Whitney Williams

Welcome to 100 stories, the narrative intelligence project. I'm Paige Williams. Come along with me as I build the emerging field of narrative intelligence by learning from 100 thinkers, creators, researchers, leaders, people whose lives have been shaped by profound change. Together, we are exploring a question at the center of how we become who we are. How malleable are the stories we live by?

And what does it take to change one? Across these conversations, we're examining the stories we inherit, the stories that become identity, [music] and the human capacities that allow us to recognize, question, revise, and live beyond them. What I learn from this series will help shape the field of narrative intelligence and the foundational book that I'm writing about it. This is 100 stories. Today, I am speaking with Whitney Williams, who is a social entrepreneur and change maker. I invited Whitney onto 100 stories because she has such a diverse experience in social impact, in politics, and philanthropy, in documentary filmmaking and storytelling. Like, the list goes on

and on. We were having so much fun at the beginning catching up about, you know, just the intersections of storytelling and how we know it really creates social impacts and making a difference in the world. So, Whitney, thank you so much for your time. It is quite an honor. And thank you for being here. >> Well, thanks for having me, Paige. >> I want to jump right in, and I would love for you to start with tell me about the work that has most shaped how you see yourself in the world. And I know that's a vast experience that you're pulling from. So, I'm really curious what you're going to say.

>> Yeah, you know, it's a great question and it's a hard one to answer. I think it's got two parts. One is I was born to change makers and in my case, generations of change makers in my family. I'm very fortunate to have Pat and Carol Williams as my my parents and some pretty extraordinary aunts and uncles and grandparents before that. And so, I think that, you know, in our family, sort of making a difference in the world wasn't wasn't actually a choice. The choice was how are you going to do it, not whether you were going to do it. And we've all, and my brother, my sister, and I have all gone off and done, you know, what we can to sort of help our communities and, you know, our

parents before us and grandparents before that. So, you know, I think centrally, truly it feels like the choice was made for me based off who I was born to in terms of making a difference. And so, I feel very, you know, really truly kind of blessed and lucky to have had had that as my beginning. And then, you know, I think that the things that you learn when you have folks like mine, you know, at the sort of kitchen table or in the car rides or the walks, you know, is really important life life lessons. One of which is sort of grounded me in a variety of ways, which my my dad used to say there's a genius on every block. And he would talk about how important it was

to sort of listen and learn from your neighbors. And when Dad went back to the United States Congress and then served as Montana's longest serving um and I might argue best member of Congress. He took that sort of core value with him, which is just embedded in in me as well. And so, that sort of listening and learning and believing that there's someone who's got a clever idea and or an answer to a problem like right next door is is really powerful grounding, I think, for a human being. And it's been that way for me, you know, my whole life. And so, I've gotten to carry that, you know, throughout a pretty great career starting in the Clinton White

House, my father's political campaigns, my mother's political campaigns, and then in the sort of philanthropy and change-making sector since then. >> What was the most surprising thing growing up as Pat and Carol's daughter? You saw a lot, you heard a lot, but what like made you stop and pause and and question? >> Yeah, it's it's a really good question. I mean, first of all, people made you stop. Mom and Dad are beloved. We lost Dad last year, but Mom is doing great and we were at an event this weekend and um there was like a receiving line, you know, everywhere you go with Mom and Dad, it it always that people would come and stop and want to talk, you know,

about not getting their Social Security check or, you know, having an idea that they wanted to share or saying thank you. You know, that's that's certainly one lesson you learn is that people have a lot of challenges, you know, people have a lot of problems and what you learn when you learn from some of the best who are, you know, kind, generous change makers like mom and dad is that you are responsive. That you are a listener. That you give back to people.

So we're sort of obsessed in our family with thank you notes or, you know, gratitudes. But it it's real and I think that that that spirit of, you know, showing up for people and being responsive to people, you know, played out all the time for us. I think that core lesson of being grateful is something that I'm so grateful to have gotten at such an early age and it was just like an expectation.

I don't remember anyone ever telling me to say thank you. Um, it was just what you did, you know? Uh, and that was a that was a cool thing and that was a, you know, a nice way to engage in the world. Still now, you know, especially now when things feel a little bit broken and a little bit angry to try to remember to just be really as kind as you can and and give lots of gratitude.

