Will StorrAuthor and Business Storytelling Teacher

The Deal for Connection – Storytelling with Will Storr

21 Feb 2025 · 2 min

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1:39

In this monologue, Will Storr argues that humans inhabit two simultaneous realities: the primal survival realm and the narrative realm, which he calls the "story realm." He explains that storytelling is an evolutionary tool that lets us make sense of the world and ourselves, and it underpins our innate drive to connect with others. Connection, however, is selective: we seek out people who share similar perspectives and cultural signals—fashion, music, film, makeup, etc. Small talk is portrayed as a painful but necessary bridge that strangers use to find shared reality; once a deeper rapport is established, conversation shifts to personal stories that reveal identity and foster genuine connection. The talk emphasizes that the urge to showcase who we are through stories is a fundamental human need that helps us overcome life's obstacles.

Chapters

Humans live in 2 realities at once. Like all other living things, we live in the reality of pure survival— food, shelter, procreation. But we spend most of our time mentally living in a second realm, which is the story realm. Story is what we do. Story is how we evolved to make sense of the world and ourselves. It's literally what makes us human. The deal for connection is kind of one of the essential deals that all humans want to make. You know, humans are innately driven to want to connect with other humans. But humans don't want to just connect with any other human. We want to connect with humans that are like us, people who see the world in the same way that we do. We all emit this cloud of dense social information. That's fashion, that's music, that's film, that's how we do our makeup. One of the ways we connect with other humans The way we connect with other people is by telling stories. When we meet people, we have this horrendously painful experience of doing small talk. Small talk happens when 2 strangers meet each other, and they're looking for ways to connect. They're looking for ways in which they share reality. But if you're with somebody that you connect with in a more interesting way, you quickly move past that and start telling stories to each other about your life, about who you are. It's an essential human need. This relentless urge we all have to show other people who we are in order to connect with people like us, Overcome the obstacles of life.