Teaching

Teaching seems pretty straightforward: one person knows something better than someone else and teaches it to them. But there’s something important that happens to the teacher themselves. In this episode, a 3-year-old teaches his parents what he’s made of, a student defies expectations and becomes a teacher himself, teachers are surprised to learn what makes them tick, prehistoric people have to teach one of life’s hardest lessons (hint: there are llamas involved), a professor regrets a missed opportunity, and the cover of a Ghanaian newspaper does a whole lot of teaching. This week, we’re exploring how teaching shapes the teacher.

 

Host: Kate Nelson and Hadley Reid

Producers: Kate Nelson, Hadley Reid, Christy Hartman with help from Jake Warga, Will Rogers, Nina Foushee, Claire Schoen, Natacha Ruck, Joshua Hoyt, and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Chris Andrews, Andrew Nelson, Gabe Lomeli, Madonna Riesenmy, John Kleiman, John Rick, Linda Paulson, and Emily Polk.

Music used during transitions: Nick Jaina, Podington Bear, Broke for Free, Alex Fitch, Gillicuddy

Image via Flickr

Release Date: 10 February 2016

 

Story 1: Training Wheels

When Kate’s parents set out to teach her and her brother how to ride bikes, they expected to take it step by step, using every precaution: helmets, kneepads, training wheels. What they didn’t expect was a lesson of their own.

Producer: Kate Nelson
Featuring: Chris Andrews and Andrew Nelson
Music: Podington Bear (Ice Cream Sandwich, Bit Rio), Alex Fitch

Image courtesy of Kate Nelson

 

Story 2: See Me After Class

Gabriel Lomeli didn’t look like your typical A+ student. Problem was, he was getting A+’s. In this story, we follow Gabe as he reconciles others’ expectations with his own ambitions and achievements.

Producers: Eileen Williams and Emmerich Anklam
Featuring: Gabriel Francisco Lomeli, Junior
Sounds: 76288__timbre__dramatic-violin-stab-long-decay
Music: Kai Engel; Broke for Free (Golden Hour, Heart Ache, Something Old, And And, Something Elated)

Image via Flickr

 

Story 3: The Power of Teaching

Professor Madonna Riesenmy was curious about what motivates teachers and decided to investigate. But other teachers weren’t too happy to hear about her findings. To be honest, we’re not quite sure how we feel about them, either.

Producer: Emma Heath with help from Christy Hartman, Hadley Reid, and Brian Cohen
Featuring: Jonathan Kleiman, Madonna Riesenmy
Music: Podington Bear (Caravan, Jettisoned), The Losers

Image via Flickr

 

Story 4: Expulsion of the Yearlings

Stanford Anthropologist John Rick takes us to the highlands of Peru to discuss the impact of teaching at it’s most fundamental level.

Producer: Jacob Wolf, Tamu Adumer, and Natacha Ruck with help from Hadley Reid
Featuring: John Rick
Sounds: blouhond, 15050_Francois, kurono01, damiananache, felix.blume, JohnsonBrandEditing, sardan1972
Music: Original Scoring by Christina Galisatus

Image via Wikimedia

 

Story 5: Tales from the RF Apartment

Linda Paulson is a Stanford faculty member who lives with eighty-eight teenagers in a freshman dorm. A late night knock at her door takes on new meaning years later.

Producer: Vanna Tran with help from Kate Nelson
Featuring: Linda Paulson
Music: Alex Fitch (We Call this Home, Secret Place), Chris Zabriskie (Cylinder Six, It’s Always Too Late to Start Over), Broke for Free (Love is Not)

Image courtesy of Kate Nelson

 

Story 6: Just a Little Bit of Sweat

Emily Polk went to Buduburam refugee camp to teach journalism. But one newspaper photo ended up teaching the most memorable lesson of all.

Producer: Hadley Reid
Featuring: Emily Polk
Music: Gillicuddy (Fudge, A Garden and a Rose ) Martin R, Original music by Man of Suit (Breathing Rhythm, Diagnosis)

Image courtesy of Emily Polk


Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad

Jad Abumrad

Friday, January 29, 2016 
8:00pm
Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University
Advanced tickets are sold out but a limited number of tickets will be available at door
Doors open for student ticket holders at 7:00 PM.
Doors open for public ticket holders at 7:30 PM.

