Storytelling is a tool used to share things we’ve learned and things we value with our community in order to increase common experience and advance our objectives.
The impulse to tell stories is one of our most human capacities and is central to our ability to share knowledge and grow as a whole. Stories allow us to span time, gain from the experiences of others and advocate for a desired action. The better the storytelling, the more wisdom can be transferred and unnecessary effort avoided in the rehashing of previously attempted approaches. It includes everything from the pragmatic “Hey, I know a guy who died after he ate the kind of berry you’re holding” to the culturally binding (and culturally distinguishing) “How was the world created? Well, it all started…”.
Stories move us ahead. Or rather, they move us in a direction. The direction reflects the intention of the teller and advances some agenda, however malignant or benign. The best storytellers move us the most. When we realize this, the value of telling a good story becomes quite clear.
Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich (also NPR Science Correspondent and Special Correspondent for ABC News) was asked to give the commencement speech at California Institute of Technology in 2008. When the science journalist addressed the graduates of science-related programs, he chose to speak to them not about science, exactly, but about the value of storytellng.
While Krulwich specifically talks about the reasons scientists need to tell their stories well—they must compete with anti-Science proponents—his lessons can be broadly applied. Good ideas can fail because they are poorly explained, while bad ideas can win because they their explanation is convincingly told.
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