Episode 25 of Looking Outside welcomes prize-winning author, former professor, social worker, and activist, Dr Nora Gold to explore the perception and potential of Narratives; those stories we tell others and ourselves that ultimately limit or empower us.

Passionate about fiction, and writer of her own stories, Nora shares both her perspective and the social science research on how fictional stories can literally change us. How escaping into the story of someone else brings down our defenses, makes us more empathic, and turns us into a different person by the time we close the book.

A former social worker, Nora speaks to how she has seen people reframe the narrative they’ve told or been told about themselves, taking control of their story in an active way. She explains that you can become the author of your own life by seeing your story as editable and crafted through perception. And in particular how re-framing a past trauma can give it new meaning, perhaps even without needing to be ‘fixed’.

Nora and Jo also discuss how the world, like us, is constantly changing, and we benefit from looking at ourselves as amendable alongside those changes, versus holding an idea of our lives as being linear – past, present and future.

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To look outside, Nora turns to books, learning from characters in how they solve their problems. In particular she likes to enter the inner lives of people who are different to her.

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Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author, the editor of a prestigious literary journal, and a former professor, social worker, and activist.

From 1990-2000 Dr. Gold was a tenured professor of social work, and in 2000 she left academia to write fiction full-time.

Her most recent book, the novel The Dead Man, was internationally praised, received a Translation Grant from Canada Council for the Arts, and was published in Hebrew. Her previous novel, Fields of Exile, won a Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Marrow and Other Stories won a Canadian Jewish Book Award and praise from Nobel Prize winning author Alice Munro. Nora's forthcoming book, In Sickness and In Health (two novellas), will be published in 2024 by Guernica Editions.

Dr. Gold is the founder and editor of the highly regarded online literary journal Jewish Fiction .net, which in its first 12 years published over 500 works of fiction from around the world, either written in English or translated into English from 18 languages. Jewish Fiction .net has readers in 140 countries.

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Curious for more?

Follow Dr Gold on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Find Nora's books on Amazon: The Dead Man, Fields of Exile, Marrow and Other Stories
Learn more about Dr Gold: www.noragold.com
Read more on her literary journal, Jewish Fiction .net: www.jewishfiction.net
Check out Episode 10 of Looking Outside where we covered Storytelling with Dr Belinda Calderone, PhD.

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Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.

Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.

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All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.

OBOY and Caleb Etheridge music features in Episode 25.

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