Staging:Archive
Issue #4: April 2025 - Thinking in Stories
This issue focuses on the importance of stories to human thinking VIEW THIS ISSUE
The Way We Think...and the Way We Thought We Think
Human reasoning isn’t organized like a textbook or encyclopedia. It’s more like a historical novel. We build stories from facts and observations, then fill in details that align with our sensibilities and beliefs—seeking a sense of resolution or closure.
Our memories aren’t stored in neat volumes like a library, but more like one enormous book, crisscrossed with elaborate indexes and cross-references. VIEW THIS ARTICLE
Where Does the Story Start?
Where we begin a story can dramatically shape how it’s understood and what conclusions we draw.
Do we start with the chicken or the egg? Like that riddle, there’s rarely a definitive beginning—but we have to start somewhere.
While hearing multiple perspectives helps us think more objectively, time and mindshare are limited, and many other stories are vying for our attention. So, we tend to rely a single story. VIEW THIS ARTICLE
The Danger of the Single Story
When we focus on only one version of a story—or only one starting point—we risk missing crucial context.
The single story may be convenient, even persuasive. Knowing only a single version of the story may be good enough for ourselves, it can also distort, marginalize, and stereotype others in the story. Worse still, we often don’t realize what’s been left out. VIEW THIS ARTICLE
Summary
This fourth issue of ReasonedVoice.com explores how storytelling shapes human thought.
Because writing is a relatively recent invention, our brains have evolved to store information more like narratives than databases. We remember the broad strokes—the key scenes—and reconstruct details on the fly.
Although multiple stories can lead to greater understanding, we often default to just one. And where that one begins can powerfully influence the meaning, the moral, and the message we take from it—and pass along to others.
