About

Climate is, at its core, a story problem.
We have the research to tell it better, and to write climate messages that resonate.

Picture of Caroline Prak, founder of Understories

Hi, I'm Caroline.

As a Communications Strategist, I've spent 20 years helping non-profits and start-ups cut through — building public interest campaigns that made front pages, moved governments, and turned strangers into advocates.

Climate advocates are artists, especially under-resourced ones. They have the values, the conviction, and the instincts. Meanwhile, research on climate communications has grown strong, with handbooks, guidance and polls telling exactly what works.

These two worlds don't meet, often for a lack of time and resources, making the research difficult to apply. Understories aims at bridging that gap and giving access to the communications expertise that turns good intentions into messages that actually move people.

The project started after I joined an MIT program on Sustainable AI in January 2026. Understories evaluates every message against 50+ peer-reviewed studies — across communications, mobilisation, narrative, psychology, and public opinion — using eight evidence-based criteria and an ethical-risk check. Explore the library →

It intervenes at the message layer — where the gap between expertise and access is most fixable, and where small improvements compound across thousands of campaigns.

After a research pilot from May through July 2026, Understories began evolving into an automated system in September 2026. It is being built in public and continually shaped by feedback from researchers, practitioners, and AI builders. You can follow its evolution in the monthly updates.

Whether you have questions, ideas, or want to support, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or at caroline@understories.io.

Looking forward!

—
As featured in: Thomson Foundation, Communicating Earth Podcast (episode 18).

Hi, I’m Caroline.

As a Communications Strategist, I’ve spent 20 years helping non-profits and start-ups cut through — building public interest campaigns that made front pages, moved governments, and turned strangers into advocates.

Climate advocates are artists, especially under-resourced ones. They have the values, the research, and the instincts. Meanwhile, research on climate communications has grown strong, with handbooks, guidance and polls telling exactly what works.

These two worlds don’t meet, often for a lack of time and resources, making the research difficult to apply. Understories aims at bridging that gap and giving access to the communications expertise that turns good intentions into messages that actually move people.

The project started after I joined an MIT program on Sustainable AI in January 2026. Understories evaluates every message against 50+ peer-reviewed studies — across communications, mobilisation, narrative, psychology, and public opinion — using eight evidence-based criteria and an ethical-risk check. Explore the library →

It intervenes at the message layer — where the gap between expertise and access is most fixable, and where small improvements compound across thousands of campaigns.

As a research pilot, it is being built in public and shaped by the feedback I receive from researchers, practitioners, and AI builders.

Whether you have questions, ideas, or want to support, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or at caroline@understories.io.

Looking forward!

—
As featured in: Thomson Foundation, Communicating Earth Podcast (episode 18).

Understories is a public-interest communications system that combines research, evaluation frameworks, and ethical safeguards with AI. Claude by Anthropic provides the underlying language-model capability • An open framework is planned for release on GitHub under the MIT License • Data on the homepage are from Reuters Institute x University of Oxford, Nature communications earth & environment, Potential Energy Coalition, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication • Ethical framework based on the work of Manuela Ramos • Research Library CMS integration by thegraphixhive • Hero Collage "Resting my eyes" by Laura Weiler, Cut & Placed • Website built on Framer • Infrastructure on OVH © Caroline Prak, 2026 •

Un grand merci to the early readers, testers, researchers, engineers, and subscribers of the Reading List who've shaped this so far.

Stay close to the work.

Occasional research, field notes, and practical tools for making climate communication count.

Library

Journal

About

About

Climate is, at its core, a story problem. We have the research to tell it better, and to write climate messages that resonate.

Hi, I’m Caroline.

As a Communications Strategist, I’ve spent 20 years helping non-profits and start-ups cut through — building public interest campaigns that made front pages, moved governments, and turned strangers into advocates.

Stay close to the work.

Climate is, at its core, a story problem.
We have the research to tell it better, and to write climate messages that resonate.