In 2002, Jad Abumrad began to develop a new kind of radio experience, an on-air laboratory that explores the most intriguing mysteries in science, the natural world, and human experience. Over the next few years he and co-host Robert Krulwich created Radiolab, one of the most innovative radio shows on the dial—a sonically-rich, rollicking hour of largely scientific sleuthing, aptly sloganed “curiosity on a bender.”

Since then, Radiolab has not only become one of the most popular radio shows/podcasts in the country, but also helped create a wave of new, creative work in science and audio storytelling, and Abumrad has created, as Ira Glass has put it, “the rarest thing you can create in any medium: a new aesthetic.” Today, Radiolab is broadcast on more than 500 radio stations each week and downloaded more than 9 million times each month and it has received numerous awards, including two Peabodys. In 2011, Abumrad was awarded the MacArthur “Genuis” grant.

In this special, multimedia event, Abumrad will mix music, sound, interviews, and stories to produce an immersive experience that explores the creative process, uncertainty, and the nature of innovation. Join us for a night with one of America’s most inventive and influential storytellers.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Stanford Speakers Bureau, with media support from KALW.


Cameron Esposito: Purveyor of Fine Jokes

Cameron Esposito

Wednesday, January 6, 2016
8:00pm
CEMEX Auditorium, Stanford University
Free admission; limited public seating
Doors will open for SUID holders at 7:30pm, doors for Public at 7:45pm

“Comedy’s next breakout star. She fuses the plucky charm of Amy Poehler with the assured storytelling of Louis C.K.”

—Chicago Magazine

Join us for an evening with standup comic, actor, and writer Cameron Esposito as she shares her “gift for plugging punch lines into personal stories” (New York Times). A regular guest on comedy podcasts including Comedy Bang Bang and Nerdist, Esposito is also creator and host of Put Your Hands Together, a weekly standup podcast recorded live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and recently named to Rolling Stones’ “Best of Comedy Podcasts.” She has appeared on a number of television shows, most notably on Late Late with Craig Ferguson, an appearance that was deemed “the most memorable first time on a late night show for any comedian in recent history” (Splitsider). As a writer, she has been published by VICE, The Advocate, and THE AV CLUB, and has been featured in the publications such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Her standup album, SAME SEX SYMBOL, was named to multiple “Best of” lists, and her performances have been enjoyed at festivals like Just for Laughs, Bonnaroo, Outsidelands, and SF Sketchfest.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Immersion in the Arts: Living in Culture (ITALIC).


Secret Keeping

Nearly three decades ago, Psychologist James Pennebaker discovered a shocking correlation between secrets and health outcomes – that people who kept more secrets were dealing with more health issues. Today, secrets are generally considered bad. But in today’s episode, we’re going to discuss creative secret keepers. These people use secrets to form relationships, to explore worlds they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access, even to build new lives for themselves until – well – the secret’s out. Today we’ll explore what opportunities open up when someone keeps a secret, and what happens when that secret is revealed.

 

Host: Chelsea Davis

Producers: Rosie La Puma, Eileen Williams, Will Rogers, Claire Schoen, and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: James Pennebaker, Jackie Chan and Justin Krasner-Karpen. Thanks also to Preet Kaur, Natacha Ruck, Joshua Hoyt, Tess McCarthy, Alexander Muscat, Lilly Gill, Shara Tonn, Dustin Dienhart, Christy Hartman, Jake Warga.

Music used during transitions: Podington Bear, Revolution Void

Image via Flickr

Release Date: 21 October 2015

 

Intro Story: Unhealthy Secrets

Decades ago, James Pennebaker found that adults’ health problems are correlated with sexual trauma in early childhood. This wasn’t a surprise: everybody knows it’s not a good thing to be traumatized as a child. What surprised Pennebaker, though, in the health outcomes he saw, was how long people had kept these experiences secret, and what happened when they found ways to open up.

