Will Storr

But that poses a problem. You've got all these apes, you know, once upon a time. How do you connect all those individualistic ape brains together? How do you get all those brains firing in the form of this highly collected superorganism? Well, you do it with story. Story is a device for fusing brains together.

But that poses a problem. You've got all these apes, you know, once upon a time. How do you connect all those individualistic ape brains together? How do you get all those brains firing in the form of this highly collected superorganism? Well, you do it with story. Story is a device for fusing brains together.

But that poses a problem. You've got all these apes, you know, once upon a time. How do you connect all those individualistic ape brains together? How do you get all those brains firing in the form of this highly collected superorganism? Well, you do it with story. Story is a device for fusing brains together.

Under the power of story, we're all facing in the same direction, pursuing the same goals, overcoming the same obstacles. We'll have a shared idea of who you are, who you are, what your role is, what you should be doing. So that's what story is doing. It's... It's fusing individual human brains together and getting them to experience the same reality.

Under the power of story, we're all facing in the same direction, pursuing the same goals, overcoming the same obstacles. We'll have a shared idea of who you are, who you are, what your role is, what you should be doing. So that's what story is doing. It's... It's fusing individual human brains together and getting them to experience the same reality.

Under the power of story, we're all facing in the same direction, pursuing the same goals, overcoming the same obstacles. We'll have a shared idea of who you are, who you are, what your role is, what you should be doing. So that's what story is doing. It's... It's fusing individual human brains together and getting them to experience the same reality.

And you can see that effect happening when you go to the movies, when you go to the cinema. You know, we go into the cinema as this crowd of individuals. And if the film is any good, we're transported into it. And for that 90 minutes, we forget our own reality. We forget our own consciousness. We're all sucked into that consciousness of the...

And you can see that effect happening when you go to the movies, when you go to the cinema. You know, we go into the cinema as this crowd of individuals. And if the film is any good, we're transported into it. And for that 90 minutes, we forget our own reality. We forget our own consciousness. We're all sucked into that consciousness of the...

And you can see that effect happening when you go to the movies, when you go to the cinema. You know, we go into the cinema as this crowd of individuals. And if the film is any good, we're transported into it. And for that 90 minutes, we forget our own reality. We forget our own consciousness. We're all sucked into that consciousness of the...

of the film experiencing the lives of the people up on the screen and we kind of leave that cinema connected as one having having had that you know mad experience and and you know you often have that weird kind of almost trippy experience coming out of the cinema where for a few moments you feel like the hero of the movie you know you feel like luke skywalker for a moment it's all everything goes a bit weird you're gonna you're gonna snap out of it without story doing what story's supposed to do which is entering our brains and getting us all to experience this kind of collective reality of the story

of the film experiencing the lives of the people up on the screen and we kind of leave that cinema connected as one having having had that you know mad experience and and you know you often have that weird kind of almost trippy experience coming out of the cinema where for a few moments you feel like the hero of the movie you know you feel like luke skywalker for a moment it's all everything goes a bit weird you're gonna you're gonna snap out of it without story doing what story's supposed to do which is entering our brains and getting us all to experience this kind of collective reality of the story

of the film experiencing the lives of the people up on the screen and we kind of leave that cinema connected as one having having had that you know mad experience and and you know you often have that weird kind of almost trippy experience coming out of the cinema where for a few moments you feel like the hero of the movie you know you feel like luke skywalker for a moment it's all everything goes a bit weird you're gonna you're gonna snap out of it without story doing what story's supposed to do which is entering our brains and getting us all to experience this kind of collective reality of the story

Yeah, absolutely. And it still works like that, of course. MAGA people have a particular story of the world that they tell each other. Anti-vax people do. Pro-vax people do. Climate change people do. That's how it works. We still collect into these groups that are defined by the stories they tell of the world. And those stories infect us. They influence us.

Yeah, absolutely. And it still works like that, of course. MAGA people have a particular story of the world that they tell each other. Anti-vax people do. Pro-vax people do. Climate change people do. That's how it works. We still collect into these groups that are defined by the stories they tell of the world. And those stories infect us. They influence us.

Yeah, absolutely. And it still works like that, of course. MAGA people have a particular story of the world that they tell each other. Anti-vax people do. Pro-vax people do. Climate change people do. That's how it works. We still collect into these groups that are defined by the stories they tell of the world. And those stories infect us. They influence us.

They cause us to believe certain things and to behave in certain ways.

They cause us to believe certain things and to behave in certain ways.

They cause us to believe certain things and to behave in certain ways.

Well, I mean, the current leading theory is that language evolved in the first place to tell stories that enabled us to operate as these highly cooperative groups, these super organisms, as I call them. One early form of storytelling is gossip. Gossip is a universal human behavior. We all do it. Why do we do it? Gossip teaches us... who we ought to be in the super organism.

Well, I mean, the current leading theory is that language evolved in the first place to tell stories that enabled us to operate as these highly cooperative groups, these super organisms, as I call them. One early form of storytelling is gossip. Gossip is a universal human behavior. We all do it. Why do we do it? Gossip teaches us... who we ought to be in the super organism.