On average, Americans now spend more than 40 hours per week in front of an electronic screen, seeing and hearing more than 5,000 commercial messages a day. These electronic storytellers are more influential than most people think. In this presentation, Mann explores the impact of media in light of new information about brain development. He will explain why it is imperative to listen to the stories in our lives and pay attention to their source.

Mann is an award-winning storyteller, author, training consultant and speaker. In 1987, the former baker unplugged the family television and began telling stories to his children. This led to a career as a professional storyteller. Mann now tells stories to more than 15,000 children annually, and was a nominee for the Anne Richardson Reading is Fundamental national award. He has appeared on Good Morning Minnesota and KARE 11 TV.

Mann is also a training consultant with the National Institute on Media and the Family. He is past president of the Northlands Storytelling Network and a contributing author of “The Art of Storytelling,” Moody Publishers, 2003.

For more information about Mann, visit www.storymann.com.

For more information about events at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, visit www.AnokaRamsey.edu.

Join award-winning storyteller and media consultant Mike Mann and Anoka-Ramsey Community College Communications faculty in a discussion about how the stories we hear in our daily lives effect the culture we live in.