Detail of The Post Office by Frederick Goodall; engraving by C.W. Sharpe

A Coming Crisis of Cognition

Storytelling and the Ebb of Explanation

In journalism, we think our job is to “get the story.” We teach the skill of “knowing what a story is.” We call ourselves “storytellers.” We believe that through stories — or as we also like to say when feeling uppish, “narrative”— we attract and hold attention, impart facts in engaging fashion, and explain the world.