A collection of online talks and podcasts that focus on storytelling and organizations.
VIDEOS
The 3 ingredients of powerful storytelling
Speaker: Joseph Romm
Summary: Romm explains that there are three key ingredients that are common to powerful stories: use fewer “ands” and more “buts”, use figures of speech (like rhyme, metaphor, foreshadowing), and choose every word for a reason. He shows how these techniques appear in storytellers ranging from Taylor Swift to Shakespeare, emphasizing that strong storytelling isn’t limited by genre or era. Romm ends by explaining that storytelling is a skill that must be practiced.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Change Catalyst, Storytelling as Connection
Organizational Lens: Leaders and organizations need to practice their storytelling skills and become strategic in the stories they tell and how they tell them.
Story Patterns Explored: Hero’s Journey
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Storytelling is a skill that requires practice and strategy.
• Add tension with “buts” and use metaphors.
• Choose your words wisely and take out words that don’t serve a purpose.
“Cut the ancillary ‘ands’ and add tension with those beautiful ‘buts’.”
Nancy Duarte uncovers common structure of greatest communicators
Speaker: Nancy Duarte
Summary: Ideas can change the world, and the best way to share them is through a story. Stories make your audience feel something physically, and they are far more memorable than a typical presentation. Duarte shares how to weave stories into your own presentations by using a universal framework, starting with what is, then moving to what could be, and shifting back and forth between the two. She uses examples from Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech to show how this pattern can make an idea more powerful and memorable.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Change Catalyst, Storytelling as Connection
Organizational Lens: Storytelling is essential for leaders to drive organizational change, shift culture, and the adoption of new ideas.
Story Patterns Explored: The Hero’s Journey, Creative Tension
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• The audience is the hero while the presenter is the mentor who guides and leads the audience from an ordinary to a special world.
• Creative tension is key, going back in forth between the current state and what is possible.
• Story structure is consistent across great communicators.
“There is something kind of magical about a story structure that makes it so that when it is assembled, it can be ingested and then recalled by the person receiving it.”
The magical science of storytelling
Speaker: David JP Phillips
Summary: Phillips explains the science behind why storytelling is so effective. Emotional investment in a story triggers hormones and neurotransmitters that affect the brain. When a story builds anticipation, it releases dopamine. When it creates empathy, it produces oxytocin, which helps build trust and connection. And when a story makes people laugh, it releases endorphins. He shares examples showing how stories can raise dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins or can do the opposite and trigger cortisol or adrenaline. Phillips ends by promoting “functional storytelling,” which relies on three basic parts: believe you are a good storyteller, write your stories down, and index them so you can use the right one at the right moment.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Connection, Storytelling as Learning & Knowledge Transfer
Organizational Lens: Phillips shows how storytelling can strengthen relationships inside organizations by creating emotional connection, empathy, and trust. Leaders should index their stories and know when to use them strategically.
Story Patterns Explored: Hero’s Journey, Creative Tension
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Stories are impactful because they trigger real chemical reactions that influence how people feel and remember things.
• Anyone can be a good storyteller by following three simple practices: believe in yourself, write your stories down, and index them so they can be used strategically.
“Write down your stories. You will notice that you have three to four times more stories in your life than you thought that you had.”
Winning the Story Wars
Speaker: Jonah Sachs
Medium: TEDx talk (video)
Summary: Myths are the most important stories that connect society, giving people values, a sense of self, and an understanding of where they fit in the world. They include explanation, meaning, story, and ritual. Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is a framework in which a helpless outsider, living in a broken world, meets a mentor who helps her confront the evil around her and reconnect with her values so she can make the world a better place. Today’s stories look different. Marketers have become the new myth-makers, using narratives to sell products and ideas. In inadequacy marketing, the consumer becomes the helpless character, while the brand is positioned as the hero who comes to the rescue. This leads us to believe that “to be a good citizen is to be a good consumer.” Sachs argues that we can move beyond inadequacy marketing and reclaim the role of myth-maker ourselves through a new digital oral tradition.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Change Catalyst
Organizational Lens: How modern institutions, especially brands and media, use storytelling to influence beliefs and behavior. Highlights the shift from community-driven myth-making to corporate-controlled narratives.
Core Story Pattern: Inadequacy Marketing, Hero’s Journey
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Stories define culture and values.
• Modern marketing uses emotional narratives to create a sense of inadequacy.
• Digital platforms make it possible for anyone to challenge dominant narratives and become a “myth-maker.”
“We all can become myth makers again and take that power back from the cynical marketers who have created our world of consumption. We can create an entirely new world if we find the courage and the inspiration to share our own great stories.”
Why storytelling is more trustworthy than presenting data
Speaker: Karen Eber
Medium: TEDx talk (video)
Summary: Storytelling skills are essential for leaders, yet many hesitate to use it because they believe data is more persuasive or they are not sure how to find or tell good stories. Karen Eber argues that storytelling and data work must work together, as data alone rarely changes people’s minds. Data is often forgettable, and people interpret it through their own experiences, emotions, and biases. When people listen to a story, their brains “light up” and releases oxytocin, creating a sense of shared experience. Stories allow listeners to feel as if they are experiencing the story for themselves, which builds empathy and trust for the storyteller. This is why storytelling is so critical for leaders.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Leadership Narrative, Storytelling as Change Catalyst, Storytelling as Connection
Organizational Lens: Leaders need to use storytelling to build trust and align their organizations around shared values.
