Being a big walker, I listen to a lot of audio — mostly Podcasts and Audiobooks and occasionally music. One of my favorite podcasts is one that I never hear anyone else ever mention: Everything Is Stories.
They describe themselves as "an ongoing survey of personal histories. Each episode is a first person narrative from someone who has lived through consequential changes to their notion of self and the world... Sometimes these stories explore the philosophy of outsiders. But most importantly, these stories examine what it is to be human...We don’t record to defend or demonstrate an idea. Rather, we create a document of what was seen and felt during their transformative experiences."
Episodes are released sporadically and, with the exception of being top shelf quality and first person narration, the stories have little in common with one another. The current story, The Disorientation of Survival, is a multi-part piece about a gay fraudster growing up in the era of AIDS.
A good starter episode might be Reviled and Maligned: "Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam & Mahoney funeral parlor in Worcester, Mass., found himself thrust into the national spotlight in the spring of 2013 amid a damning controversy. With implications that still linger to this day, Stefan and his team faced the question of where to draw the line on who deserves a burial. EVERYTHING IS STORIES explores the morality behind such decision-making and how one man—during a time of universal anger, fear and sadness—stood up for what he thought was right."
The part they're keeping hidden in that description is that Stefan and his team were burdened with the task of burying one of the Boston Marathon bombers. Here's the trailer:
Or what about this episode from last season:
"Charles Farrell could be labeled a number of things: pianist, writer, boxing manager, and hustler. As a teenager, Farrell lived in the streets of Boston, playing piano in mafia-owned clubs. With a love for boxing, he started gambling on high-profile matches while also managing fighters. He fixed an array of professional fights by using code-talk with trainers, foolproof matchmaking, and buying referees and judges. In this story, the highs and lows of gangster culture are explored as Charles Farrell describes the ease of taking advantage of society’s vulnerable parts."
That's Season 3, episode 6: Sesquipedalian. Here's the "trailer":
Everything Is Stories is, of course, available for free wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen online.
As a sidenote, EIS is now funded by Oscilloscope, which was founded by Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys' MCA) and David Fenkel. Yauch died of cancer in 2012. That same year, Fenkel left Oscilloscope to co-found the wonderful distro, A24.
