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 [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Image from https://pixabay.com/users/dieter_g-359839/

Support the show by buying a book from: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ourstoriesandourselves

Or back the patreon patreon.com/OurStoriesandOurSelves

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 [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Support the show by buying a book from: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ourstoriesandourselves

Or back the patreon patreon.com/OurStoriesandOurSelves

Cover image by Kirsty using an image by https://pixabay.com/users/thedigitalartist-202249/

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 aren’t on the UK bookshop.org at the moment but can be found at his publisher: https://aethonbooks.com/book-author/joe-kassabian/

Find his podcast by searching Lions Led by Donkeys in your favourite podcast player or on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/lionsledbydonkeys/posts

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Support the show by buying a book from: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ourstoriesandourselves

Or back the patreon patreon.com/OurStoriesandOurSelves

and check out the show website: https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

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.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Cover image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heroesjourney.svg

Patreon: https://patreon.com/OurStoriesandOurSelves

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 disabled people.

source list available at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

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.com/

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Cover Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broken_window_large.jpg

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 to Launch Podcast about moon stories, and how, as frustrating as conspiracy stories are, they can be kinda fun, but when it comes down to it humans have definitely been to the moon.

Listen to Failure to Launch where ever you get podcasts such as Apple or Spotify or watch on Youtube and follow them on BlueSky

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Key sources were:

https://moonhoaxdebunked.blogspot.com/

https://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/the_great_moon_hoax the Episode cover also came from a New York Sun print on this site.

A full source list can be found on https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

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 at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Image by Samuele">https://pixabay.com/users/samueles-1246195/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2984316">Samuele Schirò from Pixabay">https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2984316">Pixabay

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/about

If you have thoughts, drop me an email at [email protected] or on Bluesky at ourstories.blusky.social.

Blatantly stealing some of Kelly’s pre-show notes because they are great

Kate Beaton, creator of the history-heavy comic strip Hark! A Vagrant; was a major gateway for me to develop a newfound interest in Canadian history specifically (although the strip was not at all limited to that), because it was now trying to tell me the same information through a much more engaging medium

• Here is an example
• Here is another
• Here is one that isn’t Canadian at all

Ryan North, creator of the heavily-constrained comic strip Dinosaur Comics taught me that format constraints (such as having the six-panel visual arrangement of your comic never change for decades on end) can actually allow your creativity to flourish as it pushes against those limitations, as well as allow your audience to have a familiar structure through which they can understand your message

• Here is one about stories and literature
• Here is one that refers to the Canadian phenomenon of bagged milk
• Ryan North studied computational linguistics, so he wrote a lot of comics about various aspects of language that you can learn a lot from

Some of the other things we mentioned:

Story Garden: https://youtu.be/YUfzr5tJlpo?si=5rEOPHZsyhH5aLjs

Beneath the skin: https://linktr.ee/beneaththeskinpod

Lions led by Donkeys: www.youtube.com/@lionsledbydonkeyspodcast7424

Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan: revolutionspodcast.com

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://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/07/15/truth-stranger/

Quote Origin: A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes – Quote Investigator®. (2014, July 13). https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Lady Chatterley’s Lover D H Lawrence

Books that Changed the World: The 50 most influential books in human history, Andrew Taylor, Quercus

Full source list available at https://www.ourstoriesandourselves.com/

Get in touch on [email protected] or @ourstories.bsky.social

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