Storytelling lessons from TED: Getting to know fear by another name

Imagine you’re a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates — but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them. Watch her talk at TED.

“Read in the right way, our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination …”

Ode’s next event is 7 p.m. March 30 at ISU Design West in downtown Sioux City. The theme is inspirations and influences, giving an ode to the people, places and things that changed our lives.