Yeah, gratitude goes so far and I I love that, you know, we just give back. It's not even a question in our family. I remember seeing your mom on stage at a conference. It was Athena many several years ago. >> Yeah, it's a great conference. >> And I can't remember if it was her or you, but one of you were like, "If you think of a woman who should be in politics, I want you to pull out your phone right now and text her and say, 'Hey, I think you should run for office.'" And that stuck with me. I don't remember anything else from that conference, but I remember that and I remember who I text.

>> Great. Did they run? >> They did. >> Awesome. Okay, what story do you tell about one of the most defining or transformational moments of your life and how has that story changed over time if it has? >> Well, I have show and tell for this one. >> Good. >> Let's see. >> So, when I was in just graduated from the University of Montana, I had an incredible opportunity to go move to Butte and work for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 457. They were originally the Women's Protective Union, which was America's longest-lasting all-female union. The first one was formed in San Francisco, second one was formed in Butte, but the Butte one lasted longer until the '70s.

So, 1893 I think they started. And I got to do some oral histories with some union members and then go and archive their their history. It's now at the Butte Archives, the great Butte Archives, one of the great archives in America. And they have incredible labor history as you would imagine, but the Women's Protective Union history is now kind of all organized and boxed up over there. And when I was going through the boxes of things, I had expected to find, you know, lots of picket signs. And our family, they were very pro-labor, all many union members for generations and generations. And some aunties and grandmas of mine were members of the Women's Protective Union. And so, I

knew, you know, labor and I knew strikes. And I used to go on strikes all the time with my parents and my godparents. And I thought for sure we'd have signs and there really weren't many picket signs. But there were these these banners that are like these silk kind of hand-painted banners. And apologies for the MSU colors. For those of us who are Grizz here. So, this this banner, I went to one of the former presidents of the union who was in her '90s at the time, Blanche. And I brought some things, pictures and things, talked to her about and I brought this banner with me and I said, "What is this?" Like, I was expecting to find picket signs and

things and I found a lot of things that looked like a picket sign, but it was a piece of like silk. And she said, "Oh, honey, that is a picket sign." And then she took it and we had about 10 or 12 of them we found. And she pulled it across the table and she said, "See that?" And there are these tiny little pinpricks on either side of this. And she said, "Well, that is a picket sign." She said, "Cuz you know, you can't carry a picket sign and a child at the same time." So, they put it on their chest, and they marched the I mean, are you kidding? Like, how incredible.

And when I left, they kindly gifted me with this really precious, precious thing. That story, I mean, it's sort of like everything, right? It's like it's just that embodies everything. And when you think about women and women's labor history and women's history in general and the march toward, you know, a better America, a better community. You know, we're in it. They were in it in 1893. We're still in it, right? And so, I think the story of progress is possible, but it's not guaranteed. Hillary Clinton says that a lot. There's this extraordinary musical called Suffs, which lasted just about a year on Broadway. It's incredible. You can watch it now on on PBS, but um

Hillary was a producer of that show. And that progress is possible, but not guaranteed is is is one of the songs in the in the show. And I think my younger self wouldn't have thought that, you know, it would take so long to make progress and that there would be steps back, you know, whether it's Roe v. Wade or, you know, any number of things we could list off now about women's rights and other rights, voting rights. We just learned, you know, there's going to be a whole set of new challenges to people's ability to vote in this midterm. I wouldn't have expected that, you know, my younger self would have thought like, you know, well, once we get it, we'll

keep it. And I think that powerful progress is possible, but not guaranteed. Like, yeah, you got to keep fighting for it all the time. And this for me, this sort of on-strike reminder is just one of, you know, one of many that we have to kind of keep it up. >> Yeah. Is that how it transformed you? >> Probably. I mean, probably. I think I think that I, again, you know, coming from just the being at the knee of these people, whether it was my parents or the Clintons when he was president, she was first lady, or, you know, extraordinary other leaders that I've had the chance to work for. You You know, you get to be like a literal fly on the wall. You

know, I feel like I've been that for my whole life. And while I'm, you know, also a great leader and I've done many things in my own right, being in the room where, as Lin-Manuel Miranda would say, the room where it happens. >> where it happens. >> Pretty incredible, you know. In fact, Lin is a a client of mine now, and we get to work closely with him and his incredible father and mom and their whole family. And yeah, I think I think that's part This This This on strike that moment of learning about that history and seeing my grandma's dues cards and membership records and all of the fights, you know, they would they would meticulously these women take

