For this ‘What’s new’ episode we spoke to sociologist Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves, Monash University, and Dr Josephine Wilson, a Perth-based writer and scholar at Murdoch University, about their recent collaboration. Barbara and Josephine brought together research narratives and creative narratives to experiment with how to best convey the loneliness experienced by older Australians living in aged care. In our conversation with Barbara and Josephine we discussed how they came together over this shared interest and how their collaboration worked. They also read one of the compelling stories that came out of this project, and offered advice on how to forge ethical working relationships between academics and creatives.