The Power of Storytelling: Connecting Lives and Leaving a Legacy - The Vision

Have you ever wondered how the power of storytelling can impact our lives and create a lasting legacy for future generations? Join Joe Boyle and Mark Wolak as we discuss the importance of sharing stories of hope and resilience, and how these narratives can play a significant role in connecting people from all walks of life. We also dive into our personal experiences with adversity and the role stories play in helping us find connection in a sometimes isolated world.

Discover how captivating and positive storytelling can be both entertaining and educational, leaving listeners eagerly awaiting the next episode. Mark and Joe explore the art of creating content that is real, believable, and inclusive, as well as the importance of balancing entertainment with inspiration. Don't miss out on these insightful conversations - and be sure to visit our website to learn more about us and our mission to share extraordinary stories of everyday people.

Transcript

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Joe Boyle 0:06

Welcome to Stories in Life . You're on the radio with Mark and Joe . We share stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill , courage , determination , commitment and vision of everyday people .

Mark Wolak 0:20

Our goal is that through another person's story you may find connection . No matter your place in life . The stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh , cry , think or change your mind about something important in your life .

Joe Boyle 0:37

Join us for this episode of Stories in Life . Hey Joe , Hey Mark , We're here .

Mark Wolak 0:52

Yeah , this is great . It's a good for us to describe our vision for podcasting for our listeners . You and I have had a chance to really think about this pretty deeply and I think we're ready to share . So you know , one of the big ideas for this for me was to leave a record and a legacy of great human stories for other people to enjoy . Friends of ours , ancestors , relatives to some extent our children have a story to share . We should get them out there . So I'm thinking , for example , my grandmother . She had a wonderful story . She left sixth grade because the teachers wouldn't let her speak Polish . They were making her speak English , and so she went to work in the farm and on the woods with her father .

Joe Boyle 1:34

I mean , that's quite a story , and that's just the way it was . Yeah Yeah , my grandmother on my dad's side was among the first American women to get the vote . It was ratified in 1920 , and she was born in 1900 , so she was among the first batch of women to place a vote for president in the . United States Think about that .

Mark Wolak 1:55

That's a great story , yeah , you know . And the other thing about this is that we can pick from the past . we can pick from the current . Sure , as we're trying to describe this human interest story , this legacy . The

Give Hope and Inspiration

Mark Wolak 2:10

other thing I think that works well for us is to give hope to others , people that can overcome great odds and find success . They listen to a story of a person here that we bring to share that story . They have an opportunity to connect with that person , think about their own challenges , maybe receive a little inspiration from it . Absolutely , yeah , You know . I think as humans , we tend to think of adversity as something that's personal , it's happening to us . We don't think about all the other people that might be sharing that same challenge or have had that experience and can offer some wisdom Overcoming odds . I think That's a theme in terms of a good podcast for us , And really that's what we do as human beings .

Joe Boyle 2:55

We overcome odds every day . I volunteer as a driver for the disabled vets . All you have to do is ask them what branch of service they were in and the stories come .

Mark Wolak 3:16

Maybe we can get a story or two from that group of people that you're connecting with Right . Yeah , that'd be wonderful . I had an experience sailing on Lake Superior once . It was a tremendous storm . We were crossing from Grand Marais back to the Apostle Islands . It was lightning . There was a big squall moving through , it had high winds And , right in the middle of all that adversity , it was a warm rain too , which was interesting . What time of year It was like August , September right in there .

Mark Wolak 3:45

My wife and I were hiding underneath the dodger and smiling at each other actually , because we saw so much beauty in that adversity . Yes , we were scared . Yes , it had some challenges for us as sailors , but overall we were really excited about being in that big storm and seeing how really beautiful nature is .

Joe Boyle 4:05

And you were together . It was a shared experience . Yes , it was , and you can't put a dollar amount on something like that . You never forget it .

Mark Wolak 4:15

So we'll look for stories that people can share about how they overcame some adversity . I think that's a great way for people to connect with us and our listeners to connect with the people that are here .

Joe Boyle 4:27

Those are fun stories to hear too .

Mark Wolak 4:28

They are .

Joe Boyle 4:30

Especially the ones that have a happy ending .