notes in these old big big big books, you know, minutes records, which are all over there at the archives now. And it's just incredible to watch their debate in the '70s. Justice Department said, "Discrimination's discrimination. Women, you can't discriminate against men. You have to let men in that union." And the women were like, "No. We're not doing it." And you just see all these discussions throughout pages and pages and arguments about it. And in the end, they had to do it. And so, they merged with Hotel Restaurant Employees and became you know, became the Hotel Restaurant joined the Hotel Restaurant Employees Union. But But yeah, that was a pretty

transformative moment and certainly a lot of that that I, you know, carry. >> Mhm. >> So, you dropped this nugget that Lin-Manuel is a client. What >> He is. Yeah. >> What >> amazing work >> Tell me Tell us everything, Whitney. I feel like I want to show and tell everything. >> I love to show and share. Do >> I have I don't know where it So, Lin-Manuel's father, Luis Miranda, who I've become very close to, they contacted me after Hurricane Maria hit, which was almost well, 9 years ago now, and said, "We, you know, could use some some help thinking about the response to Hurricane Maria" Luis Miranda Luis Miranda, Lin's parents, are from Puerto

Rico, born and raised, and moved to New York in their teenage years for college. So, Lin was born in New York, but spent his summers in Puerto Rico and is very close to the island and much of their family still lives there. And so, they contacted us to to help them with a kind of what that we thought might be a one-off project, but then we just got hooked. Like, we loved them. They love us. We get a chance to work with them across their philanthropy portfolio and their political and activist portfolio.

And so, we had a chance to work on this coffee project as one of dozens of projects we've gotten to do now with the Miranda family and worked on revitalizing the sector and got Starbucks to donate a million-plus seedlings, climate resilient seedlings, to bring the the coffee sector back. 75% of the coffee trees were uprooted and destroyed after Hurricane Maria. Like, actually destroyed. So, no bringing them back. And within 3 years, we had like incredible crops. These farmers had had brought it back. And so, we get to do projects like that uh with the Miranda family. And it's been like the absolute honor of a lifetime to be able to work with that family.

>> That's incredible. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Growing up, what did you learn about who you are and who you could become? >> What I learned about who I was is like a member of a family. We had this incredibly tight family. And a member of and a contributor to a family. Like, I definitely like we each were that. And we were great teammates and great soldiers, which we had to be both in a relatively high-pressure cooker environment with, you know, elected official parents. And I think that the who who would you become is like keep it up. Keep being a good family member and friend and neighbor and keep being a good soldier.

>> What stories shape how philanthropy decide which problems matter? >> Mhm. Well, good stories, and there are lots of that aren't told as well, but good stories are, you know, end up at the top of the list of people's attention, of people's focus. You know, in the philanthropic sector, you know, people there's so much incoming because there is so much need, you know, that a good, powerfully told story, and maybe a really simple one, you know, can kind of jump to the top of the line, whatever that line might be. You know, I I I mean, Lin-Manuel Miranda created Hamilton, of course, and many other things. You know, the the way in which young people in America are learning

about education and the sort of origin story of this country, and maybe most importantly, centering themselves and making meaning of what what did that mean, and and how did how does that impact me, vis-a-vis this education program that Hamilton producers put together after Hamilton came out, knowing it would be a sensation, but knowing everyone wouldn't be able to see it. So, there's an incredible program called EduHam that runs now in high schools all across the country, and I think that, you know, sort of shows like an extraordinarily well-told story just makes like remarkable impact and ripples and ripples and ripples, and it doesn't have to be, you know,

a Tony Award-winning show to do that, but it does have to be able to to reach people, you know, and storytelling can do that in a way other things can't. >> Yeah. And you've been a part of some short films and some longer films, and you have this short skate park film, and like I'd love for you to talk about how the making of that film changed the kids' lives just by being able to tell their story, and then the film that is about to I believe you're at the end of it about the letters.

