The Power of Storytelling with Ari Shapiro
Host of NPR’s All Things Considered
This special storytelling course is offered by The Great Courses
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12 Lectures
The best stories have the same qualities, whether they’re fiction or nonfiction: They seize our interest and take us somewhere, introduce us to people we’ll never forget, and leave us seeing the world a bit differently than when we began.
12 High-Power Lectures by Ari
As a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro knows the power of storytelling better than most. He’s covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel. He’s sat down with celebrated authors and struggling families. He’s reported from migrant caravans on the ground and press pools aboard Air Force One. And the longer he’s worked in the field, the more convinced he’s become of storytelling’s primal importance.
Each lesson is an average of 32 minutes.
1) Why Storytelling Matters
Start thinking about the importance of great storytelling with Ari’s walk-through of his audio documentary on Venezuelan migrants for NPR—a story that demanded just about every single one of his storytelling skills, including engaging the listeners’ senses and varying the narrative’s pacing.
2) What Makes A Story Work?
In storytelling, the distinction between success and failure is blurry. Still, how does one try to succeed at telling a powerful story? Here, Ari breaks down three of his prize-winning stories to reveal, in general terms, the qualities of a story that resonate with everyday audiences and prestigious organizations alike.
3) Finding A Story
Before you decide how you’re going to tell a story, you need a story to tell. The good news? You can start anywhere. The bad news? You can start anywhere. Ari teaches you time-tested skills on how to find a good story, including talking to strangers and thinking about your audience.
4) On Interviews, Conversation, and Silence
Whatever kind of storytelling you’re interested in, an ability to talk with people is key.
What are some of the common mistakes Ari sees young interviewers making?
How can you best put your conversation partner at ease?
Why are nonverbal cues people give you as important as the words they say?
5) Choosing Your Characters
It doesn’t matter how familiar a story might be. If you have the right characters, people will be so riveted they can’t turn away.
In this lesson, Ari discusses how effective storytellers find and choose compelling protagonists for their stories—a challenging task when faced with a crowd of potential characters.
6) Building Your Story
You’ve done your research, conducted your interviews, and listed out your scenes and characters. Now, it’s time to start building your story.
Describing your story to a friend, starting with your best quote, and creating a simple outline are just three of the techniques Ari illustrates.
7) Telling a Big Story by Telling a Small One
Wars, pandemics, economic slowdowns—How does a good storyteller even begin to address some of the biggest stories out there? Find out with this closer look at the most effective strategies for uncovering the small, relevant, and resonant stories hidden inside overwhelmingly large ones.
8) Storytelling and Trauma
Sometimes, a powerful story requires people—including storytellers themselves—to revisit traumatic experiences.
Here, Ari walks you through some specific steps he relies on to elicit stories in ways that are safe, and ethical, and that avoid the danger of exacerbating the effects of trauma.
9) Telling Stories That Unfold Over Time
If you tell a story without giving thought to the past or the context of events, then you’re missing the bigger picture and failing to connect the dots.
Dive into the techniques of long-term storytelling that offer broader perspectives and deeper levels of understanding.
10) Live Storytelling (with or without Music)
Using his experiences singing with the band Pink Martini, Ari explains the opportunities, challenges, and power of storytelling through live performance.
You’ll learn new ways to connect with your audience, and how to amplify the undeniable power that comes from a collective experience.
11) The Power of Fiction
12) Breaking Storytelling Rules
In Ari’s final lesson on storytelling, consider occasions when it’s necessary to toss out your writing rulebooks and discover fresh ways to approach and tell a good story.
While Ari can’t tell you how to break the rules (that would just be another rule), he shares how rule breaking has shaped his storytelling, at times.
“Stories are about more than information,” he says. “They’re an opportunity to foster understanding. That’s why, whether you’re a journalist or some other kind of storyteller, thinking deeply about storytelling, and working to make your stories come alive for the audience, is so worthwhile.”
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"He's a fantastic story teller; the course itself made me want to stop what I was doing and just listen as if I were listening to a story. Can't thank you enough Ari and Wondrium for putting this together. As for the material itself; I've been looking high and low for insights into a journalistic process with a story telling perspective all over the internet. This exceeded anything I could have expected to find."
Who Cares The Most About Your Development?
Of course, it’s you!
And what better way to see these techniques and rules in action than through Ari’s journalism? Each lesson in The Power of Storytelling with Ari Shapiro takes you behind the scenes of some of Ari’s most powerful news stories.
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