Every Communication Breakthrough—From Cave Art to AI Video—Exists to Tell Stories

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s an argument to be made that every technology advance in communication – from cave paintings to fake AI movie trailers – is at its root an attempt to tell stories. Our first night-fires created the earliest audiences for spoken stories. In time, the development of rhyme, song, and other mnemonic devices allowed those spoken stories to be preserved for generations; pictures drawn on cave walls turned preservation into permanence, telling stories we still experience thousands of years later; writing enabled storytellers to spread tales to faraway places; the Chinese invented printing with moveable metal type around 700 AD; the Toltecs independently invented it at about the same time; 750 years later Gutenberg independently invented it again, adding a converted wine press to create the mass production of mass communication. Over time, printing presses increased the number of storytellers and the size of their audiences by many orders of magnitude, a trend which led us to great revolutions, and electric, then electronic, then digital storytelling and all our storytelling tools of today—and tomorrow’s.

Today’s guest is Kevin Ashton, author of “The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art.” We see how humans alone possess the desire to share our hopes and beliefs, to understand and connect with others, to process events that have come before and anticipate events that will come next. That innate urge to communicate has impacted every aspect of human history, and it is so ingrained in the fabric of our existence that language did not come to being so that we could tell stories—stories gave us language. Human storytelling has led to innovations in astronomy, entertainment, technology, and beyond, and brought about revolutions, religions, political movements, and so much more.

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Transcript

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0:23.1	Search for King James Bible Study, KJV, and download the app today.
0:34.7	Scott here with another episode of the History and Plug Podcast.
0:40.3	There are many theories about the origin of human language. One is that it replaced sign language,
0:42.3	but when humans were using tools and their hands were occupied, vocal communication took over.
0:47.3	Another is that came out of Anamonopoeia. Humans would indicate an animal or a thunderstorm,
0:52.3	or mimic something auditory to tell others what was going on.
0:56.3	Now, all these are theories on how they use language, but it doesn't get to why they use language.
1:01.1	Why were they trying to communicate to one another? According to today's guests, human language
1:05.5	all goes back to storytelling. Languaging creates stories. Stories create a language. They communicated about
1:12.1	events remembered and imagined, from places and times near and far, and so over hundreds
1:16.4	or thousands of years, human vocalization evolved, and the grunts turned into a complex series
1:21.5	of sounds about subjects, normally human, acting not objects, turning into what we call language.
1:27.3	In today's episode, I'm speaking to Kevin Ashton, author of The Story of Stories, The Million human, acting out objects, turning into what we call language.
1:31.2	In today's episode, I'm speaking to Kevin Ashton, author of The Story of Stories,
1:33.7	the Millionaire History of Uniquely Human Art.
1:37.4	He argues that storytelling is behind each evolution and communication.
1:41.5	Singing and harmonization was developed as a way to memorize long stories,
	...

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