Finding Connection

Mark Wolak 4:34

The other thing I think it's really good for our vision is finding connection . In a world of unbelievable technology , a lot of people are really isolated from each other . Technology can do that to us , and so I think if we can bring stories forward and help people understand that they're not alone , that there are other people in the world who maybe had the same experience or a similar experience , through that story they can feel support , maybe learn something . You know , I've never been someone who's taken advice very well , you maybe know that about me If somebody gives me advice .

Mark Wolak 5:09

it's like no , no , no , no , no , no , I'm going to do this myself .

Joe Boyle 5:16

You don't want to hear all that .

Mark Wolak 5:18

Exactly . So I think we learn . For me in particular , i learned through stories of other people and I want to hear those stories . I think stories are better than advice , absolutely .

Joe Boyle 5:28

Almost every time . I can say that , coming from a Catholic school upbringing , I had a lot of fingers pointed in my face and wagged at me . You're not really thinking about what they're saying . at that time , you know , a story would have been much better .

Mark Wolak 5:49

Somehow I can see that happening .

Joe Boyle 5:51

Yes .

Mark Wolak 5:53

Well , maybe you'll have a story to share there for us .

Joe Boyle 5:56

I could write a book .

Mark Wolak 5:59

And also the other thing I think for our listeners is that we're going to be looking for stories that inspire us , inspire others , you know , help people understand that maybe through a story their own challenges are manageable , maybe the failure is not seen as something stupid but actually something that you learn from . I have a nine year old grandson and he was telling me a story the other day and he started out by saying well , first of all it was stupid . And I said , i said , yeah , but wait a minute , hold it , Ethan . That just sounds like a mistake . And you know , i think in our culture we're so quick to throw judgment at somebody's mistake, right , and name it a failure when it has nothing to do with failing .

Joe Boyle 6:42

But if you make a mistake and don't learn from it , then you can call yourself stupid .

Mark Wolak 6:47

Although , could we give , could we have a chance for three tries ?

Joe Boyle 6:54

Sometimes I might need three times .

Mark Wolak 6:56

So , yeah , i think we need to rely on each other for stories that give us inspiration . To some extent , you know , have these stories help people make decisions about the difficult things they're facing ?

Joe Boyle 7:07

Well , in this day and age , technology being what it is , people need to connect on a personal level more than ever . Everybody's on their phones , Everybody's , you know , communicating in some way , shape or form , but they're doing it all alone .

Mark Wolak 7:21

Yeah , yeah , I so agree with that . I think even the fact that technology is bringing this podcast out to people right , We're trying to bring it back . I think one of your ideas once was to call us radio faces . Yeah , you know just to try to humanize the radio experiences .

Joe Boyle 7:37

Well , and I was referring to my own looks .

Joe Boyle 7:48

Not everybody can look like Eric Clapton . That's true , That's true .

Mark Wolak 7:52

Joe , so you can tell listeners that we're going to have some fun with this . You know we're going to seek out some wisdom . We're definitely going to have some humor . One of the things that we're looking for and we'll give you a chance to share your ideas with us on our website . We're looking for , you know , basically ordinary lives , extraordinary stories . We want to pull out from other people the grit and the learning that they experienced . We want some stories that talk about how remarkable and resilient human beings are . We have a chance to share a little bit about , about what's coming in the future

Upcoming Stories

Mark Wolak 8:25

. Joe , should we move to that ? Sure , let's go . You ready to do that ? Yes , I am . So one story that people have given me feedback on and said , hey , that's a great story , is a friend of mine who is a proficient sailor . And , due to a number of circumstances , was stranded on an island overnight in Lake Superior .

Joe Boyle 8:43

How many of them ?

Mark Wolak 8:44

I think there were three or four crew members . And so there's a story of how they built a raft and got all the sailors back on the sailboat by like six the next morning .

Joe Boyle 8:57

So the sailboat was okay , but they got stuck on the island .

Mark Wolak 9:02

Yeah , they got stuck on the island . They traveled to the island in the dinghy . And then the dinghy floated away while they were having fun .

Joe Boyle 9:09

Well , I would have hate to have been the fellow that was in charge of the dinghy .

Mark Wolak 9:14

Yes , we will have to ask that question . Who was in charge of that dinghy ?

Joe Boyle 9:18

Yeah , was there any finger pointing ? Well , we're going to find out .

Mark Wolak 9:25

Then we have a story from middle school teacher . She's taught fifth through eighth grade students and she's got a really crazy story about some misconduct of the students and how she handled that .

Joe Boyle 9:40

Yeah , Yeah , I'm not going to throw stones too hard at that one .

