Who decides which stories rise, which problems get attention, and which versions of reality become the ones everyone else has to live inside?

In Episode 14 of 100 Stories: The Narrative Intelligence Project, Paige Williams talks with social entrepreneur and changemaker Whitney Williams about politics, philanthropy, documentary filmmaking, and the power stories have to shape what we notice, fund, believe, and fight for.

Whitney grew up in a family where making a difference was expected. Her father, former Montana Congressman Pat Williams, taught her that "there's a genius on every block," a belief that still anchors how she thinks about leadership and community. She went on to the Clinton White House, founded the social impact agency WilliamsWorks, co-founded the Eastern Congo Initiative with Ben Affleck, and ran for governor of Montana in 2020.

She brings out a hand-painted silk banner from Butte's Women's Protective Union, founded in 1893, and tells the story of learning what it actually was. She explains why the stories that break through in philanthropy are the ones that make an enormous issue human, describes the moment at the Wilma Theater when she knew a film had done its job, and shares what a man at a town hall in Broadus asked her during the governor's race, along with her answer.

The conversation then moves into narrative power: money, media, repetition, and who holds the ability to make a political story feel like reality. Whitney's response is to keep talking with our neighbors and to support the artists and storytellers who can break through when nothing else can.

Her definition of narrative intelligence adds something new to the inquiry. Becoming more narratively intelligent may be a collective act as much as an individual one, built through listening, learning, and making meaning together in community.

She closes with a question a woman asked her in a community center outside Goma, and the answer that has stayed with her ever since.

100 Stories: The Narrative Intelligence Project asks: How malleable are the stories we live by, and what does it take to change one?

Take the Narrative Quotient assessment at StoryKeys.co.