Stories For Men: Reimagining Masculinity

Welcome to Stories For Men - This session features The Brothers Grimm story, The Six Swans, and ensuing discussions recorded with a small group of men in November 2020. A special thanks to those men for allowing their contributions to be shared to a wider audience via this podcasst.

The next live session will be held via Zoom on Wednesday 31st March 2021 at 7pm UK time - tickets are now available via my website

If you enjoy and/or find value in these sessions please do share them with your friends. Thank you to those who have supported me via my Buy Me A Coffee page, it really does help me to be able to continue to put on these sessions. 

Kind regards, 

Marcus

Welcome back to Part 3/3 of this telling of wonderful Scandinavian Wonder tale, The Lindworm, sometimes know as Prince Lindworm. If you haven't yet listened to PART 1 then I would urge you to go back and listen to that first. Then the story and discussion will make a lot more sense!

It was recorded online in November 2020 with a lovely group of men, and we had some rich discussions around the themes of the story and what it brought up for us in our own lives. I think this is a fabulous story for exploring our shadows and uncovering what is going on in the metaphorical tangle at the periphery of our lives.

I've split the audio up into what I think are three more manageable chunks - so when you've finished this one head on over to listen to Part 2 and Part 3.

If you enjoy and find value in these sessions then do splash out the equivalent of a cup of coffee over on my Buy Me a Coffee page, to financially support me to be able to keep on putting on these sessions.

And check out my website: www.marcuspibworth.com for info about upcoming sessions you can be a part of, so see videos of some of my stories and to view my new storytelling bookshop!

Welcome back to Part 2/3 of this telling of wonderful Scandinavian Wonder tale, The Lindworm, sometimes know as Prince Lindworm. If you haven't yet listened to PART 1 then I would urge you to go back and listen to that first. Then the story and discussion will make a lot more sense!

 It was recorded online in November 2020 with a lovely group of men, and we had some rich discussions around the themes of the story and what it brought up for us in our own lives. I think this is a wonderful story for exploring our shadows and uncovering what is going on in the metaphorical tangle at the periphery of our lives.

I've split the audio up into what I think are three more manageable chunks - so when you've finished this one head on over to listen to Part 2 and Part 3.

If you enjoy and find value in these sessions then do splash out the equivalent of a cup of coffee over on my Buy Me a Coffee page, to financially support me to be able to keep on putting on these sessions.

And check out my website: www.marcuspibworth.com for info about upcoming sessions you can be a part of, so see videos of some of my stories and to view my new storytelling bookshop!

Welcome to this Stories For Men session - which features a telling of the wonderful Scandinavian Wonder tale, The Lindworm, sometimes know as Prince Lindworm. It was recorded online in November 2020 with a lovely group of men, and we had some rich discussions around the themes of the story and what it brought up for us in our own lives. I think this is a wonderful story for exploring our shadows and uncovering what is going on in the metaphorical tangle at the periphery of our lives. 

I've split the audio up into what I think are three more manageable chunks - so when you've finished this one head on over to listen to Part 2 and Part 3. 

If you enjoy and find value in these sessions then do splash out the equivalent of a cup of coffee over on my Buy Me a Coffee page, to financially support me to be able to keep on putting on these sessions. 

And check out my website: www.marcuspibworth.com for info about upcoming sessions you can be a part of, so see videos of some of my stories and to view my new storytelling bookshop!

Welcome back to Part 3 of The Speedy Messenger. What will happen with Little Semyon? Did he survive the fall? Will all be well in the end? Is the story resonating with anything in your life? Are there characters that you relate to? Are there characters that make your blood boil? 

Your input into this conversation is really valued, so please do leave comments about your experiences with both the story and the discussions. 

Please do support my work at: www.buymeacoffee.com/marcuspibworth

To find out information about upcoming storytelling workshops, to watch videos of storytelling and to see if there are any upcoming Stories For Men sessions you could be a part of visit: www.marcuspibworth.com

Welcome back to part 2 of The Speedy Messenger 

 If you haven't already listened to Part 1, then I'd encourage you to do so before proceeding with part 2, then the story and discussion will make a lot more sense.

