# The craft of economic storytelling ### Metadata Type:: Tags:: Podcast:: [[The New Bazaar]] Title: The craft of economic storytelling URL: https://shows.acast.com/the-new-bazaar/episodes/the-craft-of-economic-storytelling Guest:: Reference:: Reviewed Date: 2024-05-26 ### Description > Tim Harford is the author of numerous terrific economics books and the host of two great podcasts: “Cautionary Tales”, about what we should learn from big mistakes; and “More or Less”, about statistics. He also writes columns and essays for the Financial Times.  > > And what sets Tim apart in all these different mediums is his exceptional storytelling. And when it comes to telling _economic_ stories – stories that are meant to grab your attention, and keep you in suspense, and then ultimately land on a message or a lesson that really stays with you – I’m not sure there’s anyone better.  > > And Tim’s latest book, The Data Detective, is no different: there’s a lot of great stories in it. But what I really loved about it is that it’s very much also about the craft of storytelling itself. And that’s what today’s conversation with Tim is also about: What are the ingredients of a captivating story? Why is it that stories are so necessary for fighting back against misinformation? (Why aren’t the facts themselves enough?) And how do you wield the power of storytelling responsibly?  > > Links from the episode: > > - [Cautionary Tales](https://www.pushkin.fm/show/cautionary-tales/), hosted by Tim Harford, from Pushkin Industries (https://bit.ly/3eopqDX) > - ["The Problem with Facts"](https://timharford.com/2017/03/the-problem-with-facts/), by Tim Harford (https://bit.ly/3Fpvjg2) > - [The Data Detective](https://timharford.com/books/datadetective/), by Tim Harford (https://bit.ly/3EoekcG) > - Cardiff and Aimee are on Twitter at [@CardiffGarcia](https://twitter.com/CardiffGarcia?s=20) and [@AimeePKeane](https://twitter.com/AimeePKeane) > - Send us an email! You can write to us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) > --- ## Notes [[Orson Welles]] (roughly, as related by [[Tim Harford]]): Don’t worry about an audience not understanding something. Audiences can understand anything. The problem is to interest them. Once you interest them, they can understand anything in the world. They talk about the struggle between conveying nuance and oversimplifying. You can’t leave stuff out that makes a difference, but you have to cut stuff out. What’s an interesting story? The basics are: - There’s a protagonist the you can identify with, and they are struggling with something. - You might know how the story is going to turn out, but you don’t know why it does. - There’s a twist at the end. You don’t know exactly how it’s going to turn out. An anecdote — an example of what I’m talking about — is not a story. You need to be surprised by a story or it’s not very good. ([[Cardiff Garcia]] sharing a thought by [[Adam Grant]], writing about [[Malcolm Gladwell]], citing sociologist [[Murray Davis]].) Davis: “Those who attempt to deny the strongly-held assumptions of their audience will have their very sanity called into question. They will be accused of being lunatics. If scientists, they will be called crackpots. If the difference between the inspired and the insane is only in the degree of tenacity of the particular audience assumptions they choose to attack, it is perhaps for this reason that genius has always been considered close to madness.” You need to be surprised by a story or it’s not very good. Set unfamiliar events or characters in a familiar context. (The Civil or Vietnam wars are familiar contexts. They don’t need to be explained. Changing peoples’ minds is really hard. Get yourself to think straight. Engage in dialog with people who have a different point of view by asking “How does that work?” “Describe that to me.”