So, I was listening to the audiobook of Wikinomics today. My best friend raved about it more than a year ago, but I hadn’t listened to it before now because I generally save audiobooks for road trips, and even then, only road trips when I’m driving and obviously can’t read.

I had kind of a mini-epiphany as I listened to the book: It’s really hard to listen to nonfiction. In fact, I’ve listened to other nonfiction books, and I could not tell you a thing about most of them.

But one part of the early chapters was riveting — a story about Canadian gold-mining company Goldcorp and how the company was struggling mightily until it opened up all the company files to the world in a contest to find additional veins (is that the right word?) of gold on the company’s property. The contest was a huge success that turned the company around. You can read about it here.

But I found it very hard to focus on the parts of the book — most of it — that were not told in story form. Now, this revelation should not have surprised me as a student of storytelling, but it did drive home the power of stories in a big way. The human brain is just not wired for ordinary exposition. Somehow, we can cope with expository writing (at least I can) a little better when we read it rather than listen to it. But the human brain is wired for story, which is why I was utterly absorbed in the Goldcorp story but not soaking in much of the exposition.

This phenomenon, I believe, is why Malcolm Gladwell’s books are so popular. He writes nonfiction, and yes, of course it contains exposition. But a huge part of it is in story form.

So here I am in the middle of this epiphany when I hear the audiobook narrator — as surrogate for the Wikinomics authors — say that the rest of the book will contain “stories for the casual reader.” I took this statement as rather pejorative both about stories and casual readers. I was so incensed that I don’t even remember how he characterized the other material or the apparently superior beings that the non-story material was directed at.

So, if I’m drawn to the stories in the book, I’m not really serious? I’m not a real reader, just a casual one? Maybe I’m reading too much in. But I think Malcolm Gladwell understands that serious readers read his books — and get a great deal out of them — because they are so rich with stories.

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Just read a fascinating and resonant (to me anyway) article by Frank A. Mills in the online Urban Paradoxes magazine (reprinted from the blog Flaneur). (Beware that some of the links in the article are a bit funky).

In the article, “Quantum Storytelling: The New Way of Thinking,” Mills asserts that “old linear, left-brained thinking” (which “reduces new products, new technology, and new solutions, to just another version of the same old thing”) needs to yield to “a new model of right-brained thinking — Creative and conceptual.” (much like Dan Pink’s proclamation that we are in the Conceptual Age).

For me, the most striking line in Mills’ article is this one:

Whatever you call it, the “new economy” is at its core, a storytelling economy.

That statement is a preface to this:

This is not storytelling in the same linear fashion we use today … The new storytelling model is web-weaving, histological storytelling. In truth, there is nothing new about it; it is a return to a form of storytelling lost to the Enlightenment and its subsequent 1 + 1=2 objective logic. Over the years we have come to believe that the only way to think logically is the linear way. If Quantum Theory has taught anything, it is that there are logic constructs other than linear.

As you can guess from the article’s title and the foregoing, Mills then compares storytelling with Quantum Theory. Here’s a snippet of that comparison:

Each and every story contains, contains other stories, each opening up, if we but see and hear, potential and possibilities for even more stories, stories hereto unknown. In classic Newtonian logic, the observer is always a neutral and objective external agent. In quantum logic, the observer is always involved in the process of observing, and will in spite of efforts to the contrary always influence the eventual outcome. I just stated this linearly, but what we must grasp is that the eventual outcome is not fixed, not even singular, but rather has the potential to be one or more of many possibilities, perhaps even hereto unobserved. Every story has a backstory, middle, and end. In quantum storytelling, it is the middle, not the backstory nor the end that is important.

(I’m not sure Mills really explains why the middle is most important). He goes on to discuss how our brains think in “wholes,” not parts; thus, “The natural result of the mind processing the ‘whole story,’ i.e., the quantum story.” Mills ends with this powerful call to action:

Let us tell the stories that need to be told, and in the telling and the conversations, discover brand new, hereto unrealized solutions. Quantum storytelling is our last hope for a better future.

[Image credit: From The Daily Galaxy, http://www.dailygalaxy.com/myweblog/parallelworldsmultiversequantum_physics/, depicting quantum theory]

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

We remember stories better than we do other forms of learning-delivery, report Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide in their blog, Eide Neurolearning Blog. I wish they’d cited the exact research studies they’re referring to The research reports they cite are below the blog entry the above link goes to. The Eides report:

Because remembering a story is easier than remembering sentences, and remembering sentences is easier than remembering word lists, story-based learning may be essential for children (and those of us adults) who have small auditory verbal working memories. In fact research studies in the 1970s established that story learning could enhance memory retention by 2- to 7-fold.

When I regularly asked my (college-age) students what kind of teaching style they learned best from, they usually cited professors who told anecdotes and stories.

I’d love to see story-based curricula developed for all age levels and subjects and research how these approaches improve learning.

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So, it turns out that “stages” theories, particularly Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s well-known five stages of grief, have no basis in research, according to Michael Shermer in Scientific American. We humans apparently come up with these stages because, Shermer writes, “we are pattern-seeking, storytelling primates trying to make sense of an often chaotic and unpredictable world.”

