'Re-storying disaster': Regenerative responses to crisis with Bob Stilger and Nicole LaJeunesse

For 25 years, NewStories has been supporting communities that have faced the unimaginable, total loss from disaster—those who don't want to rebuild the old normal, but are ready to co-create something that affirms life, reciprocity, and interdependence. 

They call this approach, Re-Storying Disaster. After a quarter century of working with communities impacted by disaster, they have found that true recovery is not simply the replacement of what was lost, but rather an ongoing journey of collective healing that nourishes both people and place.

Today on the show, we'll hear from Bob Stilger, cofounder of NewStories and author of AfterNow: When We Can't See The Future, Where Do We Begin? and Nicole LaJeunesse, Executive Director of Regenerating Paradise and NewStories' program lead for Re-Storying Disaster.

Thank you for tuning in.

Resources

• NewStories.org
• Northern California Fire Affected Communities Collaboratory
• Paradise Learning Exchange
• Regenerative Responders
• "Reimagining Paradise in an age of climate disruption" Response episode

About the guests

Bob Stilger, PhD founded New Stories in 2000. Bob's focus is on helping us all create new stories which demand social and environmental justice equity and inclusion — the new stories needed to shift our mental models and meta-narratives enabling us to step into systemic shifts which regenerate healthy and resilient communities.

Nicole LaJeunesse is a community organizer, learning steward, and long-arc practitioner rooted in lived experience of disaster and recovery. A survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, Nicole brings an embodied understanding of what it means to live through catastrophic loss — and to remain committed to community long after the immediate crisis has passed. At NewStories, Nicole serves in program and organizational support for Regenerative Responders and the Fire-Affected Communities Collaboratories, helping steward learning spaces where practitioners and community leaders can reflect together, share lived experience, and build capacity through relationship. Her work is grounded in care, consistency, and a commitment to strengthening the connective tissue that allows insight, courage, and mutual support to circulate across places and roles.

Episode credits

• Hosted and executive produced by Tom Llewellyn
• Produced by Paige Kelly
• Edited by Paige Kelly
• Theme music by Cultivate Beats