Abstract
What follows is a slightly amended transcript of a closing keynote, delivered to the International Conference on Storytelling for Health in Swansea, United Kingdom, on June 17, 2017. As such, the tone of the oral nature of the presentation has been preserved and amendments have been limited to issues of clarity, often as a result of the post-talk discussion with conference delegates. The paper emerges from a set of reflections on my responsibilities as a storytelling researcher in a “post-truth age,” where lies and untruths are flaunted and experts openly derided. For over ten years I have productively collaborated with colleagues from the natural sciences on projects addressing issues relating to the environmental, health, and social justice challenges faced by society. My argument has always been that storytelling enables us to embrace multiple truths and navigate our way through uncertainty, providing a welcome counterpoint to the orthodoxy that the world is built on a single reality and an objective scientific truth. I now wonder if I have overplayed my hand and ask how the storyteller might best respond to the post-truth world.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Michael
(2018)
"Some Thoughts on Storytelling, Science, and Dealing with a Post-Truth World,"
Storytelling, Self, Society: Vol. 13:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/storytelling/vol13/iss1/6