In Russia and Ukraine right now, this incredibly powerful thing, which is storytelling, which goes back to the beginning of the beginning of humanity, has captured people because somebody has bent this thing to the will of an evil force. Where the storytelling of Russian propaganda is so powerful that parents do not believe their own children when the children say they have been bombed by the Russian military.
Which, of course, brings us back to ethics and power and the stories we tell. How do we make sure that when we tell a story, we’re using storytelling well?
And if you have a dominant voice where you’re accustomed to being the most powerful entity in the space, what happens when the story you tell, even if it’s technically true, is undergirded by a lie? Who do you harm? And by contrast, what if you tell the truth? What if you tell not just the factual truth, which is important, but also the emotional truth? What if you carry that emotional truth out into the world? What if you shout it from the rooftops?