Here’s an interesting essay, full of links to other resources, that is exploring how we might be “wired for empathy” and why stories cultivate emotions.

Deborah Jorgens recently successfully defended her MA capstone project at Luther Seminary. Her paper is a lovely, concise, and eloquent description of the power involved in creating room for elders in a community to share their stories with the wider community. She was particularly focused on a Christian ministry setting that was predominately white and

A lovely piece from the Duke Faith&Leadership blog about the epistemological convictions embodied in indigenous storytelling.

As someone who has been partnered for more than 30 years with a man, and who is raising with him our two sons, I’m so grateful that cultural creatives are finally bringing this strong message of compassionate and wise masculinity to public notice:

This is an essay about the best piece of storytelling I’ve encountered in a long time — Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up comedy special on Netflix. Yes, she’s funny, but she’s also an incredibly powerful truth teller. This NPR essay points to some of the reasons why — but watch the special first!

Here’s a lovely post about the First Baptist Church of McMinnville, Oregon, and its use of storytelling to create community, remember history, and engage people beyond the sanctuary. The post includes a variety of very useful resources for doing this kind of storytelling particularly in the context of worship.

“I’ll tell my story” is a project of the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice. Formerly incarcerated persons tell their stories through the creation of digital stories using the CDS methodology.

Storypath is a site I’ve mentioned in here before, but I am reminded this morning of the excellent lesson plans that they have made available to use with strong picture books.

Photovoice is both a practice and a research methodology, and it is energizing and empowering to see the ways various people are using this medium to nurture justice: Wendy Ewald, professional photographer who is a passionate advocate of photo voice work the Chiapas Photography Project, a photo voice project in the Chiapas region of Mexico

Sr. Liz Thoman, long time advocate of media education, spoke with me often about her joy in doing photography as a spiritual practice. It is lovely to see that Eileen Crowley has extended this idea and developed a website to help people engage photography through this lens.