The Moth is a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since launching in 1997, The Moth has presented over 40,000 true personal stories, told live, without notes, to standing-room-only audiences around the globe. The Moth produces approximately 600 live shows each year in 28 cities worldwide. Additionally, The Moth runs storytelling workshops for high school students, teachers, adults and advocates through its Education, Community and Global Programs, and MothWorks. The Moth Podcast is downloaded over 90 million times a year, and each week, the Peabody Award-winning The Moth Radio Hour, presented by The Public Radio Exchange, is heard on 570 radio stations. The Moth has published three critically acclaimed books - international bestseller The Moth: 50 True Stories (2013), All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown (2017) and The New York Times Best Seller, Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible (2019).
I'll be sharing this with both of my classes tomorrow. Thank you for telling more people the story. I'm crushed that anyone has to tell this story. I will amplify, so more hear your words.
I don’t have OCD but I had my own Simon and he was MEAN! I wish I had a friend I could talk to about it back then but that was a long time ago and people just didn’t talk about those things then. So refreshing to hear these stories told openly and with a sense of humor.
You’d think moth stories would be chosen with a little more discretion considering you have the attention of a large audience. Generic pov and complaint regarding Alaskan decor. Zero drama for an audience to enjoy following along. It might have seemed big to you but the stakes were nonexistent for us, we don’t know you, so we aren’t surprised that you like being on a boat, aquatic tranquility is universally enjoyed, it’s not like you discovered eating chocolate covered pickles from giraffe-ass tickles your fancy, or stokes your fire red. Sheesh. This was so shockingly boring I feel it my duty to highlight the error of her ways. May this comment inspire silence from Milwaukee’s poet laureate, or bestow within her a wild hair to defraud someone of a story worth telling. Ah hem. Good day, m’goodness gracious great balls of fire this was all so unnecessary and a total complete waste of time. Double down when you’re down I suppose…? Fahkk..
Absolutely amazing. Yes, this effective story is about Jews of a certain age and proximity, but as a general exploration of the traumas in life and generational echos it can apply to most people of any age. My mother's twin brother died from an illness when he and she were 36 years old. I was only 9 and didn't know what death meant, but I recognized grief and the chaos of death for the first time and I've never forgotten that day almost sixty years ago. Also when I was a child there was a Jewish family in my suburban neighborhood. At the time I knew Nazis were the bad guys in WWII -- but also caricatures in the TV show Hogan's Heros. Looking back, now I know the parents were probably the children of Holocaust victims and they lived amidst Southern California home & garden and Disneyland. We live lives of unintentional isolation. We don't know the strangers around us.
What an endearing, delightfully humorous and touchingly vulnerable story from Phill Branch. I hope he's putting creative talents to use in his work, along with creating a wonderful life with his own loving nuclear family. Thanks for sharing this touching story with all of us. ❣