Kubler-Ross’s grief stages aren’t the only ones to come under question; also on the line of fire are Freud’s five stages of psychosexual development, Erik H. Erikson’s similar eight stages, and Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development.

Shermer quotes social psychologist Carol Tavris:

“In developmental psychology, the notion of predictable life stages is toast. Those stage theories reflected a time when most people marched through life predictably: marrying at an early age; then having children when young; then work, work, work; then maybe a midlife crisis; then retirement; then death. Those ‘passages’ theories evaporated with changing social and economic conditions that blew the predictability of our lives to hell.”

Second, Tavris continued, “is the guilt and pressure the theories impose on people who are not feeling what they think they should. This is why consumers of any kind of psychotherapy or posttraumatic intervention that promulgates the notion of ‘inevitable’ stages should be skeptical and cautious.”

Shermer concludes by saying: “Stages are stories that may be true for the storyteller, but that does not make them valid for the narrative known as science.”

So, stages apparently exist only in the mind of the people living them. No reason we can’t all document our own stage stories. From a psychological standpoint, how would you characterize the stages of development, moral growth, or grief you’ve experienced?

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While the goal of bloggers is often to virally spread breaking news, I find myself resisting blogging about the most current happenings in the storytelling world because, for better or worse, I dislike blogging about what everyone else is blogging about (such as the YouTube videos of Ira Glass on storytelling that I’ve seen quoted in a billion blogs). Jeremy Hsu’s August article about storytelling in Scientific American Mind is one of those pieces that every blogger who has anything to do with storytelling has written about.

My style is to wait till the viral wave subsides before blogging.

Here are some (many!) bullet points representing what I found most interesting in the Scientific American article (all of these represent quotes or paraphrases of Jeremy Hsu’s writing):

• We tell stories about other people and for other people. Stories help us to keep tabs on what is happening in our communities. The safe, imaginary world of a story may be a kind of training ground, where we can practice interacting with others and learn the customs and rules of society. And stories have a unique power to persuade and motivate, because they appeal to our emotions and capacity for empathy.
• Storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history. People in societies of all types weave narratives… And when a characteristic behavior shows up in so many different societies, researchers pay attention: its roots may tell us something about our evolutionary past.
• A definition of storytelling can prove tricky. “Because there are so many diverse forms, scholars often define story structure, known as narrative, by explaining what it is not. Exposition contrasts with narrative by being a simple, straightforward explanation, such as a list of facts or an encyclopedia entry. Another standard approach defines narrative as a series of causally linked events that unfold over time. A third definition hinges on the typical narrative’s subject matter: the interactions of intentional agents—characters with minds—who possess various motivations.”
• People know [storytelling] when they feel it. Whether fiction or nonfiction, a narrative engages its audience through psychological realism—recognizable emotions and believable interactions among characters.
• Immersion [in stories] is a state psychologists call ‘narrative transport.’
• [Through story] … we can attribute mental states—awareness, intent—to another entity. Theory of mind, as this trait is known, is crucial to social interaction and communal living—and to understanding stories.
• Perhaps because theory of mind is so vital to social living, once we possess it we tend to imagine minds everywhere, making stories out of everything.
• … Steven Pinker, a Harvard University evolutionary psychologist, in the April 2007 issue of Philosophy and Literature… posit[s] that stories are an important tool for learning and for developing relationships with others in one’s social group. And most scientists are starting to agree: stories have such a powerful and universal appeal that the neurological roots of both telling tales and enjoying them are probably tied to crucial parts of our social cognition.
• … people spend most of their conversations telling personal stories and gossiping.
• Anthropologists note that storytelling could have also persisted in human culture because it promotes social cohesion among groups and serves as a valuable method to pass on knowledge to future generations.
• … some psychologists are starting to believe that stories have an important effect on individuals as well—the imaginary world may serve as a proving ground for vital social skills.
• Preliminary research by Oatley and Mar suggests that stories may act as ‘flight simulators’ for social life.
• … researchers have begun examining the themes and character types that appear consistently in narratives from all cultures. Their work is revealing universal similarities that may reflect a shared, evolved human psyche.
• … depictions of romantic love in folktales [have been found] scattered across space and time.
• “literary Darwinists,” are scholars “”who assert that story themes do not simply spring from each specific culture. Instead the literary Darwinists propose that stories from around the world have universal themes reflecting our common underlying biology.
• Some scholars note that stories “reveal a persistent mind-set regarding gender roles… overwhelmingly similar gender depictions emphasizing strong male protagonists and female beauty.
• ‘Narrative involves agents pursuing some goal,’ says Patrick Colm Hogan, professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Connecticut. “The standard goals are partially a result of how our emotion systems are set up.”
• As many as two thirds of the most respected stories in narrative traditions seem to be variations on three narrative patterns, or prototypes, according to Hogan. The two more common prototypes are romantic and heroic scenarios…
• Narrative is also a potent persuasive tool, according to Hogan and other researchers, and it has the ability to shape beliefs and change minds.
• A 2007 study by marketing researcher Jennifer Edson Escalas of Vanderbilt University found that a test audience responded more positively to advertisements in narrative form as compared with straightforward ads that encouraged viewers to think about the arguments for a product.
• … stories can have applications in promoting positive health messages. [See this recent entry on preventing a flu pandemic through story.]

