storyOS

What if the key to resilience isn't changing your circumstances, but changing how you see your story? Michael McRay takes listeners through the profound idea that you are a character in a story—and how you understand your role and arc might be one of the most important frames you ever adopt. Drawing on Joseph Campbell's hero's journey and upcoming research from Dr. Ben Rogers, Michael reveals how people who view their lives through mythic storytelling frameworks report greater meaning, resilience, and well-being. In this episode, he also discusses:

• How the hero's journey framework increases resilience and reduces anxiety when applied to personal life
• Why challenges aren't signs you're off track—they're the exact terrain of transformation
• How stepping outside familiar contexts allows us to recognize patterns we couldn't see before
• Michael's Restoried Roadmap: moving from now story through wound story and no story to new story

Coming Up Soon

• Next Week's Episode: Dr. Ben Rogers on his hero's journey research and workplace meaning
• STORY Conference 2025: October 9-10 in Nashville, Tennessee (use discount code PODCAST100 for $100 off!)

Resources Mentioned: 

• istoria.com
• Restoried Roadmap

Michael McRay welcomes back Harris III for a fascinating exploration of vulnerability, wonder, and influence. Harris shares a powerful story about performing a trick at a conference, then doing something radical—he simply stopped talking. The result? Thirty different people found thirty different meanings, each more profound than anything he could have prescribed. They explore Lisa Cron's framework for narrative influence and why you can't just give someone a transformation—you have to understand their starting point. In this episode, Michael and Harris also discuss:

• Why vulnerability feels dangerous to leaders and how it's actually the key to connection
• The neuroscience of wonder and how awe literally opens our minds to new possibilities
• Lisa Cron's misbelief-truth-realization-transformation framework for influence
• How magic tricks prove we can be easily deceived and why that matters for storytellers

Coming Up Soon

• Tenx9: June 30th in Nashville, Tennessee
• STORY Conference 2025: October 9-10 in Nashville, Tennessee (use discount code PODCAST100 for $100 off!)

Resources Mentioned

• Lisa Cron
• Istoria.com

What if everything you think you know about emotion and decision-making is backwards? Michael McRay sits down with Lisa Cron, the brilliant mind behind "Wired for Story" and "Story or Die," to unpack the revolutionary science showing that emotion isn't the enemy of logic—it's actually running the show. Lisa reveals how her fascination with story began in the most unlikely place: analyzing subway advertisements during her daily commute in New York, studying which ones made her want to buy versus which ones made her roll her eyes. This conversation demolishes the myth that we're rational beings who sometimes feel, exposing the truth that we're feeling beings who rationalize everything. Lisa explains why your brain treats every story like virtual reality and why vulnerability isn't just nice to have in storytelling—it's the neurological key that unlocks human connection. In this episode, they discuss:

• How emotion functions as the brain's decision-making system, not an obstacle to rational thought
• Why vulnerability is essential for creating connection and trust in any story
• How story serves as humanity's first virtual reality system for survival learning
• Why specific details create universal connection while generalities lose audiences entirely

Coming Up Soon

• STORY Conference 2025: October 9-10 in Nashville, Tennessee

Resources Mentioned

• Lisa Cron: "Wired for Story," "Story Genius," and "Story or Die"
• Istoria.com

Tune in as Michael McRay kicks off a new three-part series exploring the wiring of the human brain and why we fall for certain stories while resisting others. He dives into the concept that story isn't just something we tell—it's the invisible operating system running in the background of our entire lives, shaping what we believe, fear, and think is possible. Michael uses the famous 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast as a compelling example of how well-structured stories bypass rational filters and spark visceral responses because our nervous system doesn't distinguish between narrative and experience. In this episode, he discusses:

• How narrative functions as the invisible code shaping our decisions and beliefs
• Why we hold onto beliefs that helped us cope but no longer help us grow
• How the body reacts to narrative as if it were real experience
• Why recognizing our stories is essential for human flourishing rather than just academic exercise

Reflection Prompts

• What's a belief that you carry that might just be a story you learned to survive?
• What kind of character have you cast yourself as—the hero, the helper, the outsider?
• What narrative did your family hand you? What narrative have you chosen instead?
• Where might you be living someone else's script?
• If you could re-story your story, where would you start?

Coming Up Soon

• Next Episode: Tune in as Lisa Cron, author of "Wired for Story," joins the storyOS podcast!
• STORY 2025 Conference - October 9 and 10, 2025

Resources Mentioned

• Istoria Website
• Narrative Blueprint Workshop

Harris III rejoins Michael to explore Selena Garefino's transformative insights about how our bodies store and process the stories of our lives, and why traditional approaches to healing often fall short. They dive deep into the intersection of story and body, exploring how the body functions as the unconscious mind, processing millions of bits of data while our conscious awareness handles a limited amount. The conversation weaves through powerful examples of experiential work, from toxic team dynamics shifting through play, or retreat participants reconnecting with childhood purpose through embodied timeline exercises. In this episode, they discuss:

• The body as unconscious mind, and understanding how our nervous system processes information beyond conscious awareness
• Why traditional talk therapy has limitations for trauma and transformation
• How challenges become wisdom when we don't avoid the learning

Coming Up Soon

• Lisa Cron, author of "Wired for Story"
• Experiential Narrative Practice Certification: June 20-22 (October training options available)
• STORY 2025 Conference (Use code PODCAST100 for $100 off!) - October 9 and 10, 2025

Resources Mentioned

• Special Offer: Podcast listeners get $100 off STORY 2025 with code PODCAST100
• Applied Narrative Intelligence Certification: Currently in second cohort
• Becoming Restored: 12-week experiential program for narrative reconciliation
• Istoria Website

Michael McRay sits down with Selena Garefino, an internationally renowned yoga teacher, storyteller, and somatic coach. Selena weaves together yoga, mythology, anthropology, and coaching into a transformative practice that recognizes how stories live not just in our minds, but in our bodies. They explore how the subconscious mind receives story through sensation, how myth becomes a map for healing, and how returning to the body can help us re-author inherited meanings. Selena shares her profound wisdom about "never wasting a good crisis" and how good wine comes from stressed grapes. This spacious, grounded conversation reveals how embodied storytelling can be a pathway to healing trauma, navigating grief, and embracing our full dimensional humanity.