Producers: Preet Kaur, Natacha Ruck, and Will Rogers

Featuring: James Pennebaker

Music: Chris Zabriskie

Image via Flickr

 

Story 1: Call in the Night

Anonymity is a dangerous thing. Studies of online comment sections have confirmed what we all know: people are meaner when they are anonymous. One study even found that just wearing dark sunglasses resulted in people behaving less generously. But sometimes anonymity can foster intimacy rather than boorishness. Two Stanford students signed up for an experiment in talking to strangers. They were paired to receive a middle of the night phone call. What happened on the call was up to them. The call shows how keeping one’s identity secret makes it easier to share other secrets, and secrets, after all, are the currency of intimacy.

Producer: Joshua Hoyt

Music: Bensound (Jazz Comedy), The Suger Puckin Ganstarers (Cozad), Revolution Void (Scattered Knowledge)

Image via Flickr

Link: Documentary Theatre performance about the same story, written and directed by Xandra Clark

 

Story 2: Rescinded

Ashley Hart endured a rough childhood with an abusive mother after her father died. A tough upbringing turned into a dark nightmare when a judge found her guilty of manslaughter in the case of her mother’s death. As a minor, Ashley had the right to keep her name unconnected from the incident. No secret is truly safe though, and her fight to turn her life around is haunted by the secret of her past.

Producers: Tess McCarthy and Eileen Williams, original by Tess McCarthy, Lilly Gill and Alexander Muscat

Featuring: Tess McCarthy

Music: Kevin Macleod (Colorless Aura, Pepper’s Theme, Water Lily)

Image via Wikimedia Commons

 

Story 3: Frankly Emma

Since the day she was born in 1841, Emma Edmonds has felt betrayed by her gender. Inspired by a cross-dressing heroine in a novel, Emma decides to leave behind everything she’s ever known at the age of 17 and take on a new secret identity. Adventure with us through her amazing true life story – complete with pirates, romance, battles and spies – while Emma tries to determine exactly what it means to be herself.

Producers: Rosie La Puma and Shara Tonn

Featuring: Eileen Williams and Justin Krasner-Karpen

Sounds: Jury Duty (“Howling Wind”), Rosie La Puma (Birds at Munger), Mike Koenig (“Sniper Fire Reload”), TheMSsoundeffects (“Warfare sound effect 9 – Civil war battle – close”), The Best Thing Since Twinkies (“Record Scratch”), fws.gov (“Peeper Frogs Near Lake”) Music: Chris Zabriske (Cylinder Two, Is That You or Are You You), Jason Shaw (Running Waters, Back to the Woods, Hoedown), Podington Bear (PrettyBuild, Climbing the Mountain, Hearts Affluter), Gillicuddy (Adventure Darling), Rosie La Puma & Deborah Wicks La Puma (“Military March”)

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Research References: The Mysterious Private Thompson: The Double Life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, Civil War Soldier by Laura Gansler and Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse, and Spy: A Woman’s Adventures in the Union Army by S. Emma E. Edmonds

Additional Notes and Fun Facts:

You may have noticed in the story that Emma’s last name changes from beginning to end. Emma was born Sarah Emma Edmondson, but after she left the army, took on the name Emma Edmonds.

Like any biography, this portrait of Emma is far from complete. Interested in learning, for example, why Emma was labeled a deserter and denied a pension? Check out Emma’s page on civilwar.org.

 

Story 4: A Change of Heart

A star student attributes his high school success to a friend who inspired him to change his entire life. The catch? He’s kept it a secret from her the entire time.

Producers: Chelsea Davis

Featuring: Jackie Chan

Music: Podington Bear (The Window, Kid Is Frangin Tight, Kingbeat 9, Tribe, Old Skin, Odyssey, Hearts Aflutter)

Image via Flickr


Losing

When you lose something, there’s a hole where that something used to be, and you have to figure out how to live with that loss. The emptiness will always be there, but what can you gain from trying to fill it? What can be gained from losing? This episode has four stories about people who lose something, and then seek new things to fill the emptiness. A lifelong dream gets derailed by a butterfly knife, an athlete’s passion for her sport crumbles after an injury, a girl searches for something she isn’t really sure she wants to find, and a woman slowly loses her ability to hear.

