Latest / Moey's Laboratory of Extraordinary Stories / STORYTIME: The empty chair and an NDE

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STORYTIME: The empty chair and an NDE · Moey's Laboratory of Extraordinary Stories

0:06
SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's where we're at.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Moe.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode three of you versus everybody.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is mostly going to be an update of where we're at and how we're feeling about the show, three episodes in.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a little meta and not what I was expecting for episode three, but I know I have a good podcast idea here, and I'm gonna invest all my creative energy into making this show work.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, maybe check out episode one, the origin story, to get an understanding of the original idea for the show.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: But honestly, this episode might be a fine place to start.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Stick around to the end of the show to hear a fully produced story about a woman's near-death experience.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: All right, back to me who was recording on a nice microphone a few hours ago.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: It has been seven days since our first competition was released.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: That was episode two, and no one has voted on their favorite story and helped test out the machinery, and that's okay.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Seven people, actually, I think as of this morning, it's ten.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Ten people have listened to episode two.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of them, and my mom's one of them.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: So that means eight people have listened to episode two.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, you eight beautiful, wonderful people and mom.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you're all listening to this now.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: That'd be pretty cool.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be up front though and say that that's oh no, let me do the math.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: 14 minus eight, 13, 14.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: That's six less people than episode one.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit of a bummer, but it's probably because I didn't text the episode to any of my friends or family this time.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to see where we were at, like organically.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: It may also have to do with the fact that I have hit a freaking wall with social media and the algorithm.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: I just couldn't get myself to post anything this week or last week.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Have I mentioned yet that I really struggle with social media?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: It is just not conducive to my brain circuitry.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: I did not grow up with it.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: It feels really invasive, it feels really icky.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: So I'm making an executive decision to just take it off my obligation plate for now.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't follow any of my favorite podcasts on social media.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: I've never found podcasts through social media.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: F social media.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: If it's your thing, I love that for you.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm jealous of people who thrive on social media.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm jealous of people who can just post things about their life and keep up with people on social media.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: That's just not me.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, I'm just so burnt out for my last failed business.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: I just don't have the emotional capacity to become a full-time marketer for this show.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: I just really need this podcast to be easy and fun and an outlet for my dusty audio skills now that I no longer work for other people's podcasts.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: So if we get one new listener a month, then that feels successful to me.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: But here's to my eight incredible listeners.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if I'm turning down the knob on the marketing of this show, the new question is how do I source stories to keep this project going?
3:12
SPEAKER_00: How do I keep you entertained without berating you to participate in these creative challenges?
3:18
SPEAKER_00: How do I keep this train steady without begging friends and strangers for help?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Which, by the way, can I just go on a tangent really quick?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: The help tank is empty.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: I feel like cheesy movies and shows and kids' shows, and they're so keen to blast the just ask for help trope.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Here's some tea.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Even my best friend and my little sister have left me on read when I've asked them to like finish a prompt and help me out with the show.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And my guess is that they haven't listened to an episode yet, but I think it's just because I'm always asking for help with my side projects because I have a small support system and I've been off Facebook and Instagram for like over a decade.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if I can really be upset with people.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And there's people out there who will like this show, and I just know it, and I will find them eventually organically.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you're one of them, I'm really happy you're here and I'm really happy you found this.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Kind of circles back to my last point.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: I think I just refuse to make this journey anything but fun.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: It's time that I change the narrative here, folks.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm talking to myself, not really you.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, you're just listening to me talking to myself.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tweak the format of the show, which is probably gonna happen a lot more.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, not a lot more.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm gonna change the format of this show, if I'm gonna tweak this show, I think I have to look at my story arc.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: And if the tragic flaw in my journey is not being able to find stories, then finding stories will become my new public mission on the podcast.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And if you're like, what the f are you talking about?
4:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go through all of the ways I've tried to find stories so far.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And if you're still like, I still don't know what the f you're talking about, miniature recap.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: If you go to episode one, you versus everybody's origin story, I basically just like fell in love with podcasting, and podcasting helped me realize how cool storytelling was and how I just have always wanted to figure out how to turn the mic back on to like the average Joe, I guess.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: I just feel like storytelling and more so like the high-quality capturing of a story that we get from podcasting.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I think that the average listener should have more access to that.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: So let me explain how I've gone about that.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: First, I started this journey in 2019.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: It was like a senior business project in college where I did like a mock business, basically like a storytelling service for anyone.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, this is my passion.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to do.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: I want to figure this out.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Once I graduated, I actually wrote a grant proposal to an arts charity organization for funding to go to nursing homes and record stories for our elderly.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And I chickened out and I didn't send the proposal.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: So next, I was like, okay, I'm gonna take that business project from college and I'm gonna, I'm gonna do that for real.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: So I started a company called Your Story.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: I built a website for people to get their stories recorded and turned into an audio piece to share with their loved ones.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Reached out to friends, reached out to couples for love stories, and I reached out to my family who owned businesses.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if no one had time or if I just dropped the ball on really getting people to sit down with me, but I did not get a single story.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: And then, and then, and then someone did sit down with me.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: My dear friend Pat, who housed me in my early 20s, she sat down with me and I recorded her story about how she fell into social justice.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, my interview skills were it was a bit too much of an undertaking for me.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And patty cakes, I'm sorry, and I miss you.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you're moving the needle back in Philadelphia.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you are.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Anyways, so at this point, your story, my first business, was dead.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: At some point, I sat down with a friend's dad.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: He was from the Ukraine and he fell into cooking, and his son was a musician.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: It was just this really cute little like audio portrait.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: That ended up seeding their own podcast about music and cooking and culture.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And then I went to Barcelona on a trip and I ended up randomly meeting this cool English dude who thought my idea was brilliant.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: And so me and him kept talking after when I got back to the States, and we attempted to resurrect your story together, and we renamed it Keepsake.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: But I think I I think I like got a job offer right at like right as we were putting together the business plans for that.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: And so it just felt easier to take a good paying job in the podcast industry than try my hand at another company with this story gathering problem that I didn't know how to solve.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: So now, fast track years later, I leave the podcast industry because I was burnt out.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Reach out to this really cool nonprofit that's basically been archiving near-death experiences for decades.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: They contribute to NDE research.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: That's NDE stands for near-death experience.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: So I asked them if I could make a podcast showcasing and sound designing their stories, but I wouldn't have been able to reach out to the NDEers directly.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: They would have had to reach out for me on my behalf and couldn't sort out the logistics of creating a consistent publishing schedule with that kind of format.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: And then I was telling people in my circle about this failed podcast attempt.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: And it turns out someone I knew was an NDEer.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: So she let me record her story and it was short and it was intense and it was chillingly beautiful.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, maybe I'll play that for you later because I didn't do anything with it.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: This might be the perfect place.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the story continues.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: I gave up finding stories.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Like after this woman and her NDE experience, I didn't know where else to turn and find more.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what to do with the story.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: So I turned to literature and I started writing adaptations of my favorite book scenes.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad that I did that because it opened up my writing skills.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, in trying to get my adaptations out there, I like leaned on social media.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: I created this whole storytelling engine business, basically my last failed business that I keep talking about.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't find any visual artists to work with.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I started using generative AI, which had just come onto the scene.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And it eventually just like gave me the ick and it started giving everyone the ick.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: And now artists don't like it.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: And I like totally agree with that.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I don't use it anymore.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: And that also just kind of didn't work out.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: So here's my most recent attempt at finding stories.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: I recently set up a story booth at a farmer's market.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: I forced one of the vendors there to tell me a story about his life, and it turned out this man who made cannolis and like the best cannolis I've ever had, once worked with tigers, like in the Tiger King world.