Storytelling

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Episode 126: Road Trip with the Rabbi

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Stories of Life's Strange and Wonderful Transitions

He was in his early 20s when he decided to hitchhike across the US, just to explore and meet people. It was being on the road in those conditions that made Yonason Goldson an exceptional listener and discerner of each person's truth.

We met via LinkedIn, and I was eager to have a chat with the Rabbi to hear more of his stories, especially after reading his article about the time a young Jewish student asked about the obvious scar on the back of his ear from when he had it pierced years before studying to become a Rabbi.

His TEDx is all about why labels create painful distortions in our relationships, and why we have to be so careful about applying those generalizations to individuals.

Connect with him on LinkedIn, and visit Rabbi Yonason Goldson's website to learn more about his work as a keynote speaker, writer, and teacher. And here's a hint: He makes a great speaker for any audience, he just happens to be a Rabbi and uses his experiences to bring his outstanding stories and lessons to life.

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Episode 125: History Isn't What You Think it Is. History is us.

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Martha Kohl has always had a strong connection to history, but not in a traditional way. She loved listening to the stories told by her parents and grandparents about how and where they grew up, the social and political environments of those times, and the ways those experiences shaped their lives.

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Episode 124: Your Stories Don't Define You. How You Tell Them Will.

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Think about that title for a second. Your Stories Don’t Define You. Those things that happen in your life are not what define you, create your identity, and shape your relationships. It’s how you talk about those things that matters.

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Episode 123: Magic Saved His Life - Like Magic, Relationships are All About Perspective

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Brian Miller wasn’t always super outgoing, a performer, comfortable speaking with an audience As a matter of fact, he was so shy no one could possibly have called him that. No one knew him well enough to insult him in that way. But due to his shyness and severe social anxiety, his peers had plenty of other words to use to insult, demean, and bully him.

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Episode 122: Storytelling As A Means of Self-Reflection and Change

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He looked at his 2 year old son, standing at the foot of the bed where Bryan Falchuck's wife, his son's mother, was wasting away in front of his eyes.

It was that moment when he knew he had to change. To be there for his son in a way he hadn't felt supported as a child, and to be there for his wife in a way he knew she needed, he had to take the steps. Those steps included steps backward, to better understand why he was so compelled to action, so compelled to exploit his anxiety as a tool for professional success.

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Episode 121: Stories of Growing Up and Growing Through Mental Illness

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Dominic Vogel was single-minded about his career and where he intended to go with it. He's driven to help others, and his particular area of expertise is cyber security. When he started his dream job with a company he had confidence and trust in, he was absolutely focused on working his way into managing a team.

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Episode 120: Not A Super Fan of a Show or Movie? You Might Be Missing Out!

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Evolutional Psychology: Stories of Tribal Communities Based on Fandom

Annette Taylor playfully describes her transformation from a semi-traditional adult into a super fan of the tv show Supernatural as her second adolescence or her mid-life crisis.

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But instead of blindly following her urge to dive into this newfound side of herself, she became very curious about the “why” behind this transformation. What was driving her to shift her behavior in this way? What was happening in her brain that could explain the intense desire to watch every episode, learn everything she could about the characters and the actors who played them, and even to fly across the country for a convention for the show?

Having a master’s degree in educational psychology, and many years of experience in the human development field, Annette started a deep dive into a related field - evolutionary psychology. Over the past few years, she has read and absorbed hundreds of books and articles, driven to understand the intensity that comes with super fandom. Her conclusion? Humans continue to demonstrate characteristics of our great, great, great, great…. ancestors, all the way back to when we were cave dwellers.

As cave-dwellers, we started to truly understand the value of a community or tribe. We innately understood that when we liked and appreciated the same things as the people around us, our lives were a little bit simpler and safer.

This characteristic translates into what we see now in the behaviors of entire groups of people, from super fans of tv shows, movies, musicians and theatre, to religious communities and political parties. When we find people who feel strongly like we do about something, we feel deeply connected to them, we feel understood and appreciated, and we feel safe to express our opinions and feelings.

During our conversation about Annette’s education, she mentioned that the founders of Evolutionary Psychology were at UCSB, here’s the website for the Center for Evolutionary Psychology.

Annette’s deep dive into the psyche of super fans continues, and she shares her thoughts and insights on a variety of platforms. Visit her blog site, Congirl vs. Cavegirl (Congirl is slang for convention girl), follow her on Twitter, take a look at her published article in Psychology Today, and connect with her on LinkedIn to learn more.