Core Story Pattern: Creative tension, Journey to the Heart
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• A strong story builds tension, releases it by sharing something unexpected, presents an idea, and communicates value.
• Data and storytelling should be used together for maximum impact.
• Storytelling is an essential leadership skill for building trust, sharing ideas, and spreading values.
“This is why storytelling is such a critical skill for a leader as the very act of telling a story makes people trust you more.”
“Strategy is a Story” – connecting storytelling to your most critical leadership communications
Speaker: David Hutchens
Medium: Video
Hutchens explains that the Hero’s Journey represents our own path as we move through the world and work toward becoming our best selves. When leaders connect their strategies to this narrative structure, they tap into people’s deepest hopes and aspirations. The Hero’s Journey offers a powerful way for leaders to build connection, clarity, and shared purpose within their teams.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Leadership Narrative
Organizational Lens: Leaders can use the Hero’s Journey framework to connect strategy to personal meaning and drive change. It becomes both the leader’s story and the team’s story.
Core Story Pattern: The Hero’s Journey
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Begin strategy messaging with the call to action explaining why the work matters and provide context with transparency about the challenges ahead.
• Cast the team as the hero and identify the “dragon,” which could be internal or external obstacles they must face.
• Emphasize that the journey will be difficult but leads to a better future and meaningful reward when the mission is accomplished.
“When you cast people as the hero in their own story, it is incredibly engaging.”
PODCASTS
Pathways with joseph campbell (Podcast Series) Episode 1- Masks of god
Speaker: Brad Olsen, PhD
Medium: Podcast Series
Podcast Description: An official podcast of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and the MythMaker Podcast Network that unearths little-heard talks from Joseph Campbell and examines their context and meaning. Hosted by Brad Olson, PhD.
Episode Description: Joseph Campbell speaks at Cooper Union in New York in 1967 on the many images of the divine mystery — a topic he famously wrote about in his book series, The Masks of God. Host, Brad Olson, offers an introduction and commentary after the talk in this pilot episode of the Pathways podcast.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Change Catalyst, Storytelling as Connection
Organizational Lens: Leaders can use the Hero’s Journey framework to connect strategy to personal meaning and drive change. It becomes both the leader’s story and the team’s story.
Core Story Pattern: The Hero’s Journey, Overcoming the Monster, The Quest
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Divinity or godlike figures can be used as a catalyst or as examples in strories to convey a larger meaning or correlary.
• Think of the subjects of your stories and fables. Stories for adults are not for children and stories for children are not for adults.
• Don’t use previous beliefs to predict future events. Plato thought the sphere was perfect and the Universe was perfect, thus all planets need to have a perfect spherical orbit. They don’t.
“To have faith in your own experience does not mean that you must necessarily reject whatever lines are indicated for you.”
crowd science- what’s the difference between reading and listening to books?
Speaker: Anand Jagatia (Host)
Medium: Podcast Episode
Podcast Description: We take your questions about life, the Earth, and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.
Episode Description: CrowdScience listener Michael wants to know whether the brain responds differently if we listen to books instead of reading them. Do we retain information in the same way? And is there a difference between fiction and non-fiction?
Anand Jagatia finds out whether curling up with a good book is better than putting on his headphones. She is speaks to Prof. Fatma Deniz from the Technical University of Berlin; Prof Naomi Baron from American University, Washington DC; Prof Patrick Nunn from the University of Sunshine Coast, Queensland and The Guesthouse Storytellers.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Learning
Organizational Lens: Differences in learning and retention in the storytelling medium
Core Story Pattern: The Quest
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Word meaning and intent is handled virutally identically in the brain whether you are listening or reading.
• Multitasking is a bigger myth than The Odyssey. Concentrate on one thing at a time and do it intentionally.
• The format of the information doesn’t matter nearly as much as actively learning or active reading.
“What’s the difference between listening to an audiobook or reading the book yourself?”
Cautionary tales- the truth about hansel and gretel
Speaker: Tim Harford
Medium: Podcast Episode
Podcast Description: We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of “The Data Detective”) brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They’ll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser.
Episode Description: Was the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel – the story of a woodcutter’s children abandoned in the woods and left at the mercy of a witch – in fact, early true crime? A hit book – The Truth About Hansel and Gretel – said that historical records pointed to the story being based on fact. Are we too quick to dismiss the truth behind tall stories? Or are we always falling for tales that are too good to be true?
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Change Catalyst,Storytelling as Learning & Knowledge Transfer
Organizational Lens: Leaders need to understand pieces of their story or information that can be misconstrued if taken literally or if intention is misunderstood
Core Story Pattern: The Quest, Tragedy, Rebirth
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Use a critical eye when reading stories or taking in any information.
