Terrence Mcnally Podcast

Aired 12/02/12 Last July in an interview with Charlie Rose, President Obama said that "the mistake" of the early years of his presidency was his failure to be a better storyteller. "The mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important, but the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times." In a second term, he said, he would "spend more time with the American people, listening to them, but also being in a conversation with them about where do we go as a country?" This week's show is not about Obama or politics. It's about story and narrative. My guest is JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL author of THE STORYTELLING ANIMAL. The late evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould called humans "the primate who tells stories..." And it's not just Gould. Anthropologists have found societies that have existed for millennia without the wheel, bu