How are you finding the story so far? Do you have anything to add to the discussion? It would be great to hear from you. 

If you are finding value here, then please do think about supporting my work on my Buy Me a Coffee page

For more of my work as a storyteller and to find out about storytelling workshops/ Stories For Men sessions you could be a part of visit my website: www.marcuspibworth.com

Welcome to the first episode of the Stories For Men Sessions. 

I recorded this session with a small group of men on Zoom, in September 2020, and with their kind permission I am sharing it here with you. 

In this session, I told the Russian Fairytale, The Speedy Messenger, as story that follows the protagonist, Little Semyon on a journey of transformation, hardship and discovery. Each session was about 1.5 hours long, so I have split the Speedy Messenger into 3 more manageable parts. Each starts with me telling a section of the story, followed by a short discussion. 

Please do join in the discussion, by emailing me, or via social media. If you are listening on the Anchor platform then you are also able to send me voice notes. 

If you like my work and can support me, visit my Buy Me a Coffee page where you can make a small donation which allows me to continue to do this work. To further help me, please do share this podcast with friends and rate and review it on your podcast app.

For info of upcoming storytelling sessions you can be a part of, please visit my website

Support Marcus and Stories For Men: www.buymeacoffee.com/marcuspibworth

Hello everyone.

Welcome to Stories for Men

I’m Marcus Pibworth. Amongst other things, I am a man, a storyteller, a husband and an expectant father.

At the end of last year I finally brought into fruition a project that I’ve been mulling over for a while now - and that is to use my love of storytelling to delve into questions about what it means to be a man today, how current restrictive notions of masculinity are having a detrimental effect on both men, woman, society and the planet, and in turn to use this platform as a way of exploring what a more expansive, healthy version of masculinity could be.

I am a firm believer in the power of stories. Be they myths, folktales, fairytales or biographical stories, there is a lot we can learn. We can see our lives and society reflected within them. We can connect patterns. We can be transported to see new worlds and new perspectives. We can be challenged and we can learn to challenge. Within the trails of these stories our ancestors left for us lies a rich tapestry of human experience that we can immerse ourselves within. We can walk in the shoes of others. We can access feelings and emotions that lie beyond language and words, and perhaps most importantly we can begin to forge our own, better stories.

So why Stories For Men? Of course, this project is not in anyway supposed to exclude or reject women. None of the stories or conversations shared here are or will be exclusively for men. Instead this is an attempt to get men talking and to explore new possibilities in the way we engage with one another and ourselves. It is a sad fact, that we live a society that often leaves men feeling unable to be vulnerable and to share how they are really feeling. Over the past few decades there has been a huge shift in the role of men in society. While this shift is a positive and necessary progress for society, it has left many men unsure of their role. When I ask men what being a man means to them, the most frequent and honest answer is ‘I just don’t know’. With suicide rates and levels of depression for men sky high - it seems like an important thing to create spaces to discuss what is going on, to allow vulnerability and to feel the non-judgemental support of other men. I hope that with these healthy, healing spaces for men to explore their lives through story, it can be a small step creating a better world for both men and women.

I’ve seen through experience how storytelling can be used as a gateway to go deeper into our feelings, our frustrations and the shadows that we all inevitably carry around with us.

At the end of last year, I put on three Stories For Men sessions (on Zoom, as is the way of our times), where I told a story, interspersed with group discussions and reflections on the themes that emerged with the men participating. With their permission the audio from the sessions was recorded, and these recordings are what will make up the first few podcasts. Over the course of this next year I hope to put on more live storytelling sessions, both on Zoom (and hopefully some in person!), I hope to be able to share conversations with others on the topics of storytelling and masculinity and delve deeper into the myths and stories that permeate through our lives.

Stories For Men is not really an exercise in finding answers, although no doubt some may emerge, but an exercise in exploring what the right questions are. It may be a little rough around the edges at times, there may be mistakes and challenges, but I hope together we can learn and grow.

So if you are sitting comfortably… let us begin…. Welcome to Stories For Men