>> Yeah, the care package. >> Yeah, let's just talk about the experience of telling story, both for the characters, if it's non-fiction, and then for the audience who receives it. What's your experience with that? >> Yeah, I mean, I you know, I I think sort of having grown up and been around politics in one way, shape, or form all my life, it's always about story, right? It's always about finding stories and being able to tell those to connect it to complicated, maybe, public policy matters or something, right? You want the individual story to be able to do that. You know, there's this fascinating research in something called psychic numbing. One imagines,

intellectually, I think we would all imagine when you say 500 plus thousand people have been killed in Darfur that would be pretty compelling, but people can't deal with that number. They they don't know what that is. Overwhelmingly, it's the single human. It's the one story of the one kid that gets the attention every single time. Amazing. It's amazing and I think when you think about story and storytelling and storytellers, where there's so many beautiful storytellers out in the world and in this documentary space or, you know, authors like you or others, right, who basically can tell a story that people can latch onto and really understand and make meaning of it and

connect it in some way, shape or form to their own experience or to someone they know. I mean, that's the kind of thing that just sets everything apart and that's really hard to do. And in the case, I think, of the few, you know, films that we've been able to be a part of most recently, you know, we have found this like unbelievable, it's like there's there's just this justice in telling stories in this skate park uh film called Paving the Way. You know, there's this incredible young people, Ali and Terry and the whole crew up on the Salish, you know, Salish-Kootenai land up at the Flathead. Those young people, I mean, you just you don't need

you just turn the camera on. You know, they they can tell their own story, right? Now, figuring out how to put that together is a lot of work and our talented director, you know, Keelan Williams and incredible indigenous team, you know, we're able to figure out how to to do that and did it, you know, beautifully, but you know, getting just showing up for people, you know, letting them tell their own story, pretty cool to be able to do that. Yeah.

>> And what's the new one that you're working on? >> So, it's called The Package and it's about CARE, CARE International, the big nonprofit, 80 years old this year. The CARE Package is a trademark term that's theirs that is their origin story. 80 years ago, Americans of all shapes and sizes and income levels decided that in the aftermath of World War II, they individually, individual Americans needed to do something to be helpful in rebuilding post you know World War very war-torn Europe and so over time over the course of basically 70 years a hundred million Americans sent care packages to people overseas so we're working on a package that centers two of

the original recipients who are now in their 90s who we've just we've just finished interviewing one in Austria and one in New York who said Marlena in New York who said when I opened the package and she went I mean like literally just this extraordinary you know there was like rations and chocolate and this little bar of soap and she said when I found out that it was an an American she doesn't know who it was but an American who sent it to her she said that's the day I decided to become an American cuz I want to be those people I was like wow you've said there's so many stories to tell and we talked about how the stories rise to the top why did you choose this

one as a producer and what is if you could wave a magic wand and you could have its greatest impact what are you hoping the power of this film will do why did you say yes to this story America's 250 years old this year and I was thinking about what can we do as a company to do give a birthday gift to ourselves as Americans if there was ever a time to remind ourselves of who we are as Americans now would be it I believe that I believe that's who we are I believe we're incredibly generous with our neighbors still you know I think there's a caricature of us that's starting that we need to stop which is that we're maybe not as kind or as giving or as compassionate as we once

were and I feel like this origin story in many ways of US foreign assistance though it was done by individuals led to the Marshall Plan it led to USAID I believe that that's that that's what the film will do and I you know I just really do hope as many people as possible can see it because I think it's going to be so uplifting and such a beautiful reminder you know about who we are that the goal is just lots and lots and lots lots and hope hopefully that will, you know, impact people in some positive positive way.

>> Yeah, I can't wait to see it. I need some American joy. >> American joy, there you go. Mhm. >> Whose perspective are most often missing when those stories are formed? >> So, we the question before was about which philanthropic stories get told. If you were to make a a skate park documentary without the kids, it wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't wouldn't work, right? If you were to make a care package documentary without the original recipients, I mean, maybe you could pull it off, but it certainly wouldn't work so well. And I think the thing that we many sometimes forget is to sort of like go to the source, you know, and really talk to people who are kind of most

directly impacted or, you know, affected or, you know, to sort of tell their own story, you know, versus having someone do it for them. And frankly, in the, you know, philanthropic sector, you know, there just so many efforts that just don't work. And they don't work because they didn't talk to local folks, you know, about what it was. There's famous example after example after example of, you know, laptops being given to kids who had no way to charge them. You know, there's no electricity. They couldn't do it, you know? So, thinking about, you know, making sure that you understand community and working with local folks, whatever that means, wherever whatever

context that is, whether it's in, you know, storytelling or kind of grant making or, you know, other sort of nonprofit work is understanding the local, you know, context and making sure that local people are engaged in all the ways. Which again, you know, none of that seems like it should be, you know, rocket science, but too many people just miss it, you know, and they just don't they don't work with or work alongside, you know, people from from the communities whose stories they want to tell or whose, you know, support they want to they want to give.