Mark Wolak 9:49

And then we have a story from a diplomat who's working with USAID and has traveled the globe . really He's been at 45 countries and we're just getting clearance now to see if we can do the interview with him . Got to share our questions in advance . Hopefully that'll be coming up in July or August .

Joe Boyle 10:08

So we're going to get either a thumbs up or down on that one . Maybe .

Mark Wolak 10:12

Yeah , we're hoping , thumbs up .

Joe Boyle 10:15

We might have to be on double secret probation .

Mark Wolak 10:17

Yes On that one . Yeah , it gets some kind of clearance . Right . Then we have a guest named Darrell Mann . He's been all over the world teaching engineering science of systematic innovation .

Joe Boyle 10:29

When you say systematic innovation, explain what that means .

Mark Wolak 10:32

Everything around us is invented , patented , engineered , designed , and he has used some principles from the mid 1940s . The notion is this that for every problem you have somewhere in the world , somebody has solved that problem already . Use their practices to solve your problem , don't reinvent the wheel . He's got 40 principles that are used for solving problems And he's an incredible resource . I've had a chance to work with him . He's already agreed that he'll do a podcast with us and it'll give us a chance to be international .

Joe Boyle 11:07

Right , right . Look forward to that one .

Mark Wolak 11:09

Yeah , and there's a local therapist who's worked with farmers and we caught a little bit information from him . He sounds like he's got some stories to share . So The Farm Whisperer , yes , exactly Connected a little bit to your earlier conversation about veterans . We have a story from the National Archives a soldier who was a gunner on a bomber in World War Two . Got shot down . Oh can you imagine . And was a prisoner of war , and so we've got a recording of his story and we thought we would find a way to share that . Prisoner of war in Germany , prisoner of war in Germany .

Joe Boyle 11:50

And they made a few movies about guys like that .

Mark Wolak 11:52

Yes , and in fact , Joe , you and I were on the site of his Prisoner of War camp in Nuremberg . In Nuremberg , oh yeah , Stalag 13 . That will be fun , because we're going to have to do the little research , bring that story forward . All right , that'll be a great one . Right now , i'd like to end our vision by giving you our website information . It's storiesinlife . buzzsprout . com . Buzzsprout is our podcast host and Buzzsprout is B-U-Z-Z-S-P-R-O-U-T . com .

Joe Boyle 12:28

Once more nice and slow --- storiesinlife . buzzsprout . com . Thank you very much , all right , thank you , Joe , very good , Thank you , we'll get this posted .

Mark Wolak 12:37

This will be a blast .

Art From the Heart

Joe Boyle 12:45

And now it's time for "Stories in Life . Art from the Heart , Deep Thoughts from the Shallow End . Today I have a quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Tell me and I forget , teach me and I remember , involve me and I learn .

For Our Listeners

Mark Wolak 13:34

Joe , that was really a lot of fun . I really enjoyed listening to our vision again and realizing that we're spot on on some things here . I'm looking forward to this with you .

Joe Boyle 13:45

It was actually easier than I thought it would be .

Mark Wolak 13:47

Joe . What are some of the things that we don't want to be on our podcast as we do this together ?

Joe Boyle 13:54

Well , i don't think we want to be preachy , i don't think we want to be political or divisive or high-handed with religion or anything like that .

Mark Wolak 14:05

I like that a lot .

Joe Boyle 14:07

We don't want to talk down our listeners . We want to give them all the benefit of the doubt . We don't want to be on any kind of soap box .

Mark Wolak 14:16

Oh , even though I'd like to once in a while .

Joe Boyle 14:18

But I'll try to restrain myself . But you know it's better to be real , be true , believable , inclusive . I want to be fun , keep it light . You know the glass half full .

Mark Wolak 14:31

Yeah , you're good at fun . By the way , I can attest to that ! You're very good at fun !

Joe Boyle 14:35

You know , on one hand , we want to be captivating and entertaining . You know self-deprecating . We want to leave our listeners wanting more . We want to educate , but we don't want to browbeat . We want to have positive messages and be transparent and have a good time and want people to anticipate the next episode .

Mark Wolak 14:57

That sounds great , Joe . I'm glad that you brought those things up and I'm looking forward to our next episode that we do together .

Joe Boyle 15:04

Me too .

Mark Wolak 15:08

Thank you for being with us today . You can learn more about us at our website at storiesinlife . buzzsprout . com .