In the social sciences, inquiry into the relationship between storytelling and politics is based on a notion of historical continuity. One problem is the possible trap of inevitability inherent in this notion--that something which happened "had to happen". Hannah Arendt's conception of political theory as storytelling overcomes this trap, recognizing a form of storytelling that does not look for consensus or assent but seeks to engage its audience in critical thinking about an issue while "visiting" different perspectives. My story in this paper aligns with Arendt's approach to storytelling and with her claim that "publicity"--making public--is its validation. Here I argue that (participatory) action research [(P)AR] practitioners as storytellers of political life need to unfold its layers, coming to terms with their own experience of the projects in which they are involved. This paper invites readers to explore a phenomenological route, which can enable (P)AR practitioners to identify and engage critically with discontinuities in "the political" that are enmeshed in the socially unjust situations the practitioners are committed to addressing. I illustrate how this works through what I explain as unfolding the political of a (P)AR programme in a Colombian university. (Contains 13 notes.)