Awesome Narration Find: The Moth - Real Stories Told by Real People

I've just recently been turned onto The Moth - Live Storytelling Performances.

Basically it's a live storytelling slam in NY and LA, where people meet to tell each other stories about their lives.
I've been subscribed to the podcast for a little while now (while also trolling through their archives), and it's pretty great stuff.

People can be really interesting, and listening to folks share can be funny, silly, sad,infuriating, heartbreaking, and sometimes all of those at the same time.

For example here's Dr. Ari Handel talking about how he kinda fell in love with the first monkey he had to experiment on (he studied Neuroscience):


This is some of the most deeply personal and satisfying performance I've ever heard, and I highly recommend signing up for their podcast.

The Moth RSS Feed The Moth on iTunes

Here's more on The Moth (in their own words):

What is The Moth?

The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization, was founded in New York in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings on his native St. Simon's Island, Georgia, where he and a small circle of friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales on his friend Wanda's porch. After moving to New York, George missed the sense of connection he had felt sharing stories with his friends back home, and he decided to invite a few friends over to his New York apartment to tell and hear stories. Thus the first "Moth" evening took place in his living room. Word of these captivating story nights quickly spread, and The Moth moved to bigger venues in New York. Today, The Moth conducts six ongoing programs and has brought more than 3,000 live stories to over 100,000 audience members.

Why "The Moth"?

The screen around Wanda's porch had a hole where moths would flutter in and get trapped in the light. Similarly, George and his friends found that the characters in their best stories would often find themselves drawn to some bright light—of adventure, ambition, knowledge—but then find themselves burned or trapped, leaving them with some essential conflict to face before the story could reach its conclusion. So George and his original group of storytellers called themselves "The Moths". George took the name with him to New York, where he hoped that New Yorkers, too, would find themselves drawn to storytelling as moths to a flame. They did. With no advertising, through sheer word of mouth, every show to date has sold out in 48 hours or less.

Thanks Uncle Bob!