Blabla time is a podcast that addresses the little and big challenges of student life. Hosted by scholar, coach, mentor and writer Dr. Sandra Gaudenzi, it allows you to listen to your internal “blabla” and, hopefully, learn from it! This is a podcast made to be used as a tool box. You will find practical advice, transformative story-making exercises and visualisations tailor-made to your issues. It is about allowing yourself to relax, step out of your fears, find alternative routes and eventually thrive in your life. Blabla time is meant to grow with your suggestions, so please email us with your ideas and feed-back at blablatimepodcast@gmail.com. [Scripted and hosted by Dr Sandra Gaudenzi, edited by Ewan Chapman, Jingle tune by Adam Turbot with voices by Lara & Matthias Nahum] My Story: I am a scholar and I lecture, mentor and write about interactive and immersive storytelling. What fascinates me is how stories shape our world, our understanding of its rules, but also how they shape our own perception of ourselves. We are storytelling animals, we constantly self-define ourselves… for example as “curious”, “shy”, “or extrovert”… Most of the time this is partially true, but we are undoubtedly much more than what a single narrative could ever contain. This is why I specialise in interactive narratives, because they allow us to move beyond a logic of a single truth, they give us choices and they also allow us to be different people at different times. After more than 20 years teaching at university and leading ideation workshops for digital storytellers, I started to notice how untrained we are to accept other people’s points of view and take decisions that fit with our values. In a team, it is often the big egos that prevail, and this leads to teams drifting apart, and losing their initial creativity and enthusiasm. But this is also true at an individual level: we often battle with our internal voices and struggle to live multiplicity as a strength. Could it be that our biggest obstacle in life is how unequipped we are to really listen to ourselves? This is why I decided to train as a coach, because I believe that if we were more at ease with our contradictory voices, our noisy internal “blabla”, we would also take decisions that stick more to our core, and ultimately feel more aligned as individuals and as a society. Recently also I noticed in the last years that my students are increasingly anxious. Their lives are complicated, they often have to work to sustain themselves, if they come from another country they have to learn about a whole new culture and way of thinking, social media does not always seem to help when it comes to the Fear of Missing Out, and making new friends is hard. So Blabla time is a podcast made to address the little and big challenges of student life. It is born from the conviction that if you learn to deal with change when you are young, if you find stability while respecting all of your doubts and voices, then you are better equipped to face adult life. Music: Slow Casino by Blue Dot Sessions, Florentin by Blue Dot Sessions - all at www.sessions.blue (CC BY- NC 4.0)