My name is David Plutado Fugate. I am a father, storyteller, and engineer.
I believe in the power of storytelling to bring people together, spark understanding, and drive meaningful change in the world. My work centers on creating inclusive narratives that reflect diverse perspectives and serve the common good. Guided by vision, care, and responsibility, I use story not to protest or oppose, but to build, propose, and inspire solutions. I focus on progress, highlighting how to move projects forward through collaboration, strategic action, and effective execution. Storytelling, for me, is a tool for connection, persuasion, and transformation.
I’m driven by a shared purpose: to contribute to a more just and compassionate world, beginning with how we show up for ourselves and each other.
The video essay of my origin story is coming soon.
This site is intentionally unfinished. You are seeing content and functionality as it is being built, not after it is done.
I believe in showing my work. Not just the polished result, but the process. Some sections of this site are deeply personal, like my home book library. Others are experimental: features built here first as prototypes, then contributed to nonprofit and civic organizations whose missions I support. What you see is real, evolving, and sometimes rough around the edges by design.
Everything I tell stories through, on one map
My production studio in Southdale Center, Edina
Fact-checked video essays, corrected in the open
Conversations about change, personal to global
Comedy, spoken word and table reads at ht.live
What I read, watch and save
Short documentaries on how the organisations working to prevent gun violence began, made for the Gun Safety Alliance, plus the alliance's website and tech.
Read more about Gun Safety Alliance origin stories →ht.live funds six small teams to make short films telling the origin stories of civic organisations, then brings the organisations together to celebrate and raise funds.
Read more about Social Civic →A shared-gate comedy night at ht.live: the comedians share in the door, and every set is recorded.
Read more about comedyclub.cc →Spoken word at ht.live: storytelling performed on stage, and mock presentations. Performance built on speech, beyond comedy.
Read more about glosso →A screenplay, read aloud and barely rehearsed, in front of a ticketed audience. It is a show, and it is how a script finds out whether it should become a film.
Read more about read through →A community choir at ht.live that sings pop songs, meets regularly, and sometimes backs up the singers at our shows.
Read more about ht.live choir →A conversation podcast about change: personal, between people, and global. Recorded in batches, prepared like a research project.
Read more about On Change →Conversations with musicians, singers and songwriters about their songs, named for the eight measures at the heart of a song.
Read more about Eight Measures →A comedy night built on crowd work, the part of stand-up where the comedian talks with the audience, recorded for clips.
Read more about crowdwork →Long-form video essays on the major issues of public interest, fact-checked, openly corrected, and built as playlists that grow as events unfold.
Read more about Citizen Spin →
