I tell stories. Stories about you and me and us, about our country and our world and the strange and meaningful tapestry of human experience. I tell stories about culture and what makes it tick. Most of all, I tell stories about things that connect with each other unexpectedly, and about how the most insignificant details in our surroundings can, when poked at, turn out to mean everything. Once I wrote an entire book about a single song and all the journeys it made. I do other things, too. I currently work as director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation at The Associated Press. I've reported from more than 30 countries and been on the ground everywhere from Afghanistan to Iraq to China to North Korea to Three Forks of Williams River, West Virginia. Along the way, I have taught and trained and mentored and spoken about storytelling and why it must remain a fundamental and relevant part of the world during the most uncertain of eras.