Announcing "A People's Natural History" and inviting your voice to join this StoryCorps archive

 Hello all,

While people can continue to diversify the professional study and communication of human origins and evolution, we can do something else to help humankind write a natural history that’s fit for all humankind. 

We can listen to humankind tell their story.

No matter where they are on the planet, no matter what they do for a living, no matter how many degrees they have, no matter how many facts and fossils they know, no matter how religious or not they are, it’s their voices that make up the story of where we came from, how we got here, how we fit in nature, and what it all means.

This is the real story of human evolution–how people understand it and incorporate it into their lives, their worldviews. 

So, to hear those voices, I’ve created a Community at the StoryCorps Archive to curate people’s stories about and related to evolution, cosmology, their place in nature, their Jurassic Park fantasies, and any other stories that people think fall under the category of natural history. 

Our community is called “A People’s Natural History” (aka APNH).

I just love StoryCorps. Their motto is “Listen. Honor. Share.” And my zoom instructor for the DIY course had the sign “LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE” hung up on her wall. 

I’m announcing APNH here before I’ve even posted a story of my own because I want the link to this blost post with this information to launch with that recording. And… I don’t care if anyone else beats me to it. I’d be thrilled and would relish the opportunity to listen so soon to our first archived recording! Mine will be there shortly.

Later in the summer I’ll share ideas for how folks may incorporate A People’s Natural History into their courses. For now, I just wanted you all to know it’s live.

I hope to hear you there! 

love & evolution,

Holly

Here it is: A People’s Natural History

Here’s the tagline: Writing humanity’s shared story together.

Here’s the description: Our natural history belongs to every person on this planet—whether or not we agree on how to tell the stories of the ancient past and how to incorporate them into our views of life, death, religion, spirituality, and love. Through our diverse personal lenses, we are writing humanity’s epic tale, our shared story, together.

Here’s how to participate in APNH

1. Find a partner for this project (a parent, friend, sibling, …) and prepare for your interview/conversation (see “How to prepare…” below). They must be 13 years or older. (I know that’s disappointing but SC is protecting children’s internet privacy, which is not disappointing.)

2. Download the StoryCorps App (for an in-person interview with your partner on your phone) or StoryCorps Connect (for a remote interview with your partner). To learn how, go here: https://support.storycorps.me/hc/en-us 

3. Find a good time and place to do the recording, schedule it with your partner

4. Make your recording

5. While together, just after your conversation, decide whether to make your contribution public in the archive, or to keep it private. 

6. Add the keywords “A People’s Natural History” and “APNH” and archive your recording with the “A People’s Natural History” Community. Don’t forget to add as many other keywords as you wish to help people find or stumble across your recording. 

Here’s how to prepare for your recorded conversation for APNH

Write your questions and share them a few weeks out from your scheduled recording date with your partner. Together, discuss themes/topics you wish to cover, what you (both) would not like to discuss, and suggest about 5 questions that you could ask your partner.

Thoughtful question can open up an entire thread of conversation. Feel free to develop your own questions or use the Great Questions for inspiration. It can be helpful to start with some general questions before asking about more complex subjects.

When you’re recording, it’s possible that you’ll disagree on some things and that’s okay. Listen without being adversarial. Disagree without being adversarial or righteous. 

You will have up to 40 minutes for your recording, but shorter ones may be more accessible to the public so please keep that in mind. 

Suggested Questions

As you prepare your 5 questions, you may wish to use any combination of the following questions, grouped by theme.  

1. Origin Stories

• What do you love about being alive? How did it evolve, or what’s the origin story for it? How did you know about that?

• Tell me the origin story for people. Do you like that story? Does it feel like it belongs to you? Or I guess I mean, does it feel like it’s your story? Does it give you any meaning or purpose?

2. What is a human?

• What is a human? Is all that in our genes?

• If I say [e.g. “endurance running made us human” or “music made us human” or “men evolved to be the dominant gender” etc etc ] then what’s your response or reaction? What do you think or feel?

a. Endurance running made us human

b. art made us human

c. Music made us human

d. Walking upright made us human

e. Big brains made us human

f. humans evolved to dominate the planet

g. men evolved to be the dominant gender

h. white people evolved to be on top

i. humans are so successful because they are the friendliest ape

3. Ancestors

• Who are your ancestors? What do you know about them? How far back in time can you go? What does this say, if anything, about you and your identity or how you see the world?

• What’s your natural history? Is there a story to it? What is it? Would you call that humanity’s creation story? Why/why not? Does it matter to you? How often do you think about it? 

4. Deep thoughts

• What makes humans humans?

• Where did humans come from? How did we evolve? Tell the story of human evolution.

• What was it like before humans evolved? What’s it been like since?

• Is evolution compatible with your belief in God?

• What is natural history to you? Does it matter to you? How often do you think about it? 

5. Deeper thoughts and looking into the future

• Why are you here, like in a cosmic sense? 

• Is Big Bang theory compatible with your belief in God?

• What will happen to humans in the future? Do you think we must get off the planet to avoid extinction? Are we alone in the universe or is there life elsewhere? Is it intelligent?

6. Your place in nature

• What is nature to you and what does it mean to you?

• What do you share with other life on earth? What don’t you share that you wish you shared? How did these similarities and differences come about? Does it matter to you? Is this story important out there in the world? 

7. “The Talk”

• I’d like to tell my child about how he got here, you know, the birds and the bees. How would you do that if you were me? Or, do you have experience with that? How did that go?

• How do you think ancient people figured out that sex makes babies? Do animals know any of this or are humans alone in this understanding? Do you link any of this to natural history or evolution?

Great follow-up Questions

• How did that make you feel?

• What happened next?

• Can you remember a specific time…?

• Can you give me an example?

• Can you paint a picture in words?

• What were you thinking when that happened?

• Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Questions? holly_dunsworth at uri dot edu