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And I was so excited and I thought I hit the jackpot and I was nervous as hell, but I just let him keep telling me his story.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Once I left and said, Thank you so much.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: This was awesome.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: I realized that my microphone was not connected to my recorder the whole time, meaning I got nothing.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I got 20 minutes of static.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: I was so embarrassed and so upset.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And then a miracle occurred, and a woman came up to me.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: She had been singing with her son.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: She was like the entertainment for the night, came up to me and she said she was so excited to sit down.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: And she ended up telling me this incredible, mind-blowing story about how connected she was with her twin who had passed away.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, holy fuck.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: This is like a story you would hear on everyone's favorite story podcasts.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: We gabbed for so long because she was so cool.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: The next day I listened to the audio and I realized that I'd placed the mic in the wrong direction.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: So while her son was playing music in the background, he was as loud as she was on the mic.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: This is like recording 101, and like I don't record often out in the wild.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm good at recording in a room, a silent room.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: It's so embarrassing to think that I've been doing audio since 2011 and I got that wrong.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the whole experience was pretty discouraging.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Like the level of discomfort that I felt there with my table and my tent and my microphone, I wore like this short, flowy dress that was just like not the right choice for that very windy summer day.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: I had just gotten a really botched pixie cut.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: So I chose to wear this like giant-brimmed, beautiful embroidered hat as part of my outfit.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: And then once I got there, I was like, oh, I can't put my headphones on to check the mic audio.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, once you wear, like, I don't know.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: If you know, you know.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And I just feel like people saw me struggle at a booth that's never existed in the in the history of farmers market booths.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Definitely added to my laundry list of like flailing black sheep moments.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: But sitting here thinking back on it, you know what did happen at this booth?
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Someone came up and just vented about how they got sober for the first time.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to be recorded, but they were like so happy to see an empty chair across from a sweaty, smiley me.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think that's what this podcast needs to be.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: An empty chair with me on the other side of it.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Hi.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I still like the name you versus everybody.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of reasons why that name still works, and I want to hold on to the possibilities of how the versus portion of this show could manifest.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: My mom said she really liked the last episode, so thank you, mom.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I really need that validation.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: But I feel like I feel like I see the reframe now.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is yeah.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: I was writing this out, and and and here's where I think the trends like this is the more stable version of this show.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you think.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: You versus everybody is a podcast about putting yourself out there and an awkward sound designer hunting for great stories to produce among the average and mundane.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Sitting somewhere between documentary and prompt competition, Moe offers herself and the listeners creative challenges as a path to a new story, and a little push for listeners to dust off their imagination and put themselves out there too.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the end goal.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Does it make sense?
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Does it work?
13:53
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it works.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to read it again?
13:55
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not gonna read it again.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Does it feel does it feel good?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it feels good.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm like definitely putting myself out there.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: You're watching me do it.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm watching me do it, and we're gonna figure out how to get this thing off the ground as a family, okay?
14:10
SPEAKER_00: All right, so what else needs to change?
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm just gonna remove the music and sound design prompts for now because it's too complicated.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: I'll keep the open prompts on the website for whenever you're ready.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think my new stipulation is that once I get four responses to one prompt, then I'll start working on a you versus episode for that prompt where you can vote on your favorite story.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: I actually have enough responses to work with for next week's episode and a couple voice actors who are excited to help out.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: But what do I do when I don't have enough prompt responses again?
14:45
SPEAKER_00: So I think I'm deciding to give myself a prompt.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take it back to the very awkward story booth.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I've basically at this point, I'm leaving an empty chair on the website, i.e., the open prompts.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm gonna try to establish that physical empty chair again.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna do it, but this time I'm gonna bring you with me.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be my support system as I build my journalistic integrity.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna bring you and my mic to Lake Champlain, set up a little panhandling booth, and see if we can find any good stories by the lake.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'll bring a prompt binder too.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm I feel nervous just like thinking about it.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like so awkward.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: But it's the obvious move, right?
