Telling Our Stories with Ken Mandel

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Everyone has a story, why not share yours? </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sharing our stories helps to bring us together, feel more understood, and realize that we all have common bonds that unite us. That’s one of the ideas behind Chapter X — to create a community where we feel comfortable sharing our experiences in order to explore our past, present and future lives.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My guest today is Ken Mandel, who made his career as a professional storyteller. He’s known as an Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. Now retired he calls himself a "serial volunteer."  He serves on the board of the Ensemble Studio Theater, the West Orange Arts Council, and created the West Orange Classic Film Festival, now in its 16th year.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, Ken joins me for a conversation about his life, career, and the art of storytelling. We discussed:</span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">How an industrial engineer discovered his calling as a filmmaker</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The emotional side of editing (and why it matters in good storytelling)</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">How the extraordinary stories Ken told impacted him as a human</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The reason why he slipped easily into an unplanned retirement</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">A powerful relationship habit that he developed during the pandemic</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links</span></h2> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/moghulini"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">https://www.youtube.com/user/moghulini</span></a></p> <p><a href="http