Stanford professor Dr. Jo Boaler joins 100 Stories for a conversation about growth mindset, identity, public narrative, mathematical ability, struggle, and the stories we develop about intelligence.

Jo has spent years studying what happens when people internalize ideas like “I’m bad at math,” “I’m gifted,” or “I’m smart.”

Then she found herself inside a public story she did not create.

After her work in math education became nationally controversial, Jo received thousands of abusive messages and death threats and watched a version of herself circulate through media and social media that she did not recognize as her own.

We talk about what happens to your sense of identity when other people gain the power to define you publicly, how Jo protected her own understanding of who she was, and what she learned about struggle, creativity, courage, and the space between what happens to us and the meaning we make from it.

This conversation also changed the Narrative Intelligence Project.

I asked Jo whether Narrative Intelligence should be reduced to a single score. Her answer helped me see how easily a number can become another fixed story about a person.

So in this episode, I made a decision: the overall Narrative Quotient score is going away.

The question I’m leaving with:

When someone else tells a powerful story about who you are, how do you decide what belongs to you?

More about Jo Boaler: https://www.youcubed.org/

More about Paige Williams: https://paigewilliams.co/

StoryKeys: https://storykeys.co/

The 100 Stories Project: https://100storiesproject.com/