The Joy of Storytelling
Story Garage
Welcome to Story Garage. This podcast is a production of the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State University. Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how story, storytelling, and narrative impact human lives. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance. In Laughable Loves, Milan Kundera wrote, “We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded. We are permitted merely to sense and guess at what we are actually experiencing. Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find...
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Searching For Story
Story Garage
The quest is an essential element of storytelling. Joseph Campbell frames the entire concept around ‘the heroes journey’, or the idea that every character has to travel a great distance, whether literally, like Odysseus’ adventure to return home, or figuratively, as Nora, the protagonist in Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, who by the end of the play has journeyed so far inside her own mind that she is no longer the same person. But what happens when the search is for the story itself? That is what we wanted to explore today. First, a choreographer determined to put the Arts back into...
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The Song of Myself
Story Garage
The stories we tell ourselves, who we think we are, what we believe we are capable of may be one of the biggest influences on how we behave, who we become, and what we can accomplish. In this episode, we explore the way personal narratives affect the shape of our real-world footprints. Up first, storyteller and graduate student Cory Howard weaves together the lives of three random people who look back on some of their most impactful stories, connecting them to where they are now in their life journey. In part two, Addiction specialist and longtime medical veteran, Dr. Schuyler Geller,...
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Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Story Garage
Welcome to Story Garage. This podcast is a production of the Storytelling Program at East Tennessee State University. Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how Story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance. In this episode, we feature a full-episode segment by Storytelling Garage producer Thomas Townsend. For most of the world, March 2020’s most indelible moments marked closures due to a global pandemic. For him, it marked the death of his...
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Healing Hearts
Story Garage
Thank you for joining us for episode three. If calling something the first is optimistic, and the second is a sign of tenacity, then the third is the charm. In many cultures, three is a magic number. Three little pigs, three tasks to be done, three wishes given. Well, we’re happy to be here for episode number three. In previous episodes, we have featured segments from current students and very recent alumni. In this episode, we feature two segments from faculty about stories and healing. How do the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives have the power to shape and reshape...
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Wolves & Roosters
Story Garage
Here in the Garage, we pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring how Story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world. Our contributors are students, faculty, and alumni of ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance. Thank you for joining us for our second episode. I’ve always thought “First Annual” was one of the most optimistic phrases ever. So sure there’s going to be a Second Annual. We made it through our first monthly episode, and here we are with our second. Hooray for optimism! In this episode, we’ve got two segments for you. Both explore the relationship of...
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Signposts & Circles
Story Garage
Welcome to the first episode of Story Garage, where we will pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring the ways that story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world. In our pilot episode, we’ll explore Story, capital S, at the granular level, then zoom out and peer down to see how story is one giant human umbrella covering and connecting us all. Segment one: pulling on a story like a loose thread in a sweater. A storyteller exploring a new town notices a teeny tiny narrative, a historical anecdote on a plaque, and follows it as far as he can. Part two. To convince her family of...
info_outlineWelcome to the first episode of Story Garage, where we will pop the hood and kick the tires, exploring the ways that story, storytelling, and narrative function in the world.
In our pilot episode, we’ll explore Story, capital S, at the granular level, then zoom out and peer down to see how story is one giant human umbrella covering and connecting us all. Segment one: pulling on a story like a loose thread in a sweater. A storyteller exploring a new town notices a teeny tiny narrative, a historical anecdote on a plaque, and follows it as far as he can. Part two. To convince her family of the viability of a career in storytelling, scholar Dylene Cymraes redefines story as a cosmic adhesive, binding us together that, when utilized in a certain way, contains immense power.
Loren Niemi’s website is www.lorenniemistories.com.
Story Garage is a production of the ETSU Storytelling Department with support from the ETSU Department of Communication and Performance and the College of Arts and Sciences. Executive Producers are Dr. Amber E. Kinser and Nancy Donoval. The producers are Thomas W. Townsend and Cory Howard. All music is copyrighted by the music owners and is used under a creative commons license.