 

Host: Jackson Roach

Producers: Jackson Roach, with help from Jonathan Kleiman, Will Rogers, Nina Foushee, Jake Warga, Christy Hartman, Claire Schoen and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Owen O Súilleabháin, Gabriel Lomeli, Amabel Stokes, Julia Berkson, Mitch Berkson, Olivia Berkson, Claire Richards, Daniela Roop, Jody Louise

Music: All music in this episode originally composed by Owen Ó Súilleabháin

Image via Flickr

Release Date: 20 January 2016

 

Story 1: Hole-Hearted

When a policeman stopped Gabe Lomeli on the street, he thought he had nothing to hide, but that one interaction would shift the course of his dreams.

Producer: Maddie Chang with help from Will Rogers

Featuring: Gabriel Lomeli

Image via Flickr

 

Story 2: Getting Off Track

As a successful track athlete, Amabel Stokes has crossed many finish lines. In this story, she learns to move beyond the red tape.

Producer: Justine Beed

Featuring: Amabel Stokes

Image via Wikimedia Commons

 

Story 3: An Eventful Brunch

A lovely meal in a small mountain villa is interrupted by a stumbling man with his hand tight against his stomach. Everyone spends the rest of the morning frantically searching for something they’re not sure they want to find.

Producer: Maddy Berkson with help from Nina Foushee, Jackson Roach, and Jonathan Kleiman

Featuring: Julia Berkson, Mitch Berkson, Olivia Berkson, Claire Richards, Daniela Roop

Image via Flickr

 

Story 4: Forgiveness

Dr. Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, shares his story of loss, and how he learned to move forward.

Producers: Jake Warga, Emma Heath, Jon Kleiman

Featuring: Dr. Fred Luskin

Image via Geograph

 

Story 5: Sound by Sound

In her twenties, Jody Louise started to lose her hearing, and her doctors couldn’t figure out why.

Producer: Jackson Roach with help from Maya Lorey

Featuring: Jody Louise

Image via Wikimedia Commons


The 5 Powers: Superheroes of Peace

The 5 Powers: Superheroes of Peace

Friday, October 9, 2015
6:30pm
Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Cubberley Auditorium, Stanford University
Link to map
This is a ticketed event—see below for details
Doors open to ticket holders at 6:00PM

From Spiderman to the Hulk, numerous superhero origin stories tell of a character’s interaction with an unknown element that effects a radical transformation. This change often leads to heightened senses, enhanced abilities, and the sense of a greater mission that transcends our individual selves. Although this path is a familiar trope in the realm of “fantasy,” it exists in the real world as well. It is a profound yet simple notion: each of us can be a superhero. Like the spider that bit Peter Parker, we can tap into a real life element called mindfulness to have better concentration, self-awareness, and impulse control. Mindfulness has also been scientifically proven to help us feel calm and increase empathy for others.

Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1957 comic book The Montgomery Story, which informed and influenced a civil rights movement, the animated film The 5 Powers tells the story of three inspiring individuals who used the power of mindfulness for peace during the turbulent Vietnam War. We learn about our main character’s journey towards mastery of the five powers through the experiences of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Chan Khong, and their friends Alfred Hassler and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Please join The Stanford Storytelling Project, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s international community of monks and nuns for a special screening and discussion of The 5 Powers on Friday, October 9 at 6:30pm at Stanford University’s Cubberley Auditorium. Learn how to access the power of mindfulness to effect change within oneself and the world. Click here for more info about The 5 Powers.

This event is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE). All proceeds from ticket sales go towards supporting event costs.


James Pennebaker

JamesPennebaker

SecretLife

Tuesday, May 12, 2015
7:30pm
Cubberley Auditorium, Stanford University
Free Admission

For more than thirty years, social psychologist James Pennebaker has been helping us understand the psychological impact of the stories we tell. Building on an early discovery that keeping secrets can make people sick, Pennebaker developed a rich account of how people could improve their physical and mental health by writing about their deepest secrets, trauma, and other experiences. This research, described in Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotion and Writing to Heal, served as the foundation for Pennebaker’s development of expressive writing, a practice widely used today in many clinical settings.

