The Heart of Storytelling

Alyssa Curtayne

In this podcast, we will explore the art of oral storytelling; looking at its history, its relevance today and discovering storytellers who are passionate about bringing stories to you in the oral form. Each week we hear from a new storyteller who will bring a story to life and share their journey into this traditional artform.

  1. JAN 8

    Liz Weir and the Strength in Stories

    Having told stories since 1973, storytelling has played a major part in her life and has taken Liz to five continents. Recently she attended the Marrakech International Storytelling Festival  with 100 tellers from 33 countries where she took part in the successful attempt to break the World Record for the longest continuous oral  storytelling session - 80 hours and 35 minutes.https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/01/165264/marrakech-breaks-guinness-world-record-for-longest-storytelling-session/As she started telling stories in Belfast during our "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, a time when violence was raging on the streets, Liz learned how important the art of storytelling can be as it can encourage people to listen to each other. Listening to stories which may be very different from our own shows respect , and respect can lead to dialogue which can often lead to the peaceful resolution of conflict.She wrote an article about it here https://storynet.org/out-of-the-tunnel-and-into-the-light-of-peace/Liz is the Storyteller in Residence for a charity which promotes storytelling throughout Northern Ireland and her current focus is on training people from both sides of the Irish Border to tell stories - see https://www.armstory.org.uk/projects/border-talk-She does a lot of intergenerational storytelling, bringing our young people and elders together to promote this invaluable intangible art.  Storytelling is a living tradition and we must inspire our young people to continue the rich tradition. It celebrates cultural diversity and hence encourages communication between people of all backgrounds.For more information, see her website:Liz Weir – Storyteller | Writer

    49 min
  2. 12/25/2025

    Christina Cairns and the Creative Process

    Christina Cairns is a visual artist/writer/performer/song-writer/storyteller.  She is a member of the Great Southern Storytellers and a frequent storyteller at their monthly story gatherings. She has told many stories to appreciative audiences in Denmark over the years.She is fascinated most of all by the power of story, the tales we tell ourselves, tales handed down generation to generation, and how these layers upon layers of story change across time, and shape us and the world we live in. She is inspired especially by fairytales, folklore and mythology, and likes to look at stories from new or different points of view, exploring the what-ifs and the if-onlys.There are no boundaries between the different aspects of her work; music and songwriting influence her artwork, poetry informs theatre ideas, theatre ideas bleed into visual works, and back again.  She is also just a little obsessed with books, creating small, hand made and hand stitched illustrated booklets of poetry and storytelling.Christina writes and performs original song/storytelling shows. Her three solo shows The Wolf Bride, Fables and Treesong have featured at the Denmark Festival of Voice and Brave New Works; Windborne, a co-production with writer Linda Bradbury, was featured at the 2019 Denmark Festival of Voice, and she has most recently written and performed The Descent of Persephone at the 2025 Denmark Brave New Works Festival, in collaboration with Silvia Lehmann, another member of GSS.Christina holds a Diploma in Graphic Design and BA in Theatre and Literature. She lives with her family on the beautiful south coast of Western Australia, in Denmark, a little town that lies between forests of magnificent Karri trees and the Great Southern Ocean.To contact, please email her at greatsouthernstorytellers@gmail.com

    40 min

About

In this podcast, we will explore the art of oral storytelling; looking at its history, its relevance today and discovering storytellers who are passionate about bringing stories to you in the oral form. Each week we hear from a new storyteller who will bring a story to life and share their journey into this traditional artform.