@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:36

FRAMING OUR LIVES THROUGH OUR STORIES : In Conversation with Leah Lamb

article image placeholderMedicine Stories
I know you'll be having more here with a lot of different kinds of people, but I get to have you here first in this reflection on your career and what makes you so happy being you, being a story provider for people, meaning that you provide people a framework through which they can really find their voice. And I wanted to start by asking you to give a little background on the story in your life that really stays with you as a story

Here’s a great site of Leah’s https://www.medicinestories.com/home @LeahLamb

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@LeahLamb
Leah Lamb
@LeahLamb · 5:00
I mean, I don't know that there's such a thing as a new story, but how does the story want to live in our times? And how do the stories want to speak to us and through us and be us in these times? And how can we express life through the stories that we live? Anyway, I'm in there and I'm like, these are the things that I'm pondering and so alive with
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@LeahLamb
Leah Lamb
@LeahLamb · 5:00
I carry that story because to me, it is one of those key stories that says sometimes what looks like is in the soul's. Hunger isn't the thing that needs to be fed. It's something much, much bigger. And I feel like that's where we are in the world right now. It's like, stop pretending that our stomachs are going to be filled by McDonald's. It's like, how can we give each other our humanity back?
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@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:09

@LeahLamb

So I wanted to ask you about the legacy of story, and when you spoke earlier that you didn't feel like you had any sort of intrinsic connection to a particular culture that was very storied, but yet you felt called and you felt the gift. When you work with people as you do, I think you probably come up against people's self deprecating perspectives of who they are
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@LeahLamb
Leah Lamb
@LeahLamb · 4:56
It was something that was considered far crueller. Which is that they were ignored and that was considered the punishment that their existence was not reflected back. And I feel like a Storytellers were so powerful and it's really beneath it all. Our number one role in life, honestly, is to almost be like people think of it as the recorder, but I think of it also as the reporter. We're the people that are reporting on life, which means that we're not just standing as witness
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:34

@LeahLamb 🙌🙏

Oh, Leah, your reply set me up so perfectly for what I want to do next. Which is, first of all, acknowledge that we are in a world that tends to want things to be fully baked and to set up a culture, however small it is, where people could just experiment and be themselves and be imperfect and be raw and enjoy what happens in that space that's epic. And that's why I love swell as well
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@WendyHaines
Wendy Haines
@WendyHaines · 0:27
I am being in the imperfection and learning edge of how to reply in here, embracing it all. I I am just so loving this conversation and love you two humans and what you contribute
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@WendyHaines
Wendy Haines
@WendyHaines · 3:06
So I want to maybe reiterate what I was sharing in how I am moved and kind of what the conversation is surfacing for me and what's standing out is, like, the relevance and power of story. And also practice. And also how do we be in a potent and purposeful practice around the story that we are telling ourselves primarily, and then also the story that we bring into the world
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