Between the Listening and the Telling

How Stories Can Save Us

By: Mark Yaconelli, Anne Lamott - foreword

Narrated by: Noah Yaconelli

Stories tether us to what matters most: our families, our friends, our hearts, our planet, the wondrous mystery of life itself. Yet the stories we've been telling ourselves as a civilization are killing us: Fear is wisdom. Vanity is virtuous. Violence is peace. In Between the Listening and the Telling, author and activist Mark Yaconelli leads listeners into an enchanting meditation on the power of storytelling in our individual and collective lives. We tell stories to remember who we are. We tell stories to savor the pleasure of living. Stories can be medicine, and they can transform entire communities.

Through his work with The Hearth nonprofit, Yaconelli has spent thousands of hours listening to people as they grieve loss, deepen friendships, strengthen families, shed light on injustice, and recover hope. In this moving exploration he shows us how individuals and communities can recover the practice of storytelling to address the despair of climate change, the trauma of school shootings, the tragedy of undocumented immigration, and the daily struggle for meaning.

With a foreword by Anne Lamott, Between the Listening and the Telling offers an alloy of story, commentary, and meditation. In an era of runaway loneliness, alienation, global crisis, and despair, sharing stories helps us make a home within ourselves and one another.

©2022 Mark Yaconelli (P)2023 eChristian

Excellent book!

So much wisdom in this book. Narration was great. Love the message and the story.

I love this book

Loved the performance - loved the wisdom - loved it all. I realize now that I’ve been telling my story for 12 years.

Powerful writing and work

Mark’s writing and work with story is so important in our world. Grateful for his thoughts and the stories he shares here. His son does a great job with reading it as well.

Overall OK 👍

I enjoyed the vast amount of short stories shared in this book and overall hopeful outlook. My criticisms would be that the book is repetitive near the end, The climate change section was weak (IMO), and the authors POV can come off as privileged.