What Our World Needs Most at this Moment

By Geoffrey Holland

Humans have been sharing stories since our beginnings as stone age hunter-gatherers. Telling good stories is one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping cultural change. Stories allow us to see the world through the eyes of others, to feel what they feel, and to understand the hopes, fears, and dreams that drive them. This emotional connection fosters empathy, which is the foundation of compassion and cooperation. When we share stories that elevate values like justice, kindness, equality, and environmental stewardship, we invite others to imagine—and believe in—a better world. Stories become maps for the heart, guiding us toward what is possible and helping us to align our lives with greater purpose.

More than facts or arguments, stories have the power to shift cultural paradigms. They cut through noise, challenge assumptions, and spark dialogue. Good stories illuminate both the pain of injustice and the promise of renewal. They remind us of our shared humanity. Stories can rally communities around common purpose. 

In these times of dysfunction and cultural transition, it is the storytellers - the artists, the writers, the filmmakers - who first articulate powerful new visions for society.  They must make their voices heard over the flood of deceit and disinformation that soaks the substance of the modern media. 

Transcendent stories and messages, the kind that elevate and resonate above the constant drone of social media disinformation, are crucial to shaping the best kind of human future. Great stories can visualize for us what our best way of being looks like. Great stories with powerful messages are the seeds of worthy cultural transformation. Great stories nurture the imagination required to move our world from what it is to the world that it could and should become. 

One of our era’s most important cultural voices, the famed naturalist Jane Goodall has expressed herself eloquently many times on the role stories have always had in human evolution. In various interviews Dame Jane has said, more or less, “What you have to do is get into the heart…And how do you get to the heart?...With stories.”

Another Jane Goodall quote about stories, “We have a window of time. We are the only species with the power to destroy the Earth, and we are also the only species that can save it. The stories we tell, and the choices we make, will decide which we will be.” 

There no more eloquent voice in the world today than Noble Peace Prize winner, Jane Goodall. The iconic naturalist sums her role this way, “I have spent my life speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves – animals, nature, and the children of tomorrow. Stories are how I do that.” 

Many other distinguished voices across our world’s cultures have had memorable things to say about the importance of telling inspiring and transformative stories.

“Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Author

“There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”- Ursula K. Le Guin, Author

“The most powerful weapon in politics is a good story. Those who tell the stories rule the world.” – Barack Obama, 45th U.S. President

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live, to make sense of the world, to explain ourselves to others, and to understand who we are.” – Jeanette Winterson. Author

“People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” – Terry Pratchett, Author

“If you want to change the world, change the metaphor.”  - Joseph Campbell, Author

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” – Harriet Murakami, Author

There has never been a time in all of our history in which we humans were more in need of stories that inspire and transform.

All of the influences that have guided our human lives in the best way have been rooted in stories; stories that reflect courage, compassion, and redemption. It was stories that brought us here from where we came from. Humans need compelling stories to inspire the best kind of future for life on Earth.