See a photo of Cindy, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.
Q&A with Cindy Atlee, Question 3:
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 spiritual side of me says that it’s the dearth of soufulness in western civilization, the emptiness that many people feel on a daily basis, the superficiality that often shapes our experience and connection with others that is drawing so many people to the meaning-making framework of story.
Then, the pragmatic side of me kicks in to observe that we’ve finally figured out that it’s just so much more interesting to tell a story than to share a data point. The cynic in me says that we’re all just kidding ourselves, that story has never gone away and so isn’t even really making a comeback. After all, humans have been sharing stories since the dawn of time; certainly nothing new there.
All of that’s true, I think, and more. Certainly, there’s nothing new about story at all, but its application is always evolving. There’s just so much information coming at us these days, little of it filtered in an especially useful way. That means our own ability to use story as a framework for our experience has never been more relevant.
We also don’t typically receive carefully tended stories any more — handed down through the generations to provide the cultural context and meaning for our lives. That leaves us pretty much on our own these days to construct a narrative that works for us. It also puts a much greater premium on our “narrative intelligence” itself, the ability to see and recognize the story patterns all around us and filter them for ourselves. That could be an actual evolutionary advance in humanity at this time (I have no scientific evidence for this, but it does make for a good story).