Most recently, Pennebaker has become intrigued by how we reveal ourselves in our spoken and written language. In his latest book, The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us, he traces the links between seemingly insignificant function words and our social and psychological states, a remarkable and often unexpected journey into the minds of authors, poets, lyricists, politicians, and everyday people through their use of words. He describes masterfully how the language of our stories leaves indelible fingerprints of personality, our relationships and backgrounds, and even our plans for the future. Join us for an evening with one of the most insightful psychologists in America and learn how to perceive the stories that we are unconsciously telling each other all the time.

James Pennebaker
Regents Centennial Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin

James Pennebaker is a social psychologist and a consultant to businesses, medical schools, and various federal agencies that address corporate and national security issues. He is the author or editor of ten books and nearly 300 scientific articles and ranks among the most cited researchers in psychology, psychiatry, and the social sciences.

This program was co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Stanford Continuing Studies.


Healing

We’ve come to think of healing in mechanical terms, as repairing something broken, like fixing a flat tire. But for most of human history healing has meant more than repairing the body. Healing has meant restoring a sense of wholeness to a person—or even a relationship or community. In today’s show we’ll hear two stories that explore this older sense of healing. First, a Bay Area woman diagnosed with breast cancer finds healing through a complementary medicine modality at Stanford Hospital called Healing Touch. Second, a Stanford student living with an incurable disease finds healing in an encounter with the ocean and one of its creatures. How do we heal when our bodies are irrevocably changed?

 

Host: Preet Kaur

Producers: Bonnie Swift, Christy Hartman, Taylor Shoolery, Preet Kaur, Alka Nath, Will Rogers, Julie Morrison, Mallory Smith, Natacha Ruck, Claire Schoen, Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Preet Kaur, Carolyn Helmke, Catherine Palter, Melissa Anderson, Rosa Fuerte, Marilyn Getas-Byrne, Anne Proctor, Laura Pexton, Margot Baker, David Wolf, Maggie Burgett, Maria Cacho, Katie Talamantez, Elizabeth Helms, Diane Wardell, Sue Kegal, Jim Batterson, Margaret Schink, and Mallory Smith

Release Date: 22 April 2015

Image via The Archeological Museum of Piraeus

 

Story 1: It Slows Way Down

When two of Carolyn Helmke’s friends got cancer, she knew she had to get a mammogram. We follow Carolyn’s journey through cancer treatment and her experience of Healing Touch at Stanford Hospital’s Center for Cancer Supportive Care Services. How does Carolyn find healing, not just from cancer, but from the trauma of fighting it?

Producers: Christy Hartman, Bonnie Swift, Taylor Shoolery, Preet Kaur, Alka Nath, Will Rogers, Julie Morrison, Claire Schoen, Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Carolyn Helmke, Catherine Palter, Melissa Anderson, Rosa Fuerte, Marilyn Getas-Bryne, Anne Proctor, Laura Pexton, Margot Baker, David Wolf, Maggie Burgett, Maria Cacho, Katie Talamantez, Elizabeth Helms, Diane Wardell, Sue Kegal, Jim Batterson, Margaret Schink

Special Thanks: Nina Weil, Nina Foushee, Josh Hoyt, Rachel Hamburg, Mallory Smith, Natacha Ruck, Eileen Williams, Rosie La Puma

Original Music: Man of Suit

image via flickr

 

Story 2: Salted Wounds

Mallory Smith was born with cystic fibrosis, an incurable disease with a median life expectancy in the late 30’s. The most serious complication of the disease is a vicious cycle of chronic infection, inflammation and scarring in the lungs that often leads to respiratory failure. As Mallory battles her illness through college, she comes to realize that, metaphorically speaking, the planet is diseased too. But nature speaks out through its own set of symptoms, unsettling signs that grow louder and clearer by the year.

