This week’s episode is an archive conversation from You Are a Storyteller, my earlier podcast cohosted by Jesse Bryan.

In this episode, Jesse and I discuss story structure in real life—how the foundation of storytelling isn’t film, television, novels, or even theater. It’s ordinary human conversation.

People naturally slip into story when they want to explain something, make a point, justify themselves, teach, warn, or connect emotionally. In fact, it’s almost impossible to have a real conversation without quickly moving into narrative.

We talk about how storytelling is a completely natural human behavior, and how many of the principles of story construction can be learned simply by paying attention to the way people speak every day.