Our Stories and Our Selves: Why the narratives we tell shape the way we think about the world

Jingo by Terry Pratchett is a story about lots of things, one being pointless wars, especially those fought in deserts. For some reason this has been on my mind. This Episode Melody joins me to discuss the book, the parallels with the Seven Pillars of Wisdom , by T. E. Lawrence and hint at some more modern similarities. We also talk about the stories we tell ourselves about war, battles and people...

Statistics can be used, and abused to tell all sorts of stories. This episode I dig into some of the ways that statistics can be misrepresented and how the same graph can be used to tell different stories, depending on how someone looks at it. This is especially the case when it comes to young people, mental health and social media use. Source list available at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.c...

Terry Pratchett's Hogfather is a fun parody of several Christmas stories with a deep message. In this episode I talk to my friend and hog historian Marissa about all the Christmas stories covered in the book. We dig into what these stories, and the ways they are inverted in the Discworld, can tell us about our own world. Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail.com or @ ourstories.bsky.social...

The replication crisis in psychology has come about for a range of reasons, including the stories we tell outselves about research and science. In this eposide I dive into these stories, and the overlapping issues combined into the story of a crisis. I also do a deeper dive into self-fullfilling prophecies as after all prophecies are stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and about each other...

Some oral cultures use their stories to recall all sorts of useful information about their area, plants and history among other things. This episode looks at how we can use stories to help our memories, and how stories told across generations can inform us about our world. Also a bit about the challenges of telling history stories, no matter the medium. Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail...

As kids many of us learned to beware of strangers, but the truth is that stranger abduction in vanishingly rare. However the story still has a grip on our society. This episode explores the myth, the reality, some reasons it may persist, and other stories we tell ourselves about strangers. Source list available at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/ Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail...

This episode I interview author and podcaster Joe Kassabian about writing memoir, writing fiction and writing podcasts. We touch on the challenges of the publishing industry, working with editors, basing fiction on reality, and writing tropes, among other things. Joe’s memoir is The Hooligans of Kandahar. Consider buying it from my bookshop.org affiliate link to support the show. His fiction books...

Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, theorised that the Hero’s Journey was the one story at the root of all myths. He called it the monomyth and suggested it is rooted deep in our psyche. This episode digs into whether this is true, and what the Hero’s Journey can or can’t tell us about our society and the stories we write. Source list available at https://www.ourstoriesand...

Why do some people blame the victims? Or assume that there must have been a reason that some random accident happened? How do we react when life isn't fair? In this episode we discuss the Just World Fallacy, and why some of the stories people tell themselves about the world can be harmful. Content warning: this episode discusses sexual assault, victim blaming and mentions discrimination against di...

Just because something feels like it should be true, doesn’t mean that it is. Sometimes these common sense stories lead to creating more of the problems they are intending to solve. This episode examines two crime prevention programs that were thought to be common sense but didn’t actually work and the stories that drove these approaches. Source list available at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves...

The moon has been a source of curiosity and stories for as long as we've been human. Stories about werewolves, the man on the moon and fantastic voyages were popular long before we landed there. The story of the space race was a central cold war narrative. However there are also conspiracies about it, and misinformation abounds. In this episode I speak with Quinn, Chris and Chris from the Failure...

Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers, in English, of all time. Stories abound about who he was and what he achieved, but what is the truth of them? What do these stories tell us about the time he lived in, and the things which have happened since then? This episode explores the stories about Shakespeare, and how they affect how we think about literature and language. source list available...

History can be pretty boring when it’s a series of dry facts, but fitting it to a narrative arc, while engaging, can also lead to problems. This week I speak to Kelly Gaumont from the Canuck is a Slur podcast about creative non-fiction, facts, storytelling and the opportunities of new media. Kelly’s linktree: https://linktr.ee/CanuckIsASlur And Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/canuckisaslur/abou...

Sometimes fiction depicts reality and sometimes it can change it. This episode I look at several fiction stories which have change the world. I also look at the way fiction can distill reality into a story which is even more true. Quote Origin: Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, But It Is Because Fiction Is Obliged to Stick to Possibilities; Truth Isn’t – Quote Investigator® . (2015, July 15). https:...

Episode 4: How stories survive There are so many reasons that some stories survive and others don't. In this episode I talk to Thomas O'Mahony, podcaster, podcast producer, and digital conservationist about DVD rot and the importance of preserving physical media. Some of Tom’s podcasts are https://linktr.ee/beneaththeskinpod and https://www.patreon.com/c/ThisGuySucked/posts?redirect=true source li...

Why do people commit atrocities? What stories do people tell themselves to make it acceptable, and how can we understand this? Some of the studies taught in psychology 101 try to understand this, but sometimes, the pervading social stories told at the time of the studies also get in the way. This episode explores the Stanford prison experiment, the Milgram compliance experiments and what they do a...

This episode is about Polio, and the stories about it that led to panics, stories that led to changes in the way medicine was practiced and stories about the vaccines. This may sound like a bit of a jumble, but stories and they way they shape our lives is a thread that pulls it all together. Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail.com or @ ourstories.bsky.social Turns out my source list for t...

Episode 1 The Power of Stories Stories have been with us for as long as we’ve been human. We use them to entertain, to share information, to motivate and inspire. This episode is an introduction to the power of stories, and some of the ways they affect us. Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail.com or @ ourstories.bsky.social Turns out my source list for this episode was too long for the epi...