You've edited so many standard-issue profiles that your eyes are bleeding, and if you have to hear about one more next big thing you might scream. How can you explore some less-likely ideas without immediately alienating your readers, and balance risk-taking with accessibility? We'll talk about ways to find those unexpected stories — like the origin of a podcast bit, a daily look at long-forgotten jazz history or feature that uses high school football as a lens for gun violence in America — that will reward a reader's curiosity, rather than confuse or bore them, and how digging deeper doesn't always have to mean getting lost in the weeds. Then we'll explore ways to report and research that don't necessarily require a huge amount of resources (or at least, will make the most of the unique resources available in higher ed), as well as ideas for how to make all that research pay off on the page.