Does this mean some stories are "better" than others, objectively? Can you measure a story's value by how much of the brain it affects, or by the amount of empathy listeners feel toward its characters? I'm wondering this because there are many storylines that are proven to "work" -- think hero's journey, the classic fantasy trope in everything from the Odyssey to the Lion King -- and some types of story are much more likely to draw emotion than others (and therefore be more memorable and impressionable). EDIT: for instance, have some of the greatest storytellers of all time found the "right" way to our brains in the same way that the processed food giants began to about thirty years ago? I think it's very cool that storytelling can be "solved."
That seems an "extreme" thought. I am "extremely" in agreement with your query. I'm "extremely" wondering also what other phrases are now so "extremely" bland and used to extremes as to now go unnoticed by listeners. I also think it would be extremely useful for one to have a list of bland words that will deflect off the prefrontal cortexes of listeners.