The Importance of Storytelling
Growing up, I never enjoyed English as a subject at school. This was largely due to the fact that when we did creative writing, I found the idea of having to “magic up” an engaging story completely daunting. Storytelling was for other people and certainly not something I could, or even wanted to do.
Not long ago, I attended the Scone Literary Festival and had the opportunity to chat to an amazing group of creatives, all thriving in their various areas. The theme of the festival was ‘storylines’ and emphasised the importance of storytelling, in all its forms.
We live in a world that is increasingly divided, only exacerbated by social media algorithms. We’re fed content that aligns with what we believe, interact with, and share. This creates a cycle where our exposure to differing ideas and opinions is reduced, and we’re less able to actively listen, meet people where they’re at, and engage in robust but *respectful* discussion, especially on topics where our views don’t necessarily align.
There are so many factors that influence what a person believes in, and no two people are going to agree on everything.
We need to regain the skills of having meaningful, respectful conversations, so we can begin to understand where other people are coming from - their perspectives - and what they bring to the table.
That’s where storytelling comes in.
One of the fabulous guests I was able to speak with at the Scone Literary Festival was Oli Le Lievre. Oli is the founder of Humans of Agriculture. Originally a podcasting passion project, “Humans of Ag” is now a multimedia storytelling platform, elevating stories about individuals participating in the agriculture industry.
A bit about Oli
Despite running a podcast all about agriculture, Oli grew up in metropolitan Sydney. He spent school terms in the city but got to head off to his uncle’s farm for holidays, which in his words, “was pretty awesome.”
“I [got] exposed to the fun side of agriculture - riding motorbikes, chasing sheep, dogs, everything that kind of goes with being young and fun and carefree and what-not.”
These holiday periods were what got Oli interested in agriculture and after school, he followed this passion. Completing a Bachelor of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham in Geelong and working in a range of agricultural roles across Australia and globally, Oli reflected:
“for me, what I just kept finding fascinating was just the different passions and people that are involved in our food supply chain and food system, and what keeps them getting out of bed in the morning”
I caught up with Oli a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to know why he thought telling these stories was so important - here’s a bit of his insight from our recent chat…
What is Humans of Ag?
Humans of Agriculture stemmed from Oli’s own curiosity about the agricultural industry and his desire to become a better listener:
“I just thought it would be easy to go and share 10,000 stories of these different people that are doing [agriculture] to understand, for myself and through building an audience, what role agriculture has in shaping the world around us.”
The current mission of the Humans of Ag is to “empower and amplify 10,000 people involved with agriculture”. Oli wants to tell the stories of individuals in a way that can elevate the role of agriculture in “shaping the world to be happier, healthier, and more prosperous” hoping to “connect, inspire and engage either people who are involved in agriculture today or people who have an interest in it.”
Where did your passion for storytelling come from?
Storytelling wasn’t always a part of Oli’s career plan. Digging into why he started Humans of Ag, Oli articulated the gap that existed in the agricultural industry:
“Everyone in the industry for the whole time I've been part of it had just talked about ‘we just need to tell our stories better’ or ‘consumers are disconnected’ or whatever it might be, but there was no one who was actually just going in and going ‘well, let's start sharing these stories’.”
Seeing a disconnect between the agricultural industry and everyday Australians, Oli’s helping to bridge this divide and provide an understanding of where our food comes from, as well as the work behind the scenes across the entire food supply chain.
“There was the opportunity of the platform - which was creating and hosting this dialogue and allowing people to come and be informed.”
“I guess the whole ethos behind using storytelling as part of it, is it allows us the opportunity to create connection for people and gain an understanding at the end of the day. It's not about us trying to push an agenda… it's completely up to [the audience] having access to the information.”
“I thought if we can take [the stories of] people who are living and breathing the food system every single day, then from that, people can make informed decisions about how they consume, and the people who are involved in our food system are empowered as well, and have the opportunity to share their stories.”
How do you go about choosing and telling stories?
Oli is of the belief that everybody has a story to tell, and active listening is the key to drawing those stories out.
“When people are allowed to feel comfortable, and I guess, drop their guard, you can find the most amazing things about [them] and everyone has their own little bits of wisdom they can share... it's about creating a space and opportunity for them to talk to that.”
“I think for us, the main thing we really do is we ask prompting questions, and then I think one of the key things we do is really around just letting people have that space to kind of speak to and that's where long form podcasts [are] so good for us. It’s almost as if you’re eavesdropping on a conversation you wouldn’t otherwise be able to hear, which is pretty cool”
I asked Oli whether he thought the development of new technology, such as podcasting formats, was changing the nature of storytelling. Despite acknowledging that technology “means the ability to distribute stories is definitely advancing”, Oli emphasised that telling stories is a part of human nature and definitely “nothing new”.
“Storytelling in its truest form has been around with Indigenous Australians for 10s of 1000s of years and across hundreds and hundreds of generations. So, storytelling in itself has always been around passing on knowledge, creating connection, allowing people to gain a greater understanding.”
What an important note to end on.
Storytelling has an incredible way of facilitating connection between people and has done for thousands of years. Humans of Agriculture is a great example of the way in which storytelling continues to foster community and allow for the sharing of knowledge in a world where this is desperately needed.
A massive thanks to Oli for taking the time to chat. If you’re keen to learn more, follow the Humans of Agriculture journey:
IG: @humansofag
website: https://humansofagriculture.com/
