Stories Lived. stories told. With Abbie VanMeter
Stories Lived. Stories Told. is a podcast celebrating humanity and all our stories—the beautiful ones, the messy ones, and the ones that are a little bit of both. Through this podcast we will learn to tell our own stories and listen to the stories of others, treating both with care and respect. To do this, we will be exploring the communication theory Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). CMM states that “persons-in-conversation co-construct their own social realities.” Join Abbie as she and her guests use the lens of CMM to better understand their social realities and work to create better ones.
The purpose of Coordinated Management of Meaning is to create better social worlds through better communication. This podcast is about empowering all of us in our communication to see ourselves as curious and active participants with the ability to create meaningful change in our relationships and social worlds.
Our practice of CMM is about embodying a “communication perspective,” which asks us to “look at communication, rather than through it.” To take a communication perspective is to consider what we’re making and how we’re making it through our communication practices. This means we look at patterns, contexts, stories, and relationships; and that we use curiosity, mindfulness, collaboration, and dialogue to create better social worlds for ourselves.
So, join us as we take CMM from theory to practice, engage in collective learning together, and apply a communication perspective to make meaning in our conversations.
What makes you a designer?
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Today, Abbie, Claudia, and Chris explore radical changes in learning around systems thinking and design over time, along with the implications for future designers, which includes all of us. This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience as part of the RSDX Online Festival on Sunday, October 5, 2025. Join the RSDX Zoom Event here to watch the recording of Claudia and Chris' presentation 'Configuring Incompossible Futures'.
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Claudia Westermann is an artist-researcher and licensed architect. She is Associate Professor of Creative Practice in the School of Design and the Built Environment at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a member of the German Chamber of Architects, Vice President of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC), and co-editor of the journal Technoetic Arts. Claudia Westermann's projects have been widely exhibited and presented, including at the Venice Biennale, the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, and the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Germany. She has received awards for her practice and teaching, including two provincial and three national awards. For her visionary engagement fostering systemic education, research, and practice, she received the Margaret Mead Prize from the American Society for Cybernetics in 2024.
Chris Speed FRSE, FRSA is Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures at RMIT, Melbourne, where he works with communities and partners to explore how design supports transitions toward regenerative societies. He has a strong record of leading major grants and educational programmes with academic, industry and third-sector collaborators, applying design and data methods to address social, environmental and economic challenges. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, where he led the transformation of the historic Old Royal Infirmary into a world-leading centre for interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. Between 2018 and 2024, he directed Creative Informatics, a £7.4 million UKRI-funded cluster that supported data-driven innovation in the creative industries. From 2012 to 2022, he was Co-Director of the Institute for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, which he helped build into the College’s largest research centre and a nationally recognised leader in interactive media. In 2020, he received the University of Edinburgh Chancellor’s Award for Research and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
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Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.
Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution.
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Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann.
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Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told.here.
Explore all things CMM Institute here.
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Background notes
Hi everyone! My name is Abbie VanMeter.
I have just graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana where I studied Interpersonal Communication for the last four years. I first learned of CMM in my Communication Theory class in the Spring of March 2020; the theory had always stuck out to me, but I didn’t return to it until I began working on this podcast. I enjoy listening to podcasts and always thought it was something that I could do, too. I think they are an incredible medium for sharing conversations and making ideas accessible. I began developing this podcast as a creative project for my Senior Thesis, which I was required to complete to graduate. However, after reaching out to Kim Pearce and talking further, we decided that this podcast could go beyond the scope of my project. I am so excited to officially be collaborating with the CMM Institute to produce more episodes throughout the rest of 2022! I have such a genuine passion for this project that has been shared by everyone I have worked with so far. My hope is that, through this podcast, I will be able to make all the amazing tools and language that CMM has to offer more accessible to people inside and outside of this existing community. In all the conversations that I have had so far with Kim and the Stewards, I have already felt so welcome. I believe that this community is really powerful and I am excited to be a part of it!
The podcast is titled Stories Lived. Stories Told. and can be found above, as well as on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Anchor. (https://cmminstitute.org/stories-lived-stories-told/ ). Over the course of 2022, I will continue to have meaningful conversations with guests like our very own Dr. Barbara McKay and Rik Spann. In fact, many of our guests you will recognize from this community. Our conversations will always take place through the lens of CMM, but some of my guests may never have heard of CMM themselves. In these conversations, we will use CMM to listen to their stories and to create a space that empowers us to tell our stories, too. At the core of all of this is the question: what are we hoping to create in our social worlds? It is through meaningful, intentional conversation that we truly begin to build better social worlds. You (the listeners) are just as much a part of the conversations that we have on the podcast as me and my guests are. These conversations are meant to be models, to encourage us to take CMM with us into our everyday interactions. I will also be producing many shorter episodes that go in-depth into the theory of CMM, breaking it down and finding ways to apply it to our lives. Not all of us have been given the space to share our stories, engage in thoughtful interactions, or think critically about meaning in our lives. This podcast is that space. Everyone and every story is welcome here. I hope you will join in the conversation! Thank you for inviting me so warmly into this community and for sharing my passion for CMM!
Contact Abbie with questions or ideas at abbievanmeter@gmail.com