>> How do we know? I love that you said, you know, your your life has pretty much been about story because story is so important in politics. And as a nonprofit leader, as a philanthropic leader, how do we know when a story is actually creating social change and creating impact? >> Well, we premiered our film Paving the Way here in Missoula at the Big Sky Film Festival. We had a incredible opportunity to take it to Tribeca a few months later. But we really decided we wanted it to be here because we wanted, you know, access for kids and families who, you know, were in it or whose friends were in it to be able to come. And sitting in the Wilma Theater when Paving the Way came on the

big screen with all of those skater kids in sort of the first and second row watching them, you knew you made an impact. And it was literally like a declare victory, nothing else needs to happen. You know, those kids' lives are actually changed for the better who were a part of that project. You know, you show up to one of those parks and with out exception, every time I've been to a park, some version of, almost verbatim, some version of a kid saying, "I'm alive because of this place." Almost every time you go there. It's almost like the kids got like a talking point. And they all say it all over the place because they found community, maybe they found

themselves, maybe they learned the life lesson of falling down and getting back up. You know, they developed community, they found their people. And that, you know, you just declare victory every time because you know that it's working. And if it works for one kid or it works for 100,000 kids or it works for a million kids, like somewhere in between, and one's enough, you know.

>> There's something so powerful in empowering kids to be able to tell their story, like they change. >> Totally. >> It's amazing to me. Yeah. Have you ever had to change a belief about what creates social change? >> I ran for governor of Montana in 2020 and I had a real belief that I had a set of expectations around how that would go because I'd been around politics so long and so many campaigns and so much of my life that I expected things to go a certain way. And there were things that just didn't. And having to kind of unpack that and think about what happened and where and what the challenges were. One of them was gender.

I hadn't expected that gender would enter my race as much as it did. And I certainly know, women all know, things can be a little bit different for us in terms of climbing the ladder or making a difference or being heard in a room. It's well known to to most of us. But I just somehow thought this would be would be different and it wasn't. And the the amount of, you know, sort of people would say things to me like, I mean literally, people would one one guy in a little town hall in Broadus said, "What do you weigh?"

And so my answer was enough to be governor, but you know, just that over and over and over and things like that, you know, that were just so inappropriate and you could not believe the questions that were being asked or conversation about my jacket or my hair or whatever, you know, not being married or not having kids, you know, it was just a set of, both double standards most certainly, but also like expectations for women that were, you know, really really different and you you you can't you can't know there till you go there, you know, that like phrase. Like in running for governor, you cannot know what it's like until you do it. But what you did see underneath

all of it was a gender bias for men. And that's just we we live in that world and we got to keep fighting against it. >> Yeah, it's a narrative that has controlled our country. >> That's right. >> So what I would love to know is how did you recover [clears throat] and what did you take from it and what would you tell a woman running today for office based on your experience? >> Yeah, I mean I actually like I I don't even think I needed to recover. I was tired at the end of the, you know, race cuz it's exhausting and I was running during COVID. So it was a very odd trying to figure out how to, you know, meet people which of course you couldn't

do cuz we were during lockdown and and other things. But but I actually like fared really well emotionally through that. I mean even with, you know, long time friends of mine who decided to choose my opponent over me. It was just it was just the way it was. It was okay, you know, it's that's again the kind of life and that's politics. But I will say that, you know, what we all have to do is encourage both more women to kind of get in the arena and really stick with them when they do, you know, support them, offer child care if they've got kids or elder care if they've got parents or, you know, a meal, which you just never get enough good food when you're on a campaign

trail, you know, just supporting women in any way and encouraging them to run, you know, just I that's a thing we do. We my my mom, there's a wonderful organization in Montana called Carol's List, named after my mom and and it's focused on getting Democratic pro-choice women elected to the legislature. And the the central importance of just having someone you can call, which we've we've done, you know, we've got lots of candidates who've run and won and many who've run and lost and run again, keeping women in the arena and supporting them in little ways and big ways. Like all of it in between is just really critical. And so for all of us to understand one, like encourage a woman

