You Tell My Story, I’ll Tell Yours: Colum McCann, Co-Founder, Narrative 4

Colum McCann came to America at 21 to write a novel. He failed miserably. So he got on a bicycle in Boston and rode 8,000 miles over 18 months, all the way to San Francisco. Everywhere he went, people asked if he was mad. They invited him into their homes and told him their stories. The failed novelist learned the power of listening. It’s a conviction that has carried him through 13 or 14 books since. He’s lost count, but he knows that the shortest distance between two people is a story.

That conviction became Narrative 4, which Colum co-founded with Lisa Consiglio. The method is simple and strange. Two young people pair up, swap stories, and then each tells the other’s story in the first person. Hearing your own life in a stranger’s voice is where the magic happens. The organization now works in more than 30 countries.

Colum insists this is not kumbaya. Stories are dangerous. They can take your house, your vote, or your country. That’s why Narrative 4 trains its teachers so carefully. He’s wary of what he calls the disease of certainty.

At the Chamber, Charlotte reports from the Best Day Ever in Fremont, home of a troll so beloved the fire marshals attend its birthday. Aaron preps for a summit week that will be either really awesome or a great story.

00:00 Opening

04:32 Minneapolis: Dinner at the Guthrie

13:56 Colum McCann: 8,000 Miles by Bicycle

17:59 Building Narrative 4

22:22 Inside a Story Exchange

26:26 Youth, Loneliness, and Optimism

29:24 Stories Are Tough: The Power and the Danger

34:43 The Disease of Certainty