“Stories are templates… maps to what it means to be a human being,” says Jan Blake in her TEDx Talk. Regret is one of the many stories that we must all learn to live with. Perhaps you are looking towards more modern stories, blockbuster or art house movies, to guide you on what it means …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
Pig Butchering Scams
It is a well-known fact that you should “fatten the pig” before slaughter. If you raise livestock, you need to feed the livestock (and feed them well) if you intend to harvest them for meat. If this offends your sensibilities, you might want to think twice about eating bacon. The facts behind how food gets …Read More
Story: Persephone and the Seasons ~ Joel Ying
Why did Persephone eat that pomegranate seed? As seasons shift and the Spring Equinox approaches, science gives us an explanation. The earth rotates on its axis, and the side that faces the sun has daylight and the other side is in the darkness of night. However, the Earth also revolves around the sun with a …Read More
Positive Aging ~ Carl Honore
This semester, I’m teaching a course called “Storytelling for Positive Aging.” Studies show that a positive attitude, a growth mindset, towards the process of aging leads to longer and happier lives. In this course, I explore the questions: How can we tell ourselves better stories of aging? How can we respond to cultural attitudes of …Read More
Love, no matter what ~ Andrew Solomon
When I was working in the hospital in the pediatric ward as a resident doctor-in-training, one of the patients that was admitted frequently was a Down’s Syndrome child with a cleft palate. The cleft palate is an incomplete closure of the roof of the mouth that separates it from the nasal area above. Functionally, this …Read More
Story: Truth and Story ~ Joel Ying
“Stop making up stories!” I overhear an exasperated mom talking to her 4-year-old. In this context, the word “story” has become synonymous with lying, making up fiction, not telling the truth. However, in the context of the art of storytelling, making up fiction does not mean that a story does not contain a deeper truth, …Read More
Mastering Life’s Transitions ~ Bruce Feiler
Life is the story that we tell ourselves. What happens when we get stuck in a story? How do we get unstuck? Bruce Feiler has 5 tips for mastering life’s transitions: Take control of the story that you tell about yourself. I once believed that I had no stories to tell, but then I realized …Read More
For a New Beginning ~ John O’Donohue
“I want to be able to do that” I still remember the moment that I first heard someone perform a story. I was expecting an ordinary speech where I could learn something about public speaking. Instead, I was immediately captivated, pulled into the vivid images that story created in my mind. The storyteller transformed herself …Read More
Honoring Sacrifice
Sacrifice, verb Last week, I toured a local health center run by a non-profit. They offer healthcare to underserved populations on a sliding scale basis. There are many ways to give, including the monetary donations of the many names that cover the walls to make the mission of greater healthcare access possible. While many at …Read More
Story: Spring of Youth
Storytellers in my tradition look for stories that hold some sort of “magic.” We tell stories that we love–sometimes for reasons that we know and sometimes we just keep telling them until we figure out why. This story has held me since I first heard it. Folk stories travel across the world and adapt to …Read More