to run, you know, find someone you think should run and keep encouraging them. There's a statistic that says sort of women on average, some take a lot more than this, but on average women take seven people close to them who they sort of know, admire, encouraging them to run for office directly, encouraging them to run for office. Without that, it's very rare that women select self-select into the arena. It's just harder for women and so it we just got to keep up the encouragement and make sure that we get more and more. And by the way, there's good news. Like the Democratic majority in the legislature is female. And it's female because we do these things we're

talking about. We support women and we don't give up. >> And that's what we have to do. Who has the power to make and take a political story to become the story everyone else has to live inside? When we think about the political story we're living within, good or bad, who holds that power to really make us believe that we're living within that story? >> Yeah. >> It's such a good question and the sad truth to that probably at the moment is media in all forms and money big money dark money. The reality is that every year campaigns every year campaigns double what what it what it costs to run a campaign. Last race I think Senator Tester alone spent a hundred and

thirty-five million dollars in his race. I think that Senate race was over three hundred million dollars. Well, that's insane, right? That's insane for seven hundred something thousand Montanans. And so when you think about that sort of question around you know, your your your question. It is unfortunately what's happening is that we have so few sources of media anymore. And they're being fed by dollars that then develop a narrative that if said over and over and over and over and over people tend to believe is true even though often times it's completely false. And so, you know, what we have to do is keep talking to our neighbors. Do not give up on having conversations

about community and politics in public. I find a lot lately people whispering a little bit more in a restaurant about a political race and I just say price of eggs is too high. Like look at the price of gas. I mean really we this is the community we live in. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about those kind of things, right? And the only way that we I think get past this is to stick together and to sort of say no we're going to keep talking about whatever the issues of the day are as much as we can with our neighbors and people who we agree with and people who we we don't because the the these money, you know, in place like Montana the amount of out of state money that's

coming is shocking, right? It's just shocking amount of cash to help try to get people to believe a truth often that isn't a truth and that's that's something we have to be very careful about. And the role of storytellers even more important, right? Because storytellers and artists can break through in ways that others can't. They just absolutely can. So it's critical that we both have more stories, that we support artists and storytellers to be able to tell them, and then we find clever ways to get those stories out in the world given, you know, consolidation and distribution and what's happening to the industry. Um but we got to do everything we can to support, you know,

artists and and and, you know, musicians and storytellers because they are the reflection of us, right? That is it's reflecting who we are. >> This inquiry of recording a hundred stories about narrative intelligence. I'd love to ask you, if you were writing the definition for narrative intelligence, how would you define it based on your experience? >> My gosh, that's such a good question.

How would I define >> Well, one thing you just said that no one has said yet is that talking to your neighbor can change the story or help you understand the story better. I think that's so important. >> Mhm. >> Well, I think truth. >> Yeah, that's right. That's right. I think that that's right. I mean, we have to be listeners. Uh we have to be learners, and we have to ensure that we're developing our intelligence, you know, together, collectively, with our communities. And not, again, you know, we're in a we're in a tricky time here because we have such an onslaught of information. Um some of it just not real, you know, or adapted in some way

to make us, you know, believe something. And that's where, yeah, I feel like there's there's got to be a lot more of our coming together as as neighbors, you know, in the coffee shop or at Charlie B's or on a trail or talking about things that, you know, that sort of matter to us. And, you know, it if you could do that anywhere, you certainly should be able to do that out here. Yeah.

It's got to be like in the category of being able to detect what, you know, intelligence is, and then figuring out ways to understand and share stories. And I would hope that the best thing we could do is not to just assume that digital formats are the only way that narrative intelligence can and should live in the world. Love it. >> And I don't know if that's like I have literally never thought of that question. So take it or leave it.

>> Love it. It's absolutely going into the mix. We're making a gumbo. >> Okay, good. I'll make it. >> intelligence uh description. Tell me a little bit about Williams works and one of the the greatest stories you tell from the work that you got to do at as a result of running the company. >> Yeah, it's amazing. Well, I created the company about 25 years ago and we were sort of one of the early social impact agencies that was helping kind of families and corporations, sort of high net worth folks who had been blessed or lucky and worked really hard and had an opportunity to give back. And so at our core as a company we're problem solvers who truly believe that anything is

possible. And so we get to work helping solve problems and create projects and programs that contribute to communities and better people's lives. And it's sort of the honor of a lifetime to be able to work alongside with this action orientation. We are very focused on action. So we end up doing, you know, ultimately we become extensions of teams of our clients helping them make big change around the world.

