the invention of storytelling enabled individual human brains to merge into a shared reality. Welcome to the story-world.

science. A cursory search will return a plethora of articles and books on the subject, such as Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story by Kendall Haven and The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr.

The ingredient at the top of the list is resonance – when one person tells a story to another, it has to resonate with them. Not only must their mirror neurons fire up, but the best stories, the ones most likely to bring storyteller and audience in sync, must be those where the neurons are already primed to fire up. That’s most likely to happen whe