It seems in Denver there’s a stage for just about anyone these days, from comedy, to motivation and innovation, to just plain storytelling. And for your story-telling fix, you can join the Narrators once a month at the Buntport theatre for their monthly live show. Hosted by Erin Rollman of Stories on Stage, and Ron Doyle, a teacher turned entrepreneur and podcast enthusiast, the event brings together interesting personalities on the podcast and comedy circuit from Denver for a mish-mash of entertaining anecdotes.  

Storytelling itself has become a sort of zeitgeist buzzword, from corporations to entrepreneurs, everyone seems to be embracing the story as a compelling communication device. In fact, what people are selling or doing seems less important than the story itself. But sharing stories, which can be part therapy and part entertainment, has a humanizing effect, which could explain why it is such a nice complement to our cold isolated virtually lived lives.  

The Narrators started as a live storytelling show at Paris on the Platte in 2010 by comedian and actor Andrew Orvedahl. The show produces a bi-weekly and produces podcast recordings of the monthly live shows. It’s the facet of connection that Erin Rollman credits to making the Narrators so successful. People are starved for human interaction, and we are clamoring to spaces to hear people speak, share or just be reminded that we are not alone on this planet, and that other people are experiencing life, too.  

And when not able to attend an event in person, the podcast has replaced the stage as a virtual platform. Today there are over 115,000 English language podcasts available on the internet. Even Barack Obama has embraced the podcast, sitting in with Marc Maron to discuss the racial controversies affecting the county with a casual and relatable tone.  

Ron Doyle has been around the podcast scene for a while, helping with many local acts. He gave his recommendations to his favorite podcasts to check out among the hundreds of thousands which exist. His recommendations range from intellectual, to pop culture, to the more profane topic of poop.

Ron’s Top Podcast Recommendations:

Mystery Show
99% Invisible
Benjamin Walker’s Theory of Everything
Empty Girlfriend
The Unicorn
Gastropod
Here’s the Thing
Invisiblia
Poop Talk
Reply All
Serial
Double X Podcast
Song Exploder
Startup
Terrified
The Allusionist
Memory Palace
TLDR
You Made It Weird

Storytelling podcasts:
Death Sex and Money
Fugitive Waves
Love + Radio
Radio Diaries
Risk!
Story Collider
The Truth
True Story

For access to their podcasts, and to learn more about telling your true story on stage, check out their website, thenarrators.org.