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Storylisteners

by The Storylisteners Team @ Colorado State University

Careers Self-Improvement

Season 3

Rich Feller Timeline: Reflections

In this fourth and final episode, Rich looks at his present and future and he talks with Michael about the themes that can be derived from a life richly lived. NOTE: Barbara is Rich's wife. Chris is his son. Lorie studied with Rich and is Michael's wife.

Rich Feller Timeline: Building a Life

In this third episode, Rich speaks with Michael about building his reputation as a trailblazer and leader in the career development field. He talks about continuing his education in both traditional and not-so-traditional ways, including seeking some of the leading thinkers in America to learn from them directly. Then he takes us on a journey, both personal and professional, to understand how he went from a learner to a teacher of thousands around the world. More important than all of that, however, is the chance to become a husband and father. He talks about the ends he would travel to be a good one.

Rich Feller Timeline: College and Beyond

In this second episode, Rich speaks with Michael about college life in the late 1960s, including the role of being a college basketball player, which forged lifelong friendships. And the role of politics and activism that would form his life as a citizen. He also discusses the decisions and insights that led to his career path and the love interests of his youth. One student he knew back in his early years of college would later become his life partner.

Rich Feller Timeline: A Childhood

Timelines are long-form narrative listening projects that walk through a whole life of one person. The purpose is to both demonstrate narrative listening as a conversational technique, while also celebrating the lives of extraordinary people. This series features the life of Rich Feller, a beloved and influential professor, speaker, and leader in the career development field. From 1980 until 2013, Rich was a faculty member of the Department of Education at Colorado State University. In 2007, the Colorado Career Development Association honored Rich by naming a leadership award after him. After retiring, he has continued his work with partners such as YouScience and NASA as well as speaking and consulting around the world. In this first episode, Rich talks about his childhood in a working class area of Cold Spring, New York, where he learned to love sports. He carefully observed the lives of his mother and father, and other adults in his life, who all would cultivate many of his interests, including his passion for understanding the meaning of work. He speaks with Michael Humphrey.

Season 2

Storylisteners for Democracy: Steve Weiss and Jesse Grace Ventured into The Eye of a Democracy Storm

When Jesse Grace and Steve Weiss were asked to make a documentary about mail-in voting, it seemed like a straightforward assignment. Until COVID struck, and the 2020 presidential election turned into a referendum on mail-in voting, filled with conspiracy theories, death threats to election workers, and ultimately, an invasion of the U.S. Capitol. What resulted was the hour long documentary Democracy vs. The Big Lie: The Truth Behind Mail-In Voting. Grace and Weiss are both members of the Journalism and Media Communication faculty at Colorado State. How did they make the switch from informational storytelling to coverage of a historic moment of crisis in our democracy? And just as importantly, what shaped them to become the storytellers, and storylisteners, that they are today?

Storylisteners for Democracy: Ryan Claycomb Asks What We Have Learned from Verbatim Theater

Dr. Ryan Claycomb remembers the night he found the subject that would animate and define his life as a literature and theater scholar. It was the first night he had ever seen a verbatim theater production. Verbatim theater has a unique relationship with democracy, because in many ways it is democratic. As Dr. Claycomb describes it in his new book, In the Lurch, verbatim theater is, “socially engaged performances whose texts rely on word-for-word testimony. Performances such as Fires in the Mirror, The Laramie Project, and The Vagina Monologues have at their best demonstrated how to hold hard conversations about explosive subjects in a liberal democracy.” Still, the book is not a celebration of the artform and his career. Rather, it looks critically at its effectiveness in the face of a hard move toward illberal ideologies around the world, and he does not spare himself in that investigation. What role does art and testimony play in the shared experience, political and otherwise? At the heart of that question is a concept critical to both narrative and listening: empathy. Dr. Claycomb is both a Professor of English and Theater as well as an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts.

Storylisteners for Democracy: Andrea Purdy Translates Democracy Across Language and Cultures

What power does language hold in a democracy? From deliberation experts to linguists to journalists, many experts will tell you it sits at the critical center. So when Adrea Purdy became a founding member of the Deliberative Journalism Project in 2021, it was to ensure the whole conversation did not occur in just one language. An Associate Teaching Professor of Spanish, Purdy is a native of Parral,Chihuahua, Mexico, Purdy received my Ph.D. in 20th Century Spanish American Literature from Texas Tech University in 1987. Her many areas of interest include: contemporary Spanish American prose, issues in culture, the teaching of reading and writing skills, and of course, translation, so important in a time when language can help, or hurt, our understanding of facts, truth, and each other.

Season 1

Healers: The Wrap-Up

In this final episode, we talk about what we learned as we spoke to nine healers who use narrative listening as a way to better serve their patients and clients. We also discuss how to define storylistening, how it might be used in journalism, and how the experience of meeting and discussing storylisteners changed us.

Healers: Ron Holder, Healthcare Leadership through Listening

In this episode, we delve into the world of healthcare administration through the lens of an experienced professional. Ron Holder, COO of the Medical Group Management Association discusses resolving conflict through effective communication, using the "ladders of inference" to tailor messages for each person, and the differences between hearing and listening. We also explore generational communication gaps and the importance of face-to-face interaction for active and effective listening.

Healers: "Patient Lee" Listens His Way to Changing the Medical Industry

We speak to Lee Tomlinson, also known as “Patient Lee”, who after a battle with advanced throat cancer, began a speaking and writing campaign inspiring healthcare professionals to place compassionate care at the forefront of the modern healthcare system. He talks about experiencing a lack of listening and empathy during his own illness, the role that kindness plays in listening to another person, and how he has grown as a listener in his own life. He spoke with our executive producer, Katie Mitchell.

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