I will admit that I am an avid, even devoted, fan of Serial, the new podcast produced by the folks of another of my favorite podcasts, This American Life. But while I’ve listened to it raptly for the last eleven weeks and eagerly await the conclusion to be dropped tomorrow, in the last week or so I’ve also become a bit ambivalent…about both the podcast itself and my devotion to it. A little background may help. Serial is a new podcast that this fall has told – really, is still telling as the conclusion is tomorrow – one story over twelve weeks. One true story, actually. It is the podcast/radio version of a Ken Burns documentary...

It’s All About the Story You Tell Wayne Rooney is a striker (forward, goal-scorer) on England’s national team. When he’s not playing for Queen and country, he plays for Manchester United. In that capacity, at age 28 he’s scored 216 goals, making him the third-highest goal-scorer in the history of that storied team. He’s led MU to five championships in England’s Premier League, arguably one of the top leagues in the world, and one title in the EUFA Champions League, where the top teams from all the various continental leagues compete. At age 17 he made his debut on England’s national team, making him the youngest player to don...

Because I love grand fiction that involves the creation of other “worlds” – Tolkien’s Middlearth or Lewis’ Narnia or Collins’ Panem – I found this animated video from TED-Ed really interesting. The question that bestselling children’s author Kate Messner seeks to answer in it is, “How do you build an alternative world that people will find believable?” Her answer has a lot to do not just with stories per se, but with us: we humans who are to the core deeply narrative creatures. Because narrative has the benefit of ordering events in a way that makes sense – that doesn’t mean it’s right, mind you, or the only way to...