>> What's one of your favorite stories from the change you've been able to help? >> I was in the Congo. I created a a nonprofit in Congo. My co-founder and my buddy is Ben Affleck, the actor and director. And Ben and I co-created Eastern Congo Initiative 17 years ago. And one of the bits of work that we do is supporting survivors of gender-based violence. There's a horrific problem with rape and sexual violence in Congo and some parts of Congo where our office is two out of three women have been raped. And so we have been very busy doing a variety of projects and programs and providing funding support to to women. And I was in a community meeting

in Congo outside of Goma, which is in the North Kivu province up against Rwanda in Eastern Congo. Now, unfortunately, close to the Ebola epidemic that's raging right now. But we were in this little center where women were coming in and telling their stories and getting sort of checked in to see whether they needed to go to a hospital or whether they wanted to go if they didn't, they would go on a path for justice and start thinking about pairing them with someone who could help them try to bring their bring their their their case to court.

And there was a woman in the back and we had been having this amazing conversation with a number of women who come in, many of whom had just been raped or their mom or their baby or some other woman in their life. And there were probably 30 women in the room. And at the end of the conversation, we said we, you know, thank you so much for sharing your story and and do you have any questions of us? And a woman stood up in the back, baby this beautiful Congolese cloth tied around her, baby on her back, and another little one right next to her knee. And she stood up and in Swahili, she said, "Do you have rape in America?" And the four of us thought,

I mean, who's going to answer that? And so, one of our girlfriends who was along was at Glamour magazine at the time, who was writing a story about about the trip, said, "We do have rape in America." And she recited some of the statistics in America. And then the woman stood back up and said, "Well, I hope you have organizations like this in America that can help you, too." I mean, come on. Like, empathy, man. The thing you learn when you get to travel the way any of us do, whether it's down the street in our own hometown or halfway around the world, is that everybody wants the same stuff. And people are so full of empathy and so full of grace and even in the most

horrific of conditions in a place like Eastern Congo where there are challenge after challenge after challenge after challenge. This gal's standing up asking if we have rape in America and wishing us well. And, you know, hope that we have support like, you know, she had been given. So, it's pretty great pretty great to be able to learn and work and be in a community with that incredible young woman and yeah, I'm very lucky.

>> The generosity of the human spirit never ceases to amaze me. >> Totally. >> Whitney, thank you for the impact you've had [music] and that you will continue to have and for doing this interview. I appreciate you. >> I'll thank you so much. >> Welcome to 100 Stories, The Narrative Intelligence Project. I'm your host, Paige Williams. Come along with me. >> [clears throat] >> Welcome to 100 Stories, The Narrative Intelligence Project. I'm Paige Williams. Come along with me as I build the emerging field of narrative intelligence by learning from 100 thinkers, creators, researchers, leaders, people whose lives have been shaped by profound change. Together, we

are exploring a question at the center of how we become who we are. How malleable are the stories we live by and what does it take to change [music] Across these conversations, we're examining the stories we inherit, the stories that become identity, and the human capacities [music] that allow us to recognize, question, revise, and live beyond them. >> [music] >> What I learned from this series will help shape the field of narrative intelligence and the foundational book that I'm writing about it. This is 100 [music] Stories.

Before we close, here's what I'm taking from this conversation about narrative intelligence. Whitney reminded me that stories do not just reflect the world. They help determine what gets attention, what gets funded, who gets believed, and what people decide is worth fighting for. In philanthropy, politics, and film, the story that rises is often the one people actually can see themselves inside. I was especially struck by something she learned from her father.

He said, "There's a genius on every block." And that feels deeply connected to narrative intelligence. We cannot understand a community only from the outside. We have to listen to the people living the story because they often understand both the problem and the possibility in ways outsiders don't understand it. And then there's narrative power. Whitney has lived inside politics and she named something we all need to pay attention to. Money and media can repeat a story until it begins to feel like reality. Her answer was not to retreat from public life, but to keep talking to our neighbors, keep listening, and keep creating stories that reconnect us to one another. Maybe

narrative intelligence is not only the ability to examine the story in our own head, maybe it's also our capacity to ask, "Who's telling the story? Whose voice is missing? Who benefits if I believe it? And what changes when I actually listen to the people living inside it?" And now I want to invite you into the inquiry. What's your NQ? Take the narrative quotient assessment at storykeys.co and subscribe to 100 Stories, the Narrative Intelligence Project, wherever you listen or watch.