Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, shows how storytelling is and forever has been the most influential means of communicating. Try to go a day without hearing or telling a story. Try to turn on the television, open your laptop, go-to school and avoid hearing a story – it’s not really possible. Essentially our world is dictated by the story and we as a species are addicted to the story. Is it a bad thing that we are “wired” to the story? Not necessarily – at least not always. Storytelling has made our species successful, but it has also created crime. Jonathan Gottschall’s video quickly asks us to explore how stories continues to shape us in startling ways. Ask yourself – Why do we live in fiction? How did we become the storytelling animal?

Story made by Jonathan Gottschall
Animation by Greg Lytle
Sound by Jason Todd

Why are we putty in a storyteller’s hands? Read more on Jonathan Gottschall’s science and belief behind the power of the story in his full-write-up on Co.CREATE.