• Even when a story presents itself as true or as believable try reviewing it through a different lens for clarity.
“You can’t say it’s a s true story if it isn’t, can you?.”
The moth podcast- banned books week- sharing stories about censorship, courage, and the importance of the written word
Speaker: Cleyvis Natera and Toby Price (Hosts) & Mohammad Bin Khulayf (Guest)
Medium: Podcast Episode
Podcast Description: Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating.
Episode Description: This week is Banned Books week, and to honor that, we’ll be sharing stories about censorship, courage, and the importance of the written word.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Connection, Storytelling as Change Catalyst
Organizational Lens: Leaders need to acknowledge the importance of information in their teams. Keeping information from people sometimes makes them want access to it more.
Core Story Pattern: Overcoming the Monster, The Quest, Comedy, Rebirth
Key Ideas, Questions & Takeaways:
• Has anything sold more copies of books than labeling something as a “banned book”?
• A writers job is to inspire in their readers questions that lead to a desire for change.
• Everbody has something to contribute to a story, even if it isn’t their own story.
“Those brief and silly stories I told my dad had the ability to collapse the thousands of miles between us and make me feel closer to him.”
Odyssey: The podcast
Speaker: Jeff Wright
Medium: Serialized Podcast
Podcast Description: Odyssey: The Podcast is a serialized telling in contemporary language, of Homer’s Odyssey. Over twenty-three hours, master storyteller Jeff Wright delivers a fast-paced, literate, and addictive performance. Each episode features a continuation of the story arc, followed by engaging commentary on the social, cultural and political contexts helpful to maximizing your fun with Homer’s story.
Episode Description: Story Section- Odysseus – “the polytropus man” – sets sail for home. Adventures at Ismarus and in the Land of the Lotus Eaters follow. A detailed flashback takes us to Ithaka, to explore Penelope’s three duties in her husband’s absence: stewardship, sexual fidelity, and raising an heir. The episode concludes with Odysseus and his “12 bravest men” about to enter a mysterious cave.
Commentary Section- First, I address the question of authorship: Did the Homer (or Homers, or “committee of Homers”) who wrote The Iliad, also write The Odyssey? Then I provide a quick overview of the Odyssey’s complex flashbacks and parallel-plots structure. Finally, I offer a “storyteller’s rationale” for my decision to tell the events of The Odyssey in chronological order.
Primary Focus: Stroytelling as Connection, Storytelling as Cutlural Mirror, Storytelling as Leadership Narrative
Organizational Lens: Leaders need to use storytelling to tell their own story or someone elses to justify decisions.
Core Story Pattern: Overcoming the Monster, Hero’s Journey, The Quest, Rags to Riches, Voyage and Return, Rebirth
Key Ideas, Questions & Takeaways:
• Does the cultural context section add to or take away from the overall story?
• While listening remember that this story was meant to be told orally, by travelling storytellers as an event, similar to going to a movie or seeing a play.
• Given the lasting power of The Iliad and The Odyssey, does it matter whether they are based on an actual Trojan War or completely fictional?
“Odysseus, Homer’s Polytropus Man, is anything but a stock character in his story.”
New Thinking for a new world: Greek Classics Modern Life interview with bryan doerries
Speaker: Alan Stoga (Host) & Bryan Doerries (Guest)
Medium: Podcast Episode
Podcast Description: Aiming to provoke people to think — and therefore act — differently about the global issues that are shaping their future, the Tällberg Foundation is sharing some of its conversations in podcast form. The podcast invites you to hear from leaders from different sectors and geographies as they explore issues that are challenging and changing our societies.
Episode Description: Bryan Doerries on using ancient stories to foster empathy and human connection today.
The Greek classics are timeless because they provide insights into our souls, into how we think and why we do what we do. Of course, few of us regularly read or ponder the wisdom of those epic tragedies. But what if they could be made accessible in ways that shed light on the specific challenges of life in the 21st century?
The results could be amazing, healing, entertaining, and educational—partly by stripping away what we think is so special about our time, focusing instead on what makes us human.
That’s exactly what Theater of War Productions, Bryan Doerries, and a host of actors have been doing with global audiences for almost two decades.
Six months ago, we recorded this podcast with Bryan, who co-founded Theater of War Productions and serves as its artistic director. We share it again in recognition that Bryan Doerries has recently been selected as a winner of the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. The jury honored him for creating brave spaces where art, empathy, and dialogue aim to restore human connection, reimagining the role of culture in public life.
Primary Focus: Storytelling as Cultural Mirror, Storytelling as Connection, Storytelling as Leadership Narrative
Organizational Lens: Despite changes in time and location a personal story of hardship can transend time.
Core Story Pattern: The Quest, Voyage and Return, Rebirth
Key Ideas & Takeaways:
• Stories of shared pain and hardship can bring people together and form a community of healing.
• Through inclusion in the story the audience can be the storyteller as well and the listener.
“If I put these ancient plays in front of other people who have lived through these extreme human experiences… maybe they could bring relief and solice to those people as well.”
