BINGHAMTON, NY – Binghamton University will host a discussion titled, “The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human,” at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7, in room G-008 of the Academic A Building, on campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Binghamton University alumnus Jonathan Gottschall, MA ’96, PhD ’00 teaches in the English Department at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. and writes a blog for Psychology Today about the mysteries of storytelling. In his talk, Gottschall will discuss the new science of stories—why we shape them, and how they shape us.

Gottschall recently published The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human (a New York Times Editor’s Choice selection and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), which draws on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology and biology to show how storytelling has evolved as a fundamental human instinct.

This discussion is sponsored by the Binghamton University Evolutionary Studies Program (EvoS) and the Leaders and Learners Toastmaster Club at Binghamton University.

For additional information, contact Hadassah Head at EvoS@binghamton.edu.