Jonathan Gottschall: How Stories Make Us Human

What this episode covers

I've been nipping at the edges of this subject for a while on previous shows, and now I've found someone to tackle it head-on: Jonathan Gottschall, author of "The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human." Jonathan and I discussed the central place of narrative not only in art and entertainment, but in our deep understanding of the world and ourselves. With us humans, it's storytime all the time, or at least much of the time. We talked about storytelling's pervasive influence, possible evolutionary explanations, its hazards and if/how we ever escape its confines.

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