Villa Monastero, Varenna, Italy, 17 – 19 May 2024

Human beings are hard-wired, individually and collectively, to make and transmit stories and to shape our reality in the image of the stories we tell. The stories we tell about the future – Will it be dystopian? More or less equal? A zero-sum conflict against outsiders? Can it only be changed by lone superheroes in a winner-takes-all world? – profoundly shape the possibilities we can imagine and build.

At present, the loudest stories are the conflict- and outrage-driven narratives of mass and social media, actively generating anxieties and damaging democracy through populism and polarisation. As we collectively face climate chaos, the potential for climate- and inequality-induced mass migration, resource shortages, and growing global conflict, the stories we tell about our present and future must change. We need new stories to imagine and support the systemic changes we will need to survive and flourish as a species, prosocial stories, modelling sustainable lives well lived now and for future generations – what we in shorthand refer to as Good stories with a capital G.

At Villa Monastero, we will be bringing together leading storytellers, communicators, artists, producers, neuroscientists, psychologists, emotion researchers, systems design thinkers, policymakers, philosophers, and others to discuss how telling better stories can help us to better navigate the challenges currently facing the planet. The agenda will be co-created with those taking part in the meeting.