Coming Up Soon

• Next Episode: Harris III returns to reflect on this conversation with Selena Garefino
• Experiential Narrative Practice Certification Training: June 20-22 in Nashville, Tennessee
• STORY 2025: October 9th and 10th 2025 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee

Resources Mentioned

• Learn more about Selena Garefino
• "Women Who Run with the Wolves" by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
• "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk
• Istoria Website
• Instagram: @istoria_studio
• Email: [email protected]

In this episode, Michael McRay introduces his upcoming conversation with Selena Garefino, a somatic storytelling practitioner who weaves yoga, storytelling, anthropology, and coaching into a transformative practice. As a prelude to their full interview, Michael shares the ancient Germanic tale of the Handless Maiden - a powerful story about loss, transformation, and rebirth. Through this myth, Michael explores how stories live not just in our minds but in our bodies, and how disconnecting from our bodies often means losing access to the very stories we need for healing. This episode serves as a beautiful introduction to Selena's philosophy that we don't just tell stories - we carry them, embody them, and move through them as they move through us.

Coming Up Soon

• Join next week for Michael's conversation with Selena Garefino 
• STORY 2025: October 9th and 10th 2025 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee
• Applied Narrative Intelligence: Istoria's certification program 
• Later this season: Lisa Cron, author of "Wired for Story"

Resources

• Istoria Website
• Instagram: @istoria_studio
• Email: [email protected]
• The Handless Maiden: Germanic folktale mentioned throughout the episode
• Dr. Martin Shaw

Michael McRay welcomes back Harris III to discuss key insights from the conversation with Annette Simmons. Together, they explore the critical distinctions between influence and manipulation in storytelling, the importance of transparency and informed consent, and how confidence plays a role in effective leadership narratives. Harris shares wisdom from his background in magic and illusion, drawing parallels between ethical performance and ethical storytelling. The conversation delves into why allowing ourselves to be known is fundamental to building trust, and how leaders can share personal stories without oversharing. 

Coming Up Soon

• STORY 2025: October 9th and 10th 2025 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee
• Applied Narrative Intelligence: Istoria's certification program 
• On the podcast: Selena Garefino, a Somatic Storytelling Practitioner from Italy, who believes in "never wasting a good crisis."

Contact Information

• Website: istoria.com
• Instagram: @istoria_studio
• Email: [email protected]

Tags: storytelling ethics, narrative intelligence, trust building, influence vs. manipulation, personal stories, confidence, leadership, Harris III, Michael McRay, Annette Simmons, significance emotional experience

Join the first interview of season 8, as Michael McRay sits down with Annette Simmons, author of the storytelling classic "The Story Factor" and several other influential books. Their conversation explores storytelling not as performance or persuasion, but as ethical leadership, presence, and the courage to hold complexity. Annette shares her journey into story work, explains her concept of the "six stories every leader needs to know how to tell," and discusses the difference between influence and exploitation. With decades of experience consulting for organizations including the US military and Fortune 500 companies, Annette offers profound wisdom about empathy as a superpower and how storytelling can be both "gold and lead, depending on how you use it."

Coming Up Soon

• Next week, Harris will join Michael to reflect on this conversation with Annette Simmons, discussing practical applications of ethical storytelling and the importance of narrative intelligence in leadership.
• STORY 2025: October 9th and 10th 2025 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee
• Applied Narrative Intelligence: Istoria's certification program 

Resources

• Annette Simmons
  • The Story Factor
  • Territorial Games
  • A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths
  • Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins
  • Drinking from a Different Well
• In the Shelter by Pádraig Ó Tuama
• Website: istoria.com
• Instagram: @istoria_studio
• Email: [email protected]

Tags: narrative intelligence, storytelling, Annette Simmons, ethical leadership, empathy, The Story Factor, paradox, significant emotional experience, Michael McRay, Istoria Institute

Meet Michael McRay as he steps into the host role and takes listeners on a personal journey through his path to narrative work. From his early storytelling for empathy building, through a successful yet unsatisfying corporate consulting career, to the pivotal TEDx talk that changed his direction, Michael shares how he discovered his true calling in helping people reconcile with their life stories. He details the creation of Becoming Restoried, and his eventual partnership with Harris to launch the Istoria Institute. With vulnerability and insight, Michael weaves his own narrative while introducing the foundation for the season: story is not just how we explain the world - story is the world.

Coming Up Soon

• Upcoming Guests: Annette Simmons (author of "The Story Factor"), Lisa Cron (author of "Wired for Story" and "Story or Die") and Pádraig Ó Tuama (host of "Poetry Unbound" podcast)
• STORY 2025: October 9th and 10th 2025 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee
• Applied Narrative Intelligence: Istoria's certification program 

Contact Information

• Website: istoria.com
• Instagram: @istoria_studio
• Email: [email protected]

Tags: narrative intelligence, storytelling, StoryOS, Michael McRay, Istoria Institute, Annette Simmons, Becoming Restoried, ethical leadership