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Welcome to Story Garage. This podcast is a production of the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State University.
Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how story, storytelling, and narrative impact human lives. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance.
In Laughable Loves, Milan Kundera wrote, “We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded. We are permitted merely to sense and guess at what we are actually experiencing. Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find out what we have experienced and what meaning it has.”
That’s what we take time to do in the Garage today. This episode is both a retrospective and an homage.
When the Storytelling program began at ETSU, it was (and is) a one-of-a-kind blend of storytelling theory and practice combining the safety of classroom participation and real-world practicum. When the program began in 1989, one person spearheaded the effort of many to see Storytelling accepted as a legitimate academic and professional pursuit.
In an interview from the Fall of 2021, Delanna Reed sat down with Dr. Flora Joy for a frank discussion of what influenced her love of story, the path that led her to lead the way in founding the first master’s degree that included a Storytelling program, and the significance of Story to every person’s life.
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The quest is an essential element of storytelling. Joseph Campbell frames the entire concept around ‘the heroes journey’, or the idea that every character has to travel a great distance, whether literally, like Odysseus’ adventure to return home, or figuratively, as Nora, the protagonist in Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, who by the end of the play has journeyed so far inside her own mind that she is no longer the same person.
But what happens when the search is for the story itself? That is what we wanted to explore today.
First, a choreographer determined to put the Arts back into Athletics, as she looks for the story only a body can tell. Vianna Isbister is a graduate student in the ETSU Communication and Storytelling Studies Master’s Program. Vianna specializes in personal stories and aerial dance.
Later in the episode, a sister sets out to find the real story of her family hidden underneath the one she’s been told. “Are we running our lives off of a story that isn’t true?” Three sisters have a long overdue conversation where they confront what it means to begin to question the narratives in their family they have heretofore accepted as fact. Wendy Folsom is a writer and performer living in Montana. She received her master’s in Communication and Storytelling Studies from ETSU in 2021. Wendy recently helped launch the Ignite Story Lab, a writer coaching organization.
In a Doll’s House, Ibsen spoke to us through Nora when she said, “I believe that I am first and foremost a human being, like you – or anyway, that I must try to become one. I know most people think as you do, Torvald, and I know there’s something of the sort to be found in books. But I’m no longer prepared to accept what people say and what’s written in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to find my own answer.” She had to find her own story.
Through the discovery of Story the hero finds herself, we uncover our hidden pasts, and find ourselves in unexplored territories of the heart and mind.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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The stories we tell ourselves, who we think we are, what we believe we are capable of may be one of the biggest influences on how we behave, who we become, and what we can accomplish.
In this episode, we explore the way personal narratives affect the shape of our real-world footprints. Up first, storyteller and graduate student Cory Howard weaves together the lives of three random people who look back on some of their most impactful stories, connecting them to where they are now in their life journey. In part two, Addiction specialist and longtime medical veteran, Dr. Schuyler Geller, discusses what it takes to change the narrative of yourself with a former patient and opioid addict, who has learned how to reclaim her life by telling a different story.
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Welcome to Story Garage. This podcast is a production of the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State University.
Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how Story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance.
In this episode, we feature a full-episode segment by Storytelling Garage producer Thomas Townsend. For most of the world, March 2020’s most indelible moments marked closures due to a global pandemic. For him, it marked the death of his father. In the wake of his father's not-unexpected but untimely passing, Thomas pivoted a research project from oral history to narrative inheritance, a concept coined by Communication scholar and writer Bud Goodall. Narrative inheritance refers to stories given to children by and about family members. Many times, it can be about the toxic secrets we keep. Narrative inheritance is shaped not only by details shared in the stories we tell about our families but by what we omit, distort, exaggerate, and lie about. By recognizing this narrative inheritance, we can consciously reshape the stories we tell ourselves and we pass on, for better or for worse.
Thinking on this, Thomas set out to examine some of the narratives his father left him. He shares one such instance in which he consciously shaped the story and pulled the veil back on a traumatic incident that most would consider a family secret.
**Content warning** This episode includes issues of self-harm and gun violence.
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Thank you for joining us for episode three. If calling something the first is optimistic, and the second is a sign of tenacity, then the third is the charm. In many cultures, three is a magic number. Three little pigs, three tasks to be done, three wishes given. Well, we’re happy to be here for episode number three.
In previous episodes, we have featured segments from current students and very recent alumni. In this episode, we feature two segments from faculty about stories and healing. How do the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives have the power to shape and reshape the meaning we give to what we do and, especially, the things that happen to us?
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Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how Story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance.
Thank you for joining us for our second episode. I’ve always thought “First Annual” was one of the most optimistic phrases ever. So sure there’s going to be a Second Annual. We made it through our first monthly episode, and here we are with our second. Hooray for optimism!
In this episode, we’ve got two segments for you. Both explore the relationship of stories with youth. One looks at a favorite childhood bedtime story’s influence on the adult that child would become. The other gets a teenager’s perspective on one particular Grimm’s folk tale.
In segment one, Cynthia Millhorn begins what she hopes will become a series of favorite Bedtime Stories interviews. Listen in as she sits down with her brother, actor, and filmmaker, Christian Wallace, as he describes the childhood story he loved the most and how it impacted his adult worldview.
In segment two, Emily Katt examines the sometimes grim nature of Grimm's folk tales and their effect on young people, as represented by her teenage daughter. (Engage the snark!)
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Welcome to the first episode of Story Garage, where we will pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring the ways that story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world.
In our pilot episode, we’ll explore Story, capital S, at the granular level, then zoom out and peer down to see how story is one giant human umbrella covering and connecting us all. Segment one: pulling on a story like a loose thread in a sweater. A storyteller exploring a new town notices a teeny tiny narrative, a historical anecdote on a plaque, and follows it as far as he can. Part two. To convince her family of the viability of a career in storytelling, scholar Dylene Cymraes redefines story as a cosmic adhesive, binding us together that, when utilized in a certain way, contains immense power.
Loren Niemi’s website is www.lorenniemistories.com.
Story Garage is a production of the ETSU Storytelling Department with support from the ETSU Department of Communication and Performance and the College of Arts and Sciences. Executive Producers are Dr. Amber E. Kinser and Nancy Donoval. The producers are Thomas W. Townsend and Cory Howard. All music is copyrighted by the music owners and is used under a creative commons license.
