The Ten-Minute Storyteller

This week we meet The Kid. The Kid just wants to shoot some hoops. Get in some practice before his school team tryouts next week. But inside the old dairy barn out back where his father has hung a hoop, the kid runs into a spooky stranger. The unexpected encounter will have consequences neither of them can imagine. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Tammy. Every day Tammy thinks about doing it. And every day she doesn’t do it.She wants to do it, or at least she thinks she does, but still she doesn’t do it.She wants to do this and do that, go here and go there, but desire so rarely leads to action.What is Life? What’s it for? What are we supposed to do with it? Is it anything more than the Random Thoughts in our Heads?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Tad. After years of Talk Therapy Tad finally has a breakthrough. He finally spits out the Truth. Finally utters the unutterable. But is his Shrink listening? Or has his Shrink checked out of the Game, consumed as he is by his own angsts and anxieties, his own dreams and desires?SHRUNK asks those old Socratic questions: Do our fellow humans hear a word we say? Or does all the gibberish just fall on deaf ears?Was it, me wonders, a giant cosmic joke to allow Humans to Communicate with all these silly little utterances that spill from our lips?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Baby Kane and his parents, Adam and Erin. Baby Kane is just about to escape from the back yard and crawl up onto the railroad tracks at the same moment the Union Pacific rolls west across the New Mexico desert. Will Baby Kane get splattered by the lead locomotive? If he manages to stay off the tracks, what about the venomous rattlesnake that’s just had its rattle severed by the fleeing caboose? Will that sidewinder nail Baby Kane if not the train? Mom and Dad are busy with their new biz, Land of Enchantment Adult Gifts and Novelties. They don’t know their boy’s in jeopardy. They don’t know what evils lurk. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet the Fastballer. Throws over a hundred mph. Just signed a big fat MLB contract.She’s a billionaire’s daughter. A wild thing. Really likes to have a good time. The crazier the better.They meet at a South Beach soiree and that same night she recruits him for a trip to Greece to attend a fancy destination wedding. What could possibly go wrong?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet Constance. Constance Sillence. The fifth of nine children. She bore five children of her own, two surviving. The short, unhappy life of Constance Sillence unnerves and disheartens even the hardest souls, but alas, her story is as common as passed gas.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A traveler’s vacation in Israel turns into a surreal mock trial and narrow escape. Tension rises as local violence and historical grievances collide with casual tourism. Conversations probe why conflicts persist and draw unsettling comparisons to America’s past. Short, tense storytelling that follows one person’s very bad luck abroad.

A warm country character who defies expectations and keeps newcomers guessing. Rustic life choices, a rotary phone, and folksy humor set the scene. A songwriter’s slow, patient craft emerges alongside daily routines with a loyal red-boned coon hound. A goose hunt, an oddball philosophy about life, and a wry Shakespearean quip finish the tale.

This week we meet Zeb. A monument to virility. Manly to the core. Fifty years chasing the ladies. But, alas, not so much anymore.He started young, made women his vocation. Unfortunately, it’s looking like he’ll need a fresh inspiration.Times they are a-changin, machinery all worn out. Poor boy’s emasculated, of that there is no doubt.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet the last super model. As a kid, because of her looks, she was used and abused, deceived and exploited. They used her to hawk perfume and blue jeans, underwear and dreams. But she was tough, resilient, ambitious. She channeled that abuse and exploitation to build her own company, to make millions, to beat them at their own game. But at what price?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.