Welcome to the Circle Stories Podcast. In this podcast we aim to explore the stories within, between, and around the many overlapping circles we inhabit in our lives.

We are all members of numerous circles: family, friends, spiritual groups, work and professional, teams, hobbies, clubs, and communities. Some of these have a distinct and fixed definition while others may be in a constant state of flux. Some will overlap partially or  extensively while others may remain disconnected and isolated. If you were to use a mathematical tool to show how the various circles of your life interact you might draw a Venn Diagram.

A circle has a definition in mathematics; a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the center. Sounds pretty simple, and yet, think about the incredible adaptability of a circle. It can both expand and contract, confine and repel, absorb and expel. It has no angles or corners – no sharp points. However, at any single point in time it can still be measured, defined, and labeled. Our unique pattern of circles make up who we are. The stories that come out of those circles are unique to us as individuals, but also completely relatable on the scale of Us.

Whether you’ve read or listened, or written or told a story, you have been touched, impacted, influenced, changed. You have laughed, cried, experienced loss, anger, hope, and exhilaration. Some stories stick with you. You can’t get them out of your head. Some stories speak to you. Some stories speak through you.

Stories surround us. We are bombarded by stories daily in the media and by the entertainment and marketing industries. Seemingly the same recycled stories repeated over and over again. The cumulative impact of these can beat us down. They tell us why we are not enough. Tell us why we need more of everything to be happy. These are designed to manipulate, suggest, and even force a specific course of action; be more, do more, want more, or else.

But what if we told our own stories. To each other. Not scripted. Not for profit or personal gain. We are enough, and these are our stories.