Episode Summary

Michael McRay welcomes award-winning author and poet Kaitlin Curtice to celebrate the launch of her new book, Everything is a Story. Curtice, an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, explores how narrative drives all human behavior and shapes our identities, beliefs, and relationships. The conversation weaves through Indigenous wisdom, spirituality, and the profound recognition that stories aren't just things we tell - they are living beings that we participate with and that fundamentally shape how we experience the world. Curtice shares her journey through health challenges leading up to the book launch, the vulnerability of putting creative work into the world, and why she chose the metaphor of an oak tree's life cycle to structure her exploration of storytelling. In this episode, they also discuss:

• How oral storytelling traditions differ from written narratives and why stories should be understood as living beings with their own essence
• Why Curtice categorizes stories as liminal, loving, or lethal, and how to recognize which stories we're living
• How linear versus cyclical storytelling reflects different worldviews, particularly between Western and Indigenous approaches to narrative
• Why the practice of "mastering" storytelling misses the point—we need humility and care in our relationship with stories, not dominance

Resources Mentioned:

• Get Kaitlin Curtice's new book Everything is a Story
• Join The Circle
• Preorder Michael McRay's new book The Wild Way