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Stephanie West Allen blogged about (and turned me onto) an article by John Darling about to keep our brains fit as we advance in years. One of Darling’s suggestions (quoting “Brain Fitness” teacher Lorraine Jarvi) is to write your memoirs:

If reading is stimulating, writing is stimulation tenfold. Jarvi says keep a journal, challenging yourself to explore complex topics or current events. Also, write your memoirs, which stimulates the vital part of your brain used for memory — and it’s guaranteed to have interested readers at some point down the road.

I was reminded of the recent excellent HBO series on John Adams, who lived past 90 and seemed sharp to the end (at least in the mini-series). Bored after retirement, Adams wrote his memoirs.

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Stephanie West Allen turned me on to this entertaining video from Ira Glass’s This American Life Showtime series. It tells the tale of a guy whose wife experienced an embarrassing incident while waving to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on the streets of New York City. In the story, the man is with his wife … but the punchline is that he wasn’t actually there. His memory of the incident is apparently false.

In addition to its being an amusing story, the video resonated with me both because I have my own (probably) false-memory story and a story of encountering Jackie Onassis on the streets of New York.

False Memory (probably): My parents were having a cocktail party when I was about 6. I got out of bed, went downstairs and outside, stretched my arms out and flew across our driveway. I was about 5 or 6 feet off the ground and did not swoop around but rather stayed at an even altitude during my flight. This memory had always been so vivid that my brain is convinced I really flew across the driveway.

Jackie Onassis: I was a young teenager, maybe 14 or so, and I was visiting my dad in New York City on Easter weekend. We were walking along Fifth Avenue during the “Easter Parade,” and my father turned to me after we passed someone and said, “Do you know who that was?” “No,” I said, “I didn’t see.” “It was Mrs. Onassis,” he said. My big chance at a celebrity sighting, and I hadn’t even been paying attention to people passing us!

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The World's Greatest Yoga Instructor, Emma Tranter, turned me onto this fascinating video presentation, from "TED," Technology, Entertainment, Design, which "started (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Taylor tells an amazing story that takes on special meaning because of her role as a neuroanatomist. Through her stroke, she gains new "insider" insight into the brain's function and the human ability to achieve an astonishing state of being.

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."
– Jill Bolte Taylor

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How can storytelling help you interpret your dreams? A new piece of research by Teresa DeCicco reveals a technique.

In her article, "What is the Story Telling? Examining Discovery with the Storytelling Method (TSM) and Testing with a Control Group," in the academic journal Dreaming, DeCicco notes that her research showed a "significant relationship" between word association and "dreamer discovery" when dreamers created a story after completing word association about their dreams. "Discovery, insight, and bridging to waking-day circumstances was more likely with [the storytelling method]," DeCicco writes. She found a "significant difference between a group that interpreted a dream with [the storytelling method] and those who used the method with word association alone."

DeCicco explains that:

Most dream interpretations are based on two guiding principles: (a) a description of the dream and (b) associations made by the dreamer on the basis of dream content... [The storytelling method] begins with these two fundamental steps and then expands on the basic principles by adding a third step to the process. The third step involves taking the associations and making a meaningful story from them. People make meaning from events based on their own lives in terms of their experiences, personality, and perceptions.

Here's a paraphrased, brief outline of the storytelling method of dream interpretation:

1. Write down the dream in as much detail as possible upon waking.

2. Underline the most important/salient phrases in the dream.

3. Make a list of underlined words.

4. Make an association with each word or phrase on the list.

5. Take the new list of associations and make a meaningful story from these words -- in the exact order they appear on the list.

6. Try to bridge this story to any situation in your waking life and journal about it based on insight from the dream. As questions such as:

• Does this story have meaning for you? Explain.


• Does this story relate to your waking life in some way? Explain.


• Does this story relate to any specific events in your waking life?


• Did this analysis give you any clear insights?


• If yes, write about that insight and how it relates to your life?







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Researcher Nicole Speer conducted an experiment to see if humans are physiologically disposed to break down activities into narratives.

Excerpts from an article describing the research:

As expected, activity in certain areas of the brain increased at the points that subjects had identified as the beginning or end of a segment... Consistent with previous research, such boundaries tended to occur during transitions in the narrative such as changes of location or a shift in the character's goals. Researchers have hypothesized that readers break down narrated activities into smaller chunks when they are reading stories. However, this is the first study to demonstrate that this process occurs naturally during reading, and to identify some of the brain regions that are involved in this process....The fact that these results occurred with narratives that described mundane events is particularly important to our understanding of how humans comprehend everyday activity. Speer writes that the findings "provide evidence not only that readers are able to identify the structure of narrated activities, but also that this process of segmenting continuous text into discrete events occurs during normal reading."

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.