Producer: Mallory Smith

Music: The Album Leaf (Blank Pages, A Day in the Life, Perro, Summer Fog, Shine), The American Dollar (Anything You Synthesize), This Will Destroy You (I Believe in Your Victory), Maneli Jamal (Us Against Them), Antoine Dufour & Tommy Gauthier (Solitude), and Josh Woodward (Together on Our Own)

Image via One Love

An earlier version of this piece aired on Green Grid Radio


Believing

In this show, we are talking about a very special kind of belief—belief in something. Often considered a defining human characteristic, like language, belief shapes our lives. We put our confidence in something that is unseen; we understand the world in terms of a bigger, unknowable framework. This ability may not be unique to humans, but it does appear to be a very special talent. Today, we want to find out what this specific type of believing means for our lives. How are we changed by belief? What does it do to us? Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically: what can believing do?

Host: Eileen Williams

Producers: Eileen Williams, Rosie La Puma, Will Rogers, Claire Schoen, and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Beth Duff-Brown, Krista Tippett, and Carol Dweck. Thanks also to Lora Kelley, Louis Lafair, Sonia Gonzalez, Natacha Ruck, Madeleine Chang, and Lisa Hicks.

Music used during transitions: Broke for Free (XXV, A Beautiful Life)

Image via wikimedia

 

Intro Story: The Secret to Survive

Viktor Frankl lived through one of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated by mankind. He survived when most did not. How and why was he able to persist? What made him special? As a psychologist and psychiatrist, Frankl himself has written on the subject extensively–according to him, he lived because he believed.

Producer: Eileen Williams

Music: Podington Bear (Minor Stretch)

Image via wikimedia

 

Story 1: A Journey of Belief

As a reporter, Beth Duff-Brown learned to rely on verifiable facts and scientific data to make sense of the world. She’s traveled through war-torn Africa and contracted Malaria. She’s written many important and well-received articles. But despite her academic success and accomplished career, she always felt that something was missing. This all began to change in a tiny village called Camponde. It was there she began to open her heart to belief, and the results were astounding.

Producer: Lora Kelley

Featuring: Beth Duff-Brown, Caitlin Duff-Brown

Music: “Muad’dib” by Greater Than or Equal To, “Nostalgia of an ex-gangsta-rapper” by Deef, “Village Party” recorded by Beth Duff-Brown, “Long White Cloud” by Krakatoa

Image courtesy of Beth Duff-Brown

 

Story 2: On Krista

In this story, we hear from a woman whose career has been largely dedicated to belief. As Krista Tippett tells her story, she explains what she learned growing up–and how her belief system has evolved. This is a story about how beliefs can change, and how this change can profoundly impact the way we live. In Krista’s case, it allowed her to form personal connections to help her through hard times.

Producer: Eileen Williams

Featuring: Krista Tippett

Music: Podington Bear (Blue, Dramamine, Gentle Chase, Solidarity, Sry, Dark Matter, Light in Branches), Timbre (Hammerklavier Gospel)

Image via flickr

 

Story 3: Belief vs. Action

Are humans driven by our need to believe or our need to act? Producers Maddie Chang and Rosie La Puma battle their way to a better understanding. Along the way, they explore the forces that motivate their own lives and share stories that bridge the gap between belief and action.

Producers: Maddie Chang and Rosie La Puma

Special Thanks: Lisa Hicks

Image via wikimedia

 

Story 4: Malleable Mindsets

In sixth grade, Carol Dweck’s teacher arranged her classroom according to IQ. The teacher believed that everyone is born with a set number of capabilities. But are we? Or do we develop through hard work and perseverance? Carol Dweck has spent her life exploring what she has termed “Fixed Mindset” and “Growth Mindset”: how our belief in potential affects our potential.

Producers: Louis Lafair, Sonia Gonzalez, and Natacha Ruck

Featuring: Carol Dweck

Music: Podington Bear (Button Mushrooms, Deep Pools, The Window, Orange Juicer, By Grace)

Image via flickr

 

Story 5: Finding a New Rapture

As a teenager, Will stopped believing in the rapture, the idea that Jesus could come back at any moment. In the absence of this belief, doom and gloom set in, and Will moved to an ecovillage in the mountains to reconcile his life with this new worldview. It was there that he encountered a new belief, something very different from and very similar to his belief in the rapture, and it’s this belief that he carries with him today. This story was told at a gathering of friends.

Storyteller: Will Rogers

Editor: Eileen Williams

Links: True Story Podcast

Image via wikimedia