[Music] [Applause] [Music] one of the most memorable moments of my life happened when I was 24 I had been studying physics at MIT but traveled to Stratford upon Avon Shakespeare's birthplace since I was obsessed with him and his language I remember a joke I heard there's no such thing as American English there's English and then there are mistakes I had come to see the Royal Shakespeare company perform Richard III for a Shakespeare fan they are the ultimate tribute band I followed them everywhere after a masterful matina I had dinner nearby at the next table a
group of nuns was trying to make sense of this play with its over 50 characters but who can resist nuns in need so I introduced myself and explained the main characters and their various grudges then uh one of the nuns gave me the most memorable compliment of my life she said are you a member of the cast for one brief Shining Moment I felt like I was but I was no Storyteller as I learned two decades later when I had a daughter when she was three she started saying blah blah blah to me but I
was okay with her repeating things she heard if she used them correctly so I asked her if she knew what blah blah blah meant she paused and said it's when Daddy says something that doesn't matter dang she did no uh that hit me hard uh since I got my PhD I spent years researching and promoting clean energy but until I had a daughter I had no idea how often I said things that didn't matter so figuring out what words matter became my mission my Holy Grail uh Quest that has led me here to share with
you why I believe uh Taylor Swift is is a modern-day Shakespeare and if you listen to the magical poetry uh of their stories uh you'll learn their secrets too I never realized that my dream would lead me uh to do a climate change blog for 12 years that reached Millions um with a Rolling Stone magazine naming me one of a hundred people changing America uh in 2019 but I realized that um I uh had a long way to go to become you know a a a Storyteller at that point my daughter inspired me to study
the great storytellers uh and their great stories and I realize that while we are often uh learn their structure uh the hero's journey we uh rarely learn the words and phrases uh that make stories memorable so I did what a scientist does I dove into those stories deeply to to determine their core elements and I found three uh key ingredients common to all those poetic potions first what is the most overused word in stories and the most underused the most overused word is and and is the word of Exposition not narration I woke up and
took a shower and went to work and blah blah blah but the most underused word is but buut which introduces the conflict and the tension that we expect in great stories it's often followed by a sentence with the word so or therefore that resolves the tension uh student once asked me for a popular example I said you may remember that famous song by Karly Ray Jepson hey I just met you and this is crazy but here's my number so call me maybe all of the great stories have a high ratio of butts to ANS that's
as true of Shakespeare's plays as it is of Swift's songs especially her 10-minute Masterpiece All Too Well which has butts so the first secret is fewer ANS but more butts the second secret is to use the memory tricks the great bars used to remember their long heroic stories and ensure their audiences remembered them also these tricks are called the figures of speech like rhyme and metaphor and foreshadow but the bards sang their story that's why those who don't gain Fame are called unsung heroes so one way to master these secret weapons is to study how
they're wielded by modern-day bards the singer songwriters my daughter showed me many but Swift is the best Storyteller uh a modern-day Shakespeare and like him she's been accused of being too popular and like him if you only know her early work you've missed a lot remember Shakespeare's first three plays were Henry VI six part one part two and part three not exactly Hamlet and King leer Swift loves figures of speech like foreshadow as we see in her song I Knew You Were Trouble when you walked in that's overt foreshadow we know how that song is
going to end but all too well uh the opening of all to well is more covert I walked through the door with you the air was cold that's First Rate foreshadow for a boyfriend who turns cold but then Swift gets cryptic she says she left her scarf behind and quote you've still got it in your drawer even now Swift's never returned scarf is so famous Saturday Night Live even joke about it uh but here uh it's cryptic how does she know where the scarf is years later and it's clearly the start of their romance so
why didn't she just take it back when she could the answer is the scarf isn't a scarf it's a metaphor as Swift makes clear near the end she says this man mails back her things but you keep my old scarf from that very first week because it reminds you of of innocence and it smells like me so she didn't just lose her scarf she lost her innocence that very first week that's why she can't ever get it back also does Swift really expect us to believe the scarf still smells like her years later no so
why the cryptic words well uh smells like is a call back or Illusion another figure of speech to the famous song by Kurt Cobain and Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit which is about the same kind of Lost Innocence that's how swift writes songs which brings us to the third storytelling secret every word must be chosen for a reason that's how Shakespeare wrote plays take his famous lines to be or not to be that that is the question whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of Outrageous Fortune or to take
arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them these lines have long confused people they say that to be is to suffer the slings and arrows of Outrageous Fortune well you'd feel as besieged as Hamlet if your father died your mother married your uncle your father's ghost returned and said his your uncle murdered him and you needed to get revenge uh that's a lot to take for a college kid you might even say he lost his innocence but that means Shakespeare is also saying that not to be is the same as ending Your
Troubles by taking up arms against them that's odd isn't ending your troubles the obvious choice also you can't take arms or weapons against the sea that would be feudal so that line is often called a mixed metaphor but is it likely Shakespeare made such a simple mistake no the mystery is solved when we remember every word is chosen for a reason Shakespeare is saying that by taking up arms for Revenge Hamlet is ending himself anding his troubles and himself we know that's what he means since that foreshadows the actual end of the play where Hamlet
does take up arms he does kill his troubles but at the same time his troubles kill him in his duel with leres so the metaphor isn't mixed taking up arms for revenge is feudal it's self-destructive it's the same as choosing not to be every word in the play drives home this meaning so if we want to tell magical stories here are three practical steps first cut the ancillary ANS but add tension with those beautiful butts second listen to Taylor to learn the figures of speech use metaphor foreshadow and irony to make your stories more memorable
and third choose your words wisely like Shakespeare and Swift every word should have a purpose if you don't know a word's purpose take it out now you may be thinking you're not a gifted Storyteller well here's a bonus secret no one is storytelling isn't a gift you're given it's a skill you pursue every great Storyteller works hard at it as Swift herself has said you have to write a hundred songs before you write the first good one [Applause] [Music]
