Kurt, Stephen, and Josef contemplate the meaning of the metaverse and where it fits within the physical, digital, and storytelling universe.   Folktellers Universe   #storytelling #storytellers #metaverse #transmedia   I never met a verse.I didn't like what,what is a meta verse?What is a story verse?What is a story?I'm Joseph Bastian.And Kurt David is here also as well.And our,our friend from Nottingham Stephen Sadler is in the house.He is in the house.So,so,OK,this is the first time doing this.We're all kind of staring at each other like who's gonna say what?But I kind of wanted to start with,you know,this is the Folk Tellers podcast and,you know,we started this whole folk tellers crazy thing.Oh my God,I've been at it a decade.Steve's been at it a little bit less.Kurt's been at it a bit less than that.He's like,still like,what,what am I doing here?Yeah,exactly.I kind of wanted to like bring this,like launch this with uh so from the first book,that kind of launched the folk to set the tone.So and this,this will be,this will like launch us into deep conversation.So the whole universe opens up with this little rhyme and the rhyme is there's a story in the story like a wheel within the wheel spiraling forever through the world we see and feel there's a tail within the fable,like a gear within the gear marking time forever until the secret is revealed.Why?Why is this important?Why is storytelling?Because we're all here for the same reason?Right?It's stories,telling stories and living stories and having storytellers with us.Why is that important,Steve?What do you think?Why are,why are stories important to you?Well,they bring the past into the future.We allow you to basically reflect on things that have happened.Uh It allowed you to be able to join time and space,uh,in your own mind.Um,some of the stories that I end up writing,but you actually helped me write Joseph.Um,they have been very,uh,they've helped me heal in many ways and,um,I think that's why when you actually reflect on something and you write it down and,and it becomes,um,real.Um,that's really when,when things actually change in your life.Um,there's a reason why and we won't get biblical,but you've got the word of God when you speak it and the word comes out and it gets written,it becomes true and that's the power in,in storytelling,I do believe.Yeah,I,I totally agree.And so that's how this,this whole thing got started for me.It was,yeah,it was over a decade.Ago.And uh what was the connection?What was it?That was the,the aha moment for you,you know,so this idea of stories within the story,like what if you created a metaverse,a story verse that was all about stories and the power of stories.So,you know,I,what I did was,um I had always been interested in folklore and mythology and back during the great recession of 2007,uh I got laid off and so like everyone else,I was in the coffee shops,uh filling out resumes and padding my linkedin profile.And uh but I also had time to write and I came across this old Detroit legend of the Rouge,which is French for Red Dwarf.And I was like,what?And what is,this is,this is real,this is a real legend,didn't I tell you this?I got the hat,I got the That's right.Well,you're looking at me like,like you didn't know what the hell I was.Um Yeah,so it's this 300 year old legend that the French brought over when they founded Detroit,I was born and raised here.Never heard of it.So I started to do some research and yeah,so this red Dwarf appears as a harbinger of doom just before bad events.And I was like,wow,this is like a lost legend.And then I was like,well,I got some time since I'm not working.Why don't,what if we like,what if all the trouble we,what if we resurrect this,this legend and um bring it to the modern world?So,um I wrote the first book.It did really well.It ended up 2nd,3rd,a graphic novel and then we danced around with uh doing a feature film.So,you know,it was,it was a local regional success.But what it taught me was,the