The Power of Stories

For those of you who don't already listen to Ira Glass's This American Life might not know the man talking in the film clip below. This American Life is a brilliant story telling show that is absolutely well worth checking out. In some ways the lecture Ira gives below gives the flavour of his radio show.
His topic is stories.

”Narrative,” he says, “is basically a machine that’s raising questions and answering them.”  

He talks about how to keep your listeners attention and how that then can get your point across with a story which grabs and keeps your attention.

Towards the end as he gives his thoughts on 1001 nights we get a glimpse of the true power of stories to change people and sometimes even save lives. This is inspirational and important stuff for Showmen in all genders and walks of life.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

Ira Glass is the producer of an American Public Radio show called This American Life. It is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira. The show has about two million listeners a week and is essentially a story telling program. Every week he seeks out stories as diverse as psychopathy, car show culture, people who are their own worst enemies, and neighborhood watch.

In the following clips Ira Glass shares some of his ideas on the pleasures and pains of having to create stories on a regular basis. Like how when you start; be prepared for your work not matching your own standards. Remember that you are already an experienced story judge. You have read hundreds of stories and essays and for the first few years you will read your own stories and find that they fall short of your own high expectations. Your taste is better than your grasp of the craft. This is normal and everyone goes through it, or that is to say many people actually never get through this. But the great ones did. The key to overcome this is perseverance. Do work, lots of it, unpaid, or paid does not matter, you need to practice. Great advice to getting through it and at least have a shot at the Great Stories.

It is an inspirational and straight forward, practical talk. I hope you enjoy it. 

Part One:

    Part Two:

Part Three:

And Finally Part Four: 

(Thanks to Open Culture for posting this.)