AUGUST 2024
Save the date. And maybe Tell a Story?
I. NEXT EVENT
Ten years!
Our ten year anniversary is coming up very fast! Too fast! For a long time, we had the wrong timing, we weren’t quite synched up. For a while, we thought we were going into our eighth year, not knowing we were much closer to double digits than we realized. Granted, there was a multi-year (and still ongoing) worldwide pandemic that put events on hold for a couple years. Maybe our brains just skipped over those parts?
Since the beginning, we have been recording all the stories at the event. When they’re created, digital recordings have time stamps. Instead of just assuming we were about eight years old, we could actually see the exact moment of the first few SWDT audio recordings, which were September 2014. So, we were off by about two years, no big deal. Stories are our strong suit, not math.
We’ll be doing something very fun for our 10 year anniversary extravaganza. Let’s just say a bit of celebrating the old and embracing the new. The event page is not up yet, we just wanted to send you a quick “save the date” email to, er, save the date.
The event will be all about stories, so if you’re interested in sharing one of your stories with us, please fill out this form. As per usual, we’ll be doing two workshops to assist storytellers. Here is the workshop info:
Workshop #1: Thursday, September 12th, 6:00-8:00pm.
Workshop #2: Saturday, September 21st, 1:00-3:00pm.
Location: Centre for Social Innovation, Annex Location, 720 Bathurst Street.
Here are a bunch of other ways to engage with us online and get information on how to participate in SWDT events:
Learn more about the process of telling a story with us.
Check out all workshop and event dates for the entire season.
Listen to the SWDT Podcast.
Get your copy of the SWDT book.
We look forward to seeing you on September 28th!
— The SWDT Crew
II. SWDT PODCAST
Another season coming soon.
We know, we know, we’ve promised this before. For years, we said we’d be producing more podcast episodes and although it might’ve taken years, we made good on our word.
We came up with this very cool idea to celebrate our 10th year anniversary. We made a list of every person who ever told a story with us, which took longer than you might think. We then picked one person from each year to reach out to and interview about their experience of telling a story with us. We feel confident that we’ll be releasing these in honour of our 10th year anniversary because we already have the interviews in the can! Very proactive of us.
And, not surprisingly because we have such amazing people participating in our event, the interviews are all quite special conversations with some very great, creative, thoughtful, and funny storytellers. Look for these to drop at the end of September. In the meantime, you can listen to all the episodes from the first half of the 2024 podcast season.
Episode 145 - Vision Boards: Lee-Anne shares a story about creating a vision board that manifests an experience that is perhaps a bit more dangerous than she had expected. Paul and Stefan talk about developing an entire story around one incident.
Episode 146 - Alternate Timelines: Sam shares a story about a very serious neck injury - in this timeline, at least. Paul and Stefan talk about how to take a very plot-driven story that you’ve told many times and unpack the emotions.
Episode 147 - Date Night: Veronica shares a story about finally finding the time to go out on a date, but it doesn’t end well. Paul and Stefan talk about structuring a story by using a time limit.
Episode 148 - Themes Revisited: Stefan shares a multi-generational story about trying to stay afloat. Paul then joins him to talk about one of their favourite topics: themes.
Episode 149 - Taboo Topics: Paul shares a story about doing things alone as a single person. Stefan then joins him to talk about using humour to dig into taboo topics.
Episode 150 - Translations: Alena shares a story about a relationship slowly breaking up. Paul and Stefan talk about how to translate a written essay into a performed piece.
Episode 151 - Twist Endings: Abdallah shares a story about a very unique cactus plant. Paul and Stefan talk about how to make effective use of twist endings.
Episode 152 - Editing Revisited: Jingshu shares an incredibly heartfelt story about her grandfather. Stefan and Paul revisit one of their favourite, and often overlooked, topics: editing.
Episode 153 - Universal Stories: an impactful and beautiful story that is about a relationship between a mother and daughter, and so much more. Stefan and Paul discuss how to write about big ideas through personal stories.
Episode 154 - A Trip Around the World: Chris shares a story about travelling all around the world to find out what home means to him. Stefan and Paul discuss how to bring together a lot of shorter pieces to make one unified story.
The Stories We Don’t Tell Podcast has almost 150 episodes. Each episode includes a live story recorded at our event and a brief discussion about storytelling. We have also done mini-series about the art of storytelling and writing, dispensing some tips and tricks we’ve learned after working with people and their stories for 10 years. Subscribe to the SWDT Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
III. THE BOOK
That time Monica got hit by a car.
The book version of Stories We Don’t Tell includes 61 stories that were all told in front of a live audience at one of our shows. The authors have generously contributed these pieces of their lives to be included in this book. Along with each newsletter, we feature a summary of a story from the book. One of the people we did a podcast interview with for the upcoming 10th year celebration was old friend of the show, Monica Hamburg. And, of course, she has a story in the SWDT book which is about lost love and car crashes.
I was just hit by a car. And that was it. There was no real room for drama. No real space for a reaction. No one emotionally close to me nearby to care about it all. Except me. When I was walking down the street moments ago, I was thinking, “I could use a hug.” Then the car hit me, and I thought, “Now, I could really use a hug.” My hands shaking, I took out my phone, and I posted a joke on Facebook about the incident. Because converting pain into humour makes anything I’m going through feel infinitely better.
Each story in the book created a memorable moment in front of a roomful of people. Moving through this anthology is an experience where these many moments complement and reflect each other, contradict and draw parallels, have profound wisdom and absurdity. Learn more about the book and order your very own copy at this link.
We welcome any comments or questions, whether it be about the event, podcast, telling a story, or general thought about storytelling. Email us: thestorieswedonttell [@] gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
