If we were tasked with explaining some of our species-defining concepts to alien visitors, we’d probably tell them stories. No dictionary definition of love, joy, regret, or grief encapsulates the majesty and misery of those words as does relating them to the context of everyday lived experience. We humans are a family of storytellers. Thanks to our millennia-long anthology of collective wisdom and tradition, storytelling has become a key marker of what it means to be human. In fact, the whole package of storytelling—the story, the speaker, the listener, the space that blooms between them—is one ningenkusai feat (“Stinks like human” is the literal translation of the Japanese word ningenkusai).

In her 19 years at The Moth—an award-winning multimedia organization that promotes the craft of storytelling—Sarah Austin Jenness has heard tens of thousands of stories. Storytelling, she says, is the ultimate virtual reality. “When a story is told well, it allows the listener to walk beside the speaker and to see the world through their eyes. Suddenly, you find yourself transported to a forest in Alaska or sitting around someone else’s grandmother’s kitchen table.” The more personal the story is, notes Jenness, the more universal it becomes.

Stories change lives. Whether we are the ones telling them or the ones listening, stories help humans to be deeply seen. The good news, Jenness promises, is that storytelling is easier than we think.

Here is Jenness with 10 tips for telling a good story.

There are many stories that we can tell in many different ways. Ask yourself: Why do you want to tell this particular story? Why is this story interesting or meaningful to........

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