Why Do Stories Matter More When We Feel Divided? | Mel Allen

For 50 years, Mel Allen has been listening for stories. His first published piece appeared in the Maine Sunday Telegram in 1975, beginning a career that would take him throughout Maine and eventually to Yankee Magazine, where he rose from senior editor to editor-in-chief. Along the way, he met people whose lives might have unfolded in very different corners of New England but whose experiences revealed something larger about compassion, loss, community, and what connects us.

Many of those stories are gathered in his book, Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All. Mel shares some of the people who have stayed with him: Samantha Smith's mother rebuilding a life after unimaginable loss; a community of tour boat captains stepping in after one of their own was catastrophically injured; and Mainers rallying around families and neighbors when life changed without warning.

Mel and Dr. Lisa consider why those stories may feel especially important now. In a moment when polarization can make people feel increasingly disconnected, Mel believes people are hungry for reminders that human beings are capable of more than accusation, fear, and division. The stories he has collected are rooted in particular people and places, but the emotions within them are not limited to New England.

They also explore Mel's approach to storytelling itself: curiosity, listening without relying on a fixed list of questions, earning the trust of the person whose story he is telling, and recognizing the responsibility that comes with putting another person's life into words. That philosophy has shaped not only his journalism but decades of teaching, from his earliest years as a fourth-grade teacher in Gorham to the writers he continues to teach today.

Now 80 and retired from going into the office, Mel says he is not retired from looking for stories, reading great writing, or teaching. He and Lisa also consider what storytelling means in the age of AI - and why Mel believes human experience still supplies the heart, empathy, and texture that make a story worth remembering.

Join Dr. Lisa Belisle for this conversation with Mel Allen today on Radio Maine.

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