us and help build the most insightful arts community on Substack.
About Cole Haddon
When I’m not here at 5AM StoryTalk, I’m a screenwriter and novelist whose work has appeared on NBC, Sky, and Australia’s ABC. My debut novel, Psalms for the End of the World, was released in 2022. I live outside Melbourne in Australia, where I drink a lot of coffee and continue to obsess over why some stories live forever and others disappear.
