Oh yeah, I know this, but. You hang out with Max, right?

I'm Angela Duckworth. I'm Stephen Dubner. And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

Today on the show, Stephen and Angela focus on one big question. Why are stories more memorable than other types of information?

Never saw a rom-com I didn't like a little bit.

Stephen, I wonder if you would agree with me about the following. I think stories are just about the stickiest form of information that there is,

and much stickier in people's minds than statistics. What do you think? I agree, and this was a

great show. I enjoyed it. Done. Drops Mike. I do agree.

So, I mean, you're kind of preaching to the choir.

You're asking the choir if they like singing.

Coles to Newcastle.

Although, okay, I will say there are some caveats.

I think there are some people for whom data, statistics, theory, et cetera, do stick to their brains better than stories? Like who? Literally,

name one person. Steve Levitt. Really? He will forget a story, but remember a statistic?

Yes. I don't mean to say it's as extreme as forgetting a story. Like if I tell them a story,

I went to the Grand Canyon and I tried to go bungee jumping, but they didn't have bungee jumping, so they shot me out of a cannon, and I lived. He'll remember that. You'll probably remember that. Okay. And I will now remember that forever. Thank you. By the way, that didn't happen. Okay. But the way that memory works, you'll probably think that it actually did. I'll remember it anyway. So then all students believe it.

But if we're talking about the conveyance of information, if that's the purpose, then I do

know people who are really good with, like I said, theory and data and statistics and so on.

And that may be because they are data people, and therefore they tend to dismiss stories as a form of evidence.

They downweight them.

Yeah, it's an end of one.

But I have spent a lot of my life thinking about why storytelling is successful or at least useful.

So give me your theory.

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