See a photo of Kindra, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Kindra Hall, Questions 2 and 3:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: My storytelling career began with performance. I started telling stories in elementary school in my English class. I then competed on the high-school speech team telling stories, and eventually found my way to the National Storytelling Conference in 2000 at age 18. However, I when I first realized that story could be more than performance was in my high-school physics class where I had to write a paper about gravity. After all my research was completed, I was still one page short of the requirement. I took a risk and included a story about riding roller coasters as the introduction for about three-quarters of a page, and used a shorter version of the same story as the conclusion. I was nervous my instructor would reprimand me but instead I got an “A” with the comment: “Excellent use of theory applied to real-life situations.” I was shocked — I thought it was cheating. However, I continued using that strategy all through college, and every time I received the same comments. I soon realized that using story wasn’t cheating — it was brilliant. Story is how we learn, how we make sense of things. While facts have their place, a story to illustrate the facts is what make the information memorable. This is true outside the classroom as well — in business, in family, in media. Once I figured that out, I was hooked.

Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?

A: The effect social media has had on our lives is profound and directly impacts this second (third, or fourth) surge in storytelling awareness. Society is not only demanding, but fully expecting transparency — expecting it of companies, of our government, of all of the people who hold various positions of leadership. Fewer and fewer emperors are allowed to walk around naked. That being said, it is my firm belief, it always has been, that if you don’t tell your story first — someone will tell it FOR you using various means of social media and you may not like their version.

While there are certainly other reasons, these two: the need for transparency and the urgency of telling it first, have certainly helped in the explosive growth and buzz around storytelling.