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Can I really say that I've checked off every box and trying to find stories?
15:36
SPEAKER_00: No, not yet.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do it.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, I'm gonna really put myself out there.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: And finally, the hotline.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: I really hope that that becomes an easy place for people to land in.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes like the empty chair on the telephone, with hopefully a well of audio and stories for me to play with.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: So here's a phone prompt for my eight listeners.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you want to partake in some old school radio vibes.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make it an easy one.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Also, I decided to let my inner Larry David shine.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: What American holiday should we remove from our calendars?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And feel free to tell us why.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: As I've mentioned previously, you can use this hotline as the empty chair it is, and call in with like any story or venting or whatever.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to our sober guy from the story booth.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're doing well, sober guy.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's recap the episode.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Eight amazing, beautiful, gorgeous listeners.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: We've reframed the show.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: We've got a total of four prompts floating around.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: We've got our writing prompts, then we have our hotline prompt.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: What American holiday should we delete?
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Then we have the literal empty chair prompt.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: That one's for me.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna bring my mic out into the world and try to find at least one good story IRL.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: All right.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Have you stuck around to the end of this episode?
17:00
SPEAKER_00: You must kind of like me.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: You lag, you really lag.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: So to reward you, that's weird.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna end out the episode with that near-death experience story that I produced a few years ago.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So I hope you like it.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: I hope you like it.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: Long ago when I was in New York, I was giving my blood, and uh, after several months, one day one of the ladies came to me and said, You have such a great blood.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: Would you mind giving your white cell as well?
17:36
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I did that long ago for one of my brothers, and it was extremely painful because the the needle was huge, and and the lady was like, No, don't worry, it has changed.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, they pump the red cells, and then she comes and she says, Are you ready for the white cells?
17:58
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know, as long as it's gonna help somebody, I'm here for that.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm ready.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: So she explains it's gonna take 62 minutes, it's not gonna hurt, and it's gonna be a little bit cold, but it's that it's gonna be fine.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, there is one thing if you feel any tingling in your lips, you have to call us.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: Because if you have some tinglings in your lips, it means that we have to stop right away.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Alright, good.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: I was on the seat and the needle in my arm, it was making me laugh.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: I had the hair raising on my arms because what they were sending me back was cold.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, 60 minutes, so two more minutes, 61 minutes, alright, and then 61 and a half.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: I start feeling tinglings in my lips, and I'm like, yes, I'm gonna go helping someone.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: I was not happy with my life because I was missing my children, and I felt like I was in that big country that I did not understand all by myself.
19:06
SPEAKER_01: It was hard.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: I was looking for a way to pass away.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: So everything went like the curtain fell, and I saw myself in kind of it was not really a tunnel because it was all round, and it was surrounded with some things like cloudy, it was light gray, and it was slightly dark, very slightly dark, and at the very end that seemed to be nowhere, there was an incandescent light.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: It was amazing, it smelled good, and it was warm, and it was it was just like attractive, very attractive, and I was like, wow, and I was I was pulled toward the light.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Picture this.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: You have wings, you're flying, and you're flying towards something which is wrapping you into some in the in a feeling like you need nothing, you're just in awe.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean to understand it, you have to experience it.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: It's very difficult to describe the ultimate love.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: When I started going forth on that tunnel, it felt like I was going home, it was announcing beauty, warmth, love, and all of a sudden I hear we're losing her, we're losing her, and I felt that horrible pain, and I was like, Oh, what is it?
20:53
SPEAKER_01: Something was fighting against my going through the light, and I was like, No, no, and all of a sudden I heard them, and she said, She's back.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be back when I called my daughter to tell her you almost lost your mom today, and she said, Well, it didn't work, you didn't die because you have things to do, and universe wants you to do them.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: That's why you're back.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: I was so mad not to not to access the light, but I I've been working my way to the light since, so that when my time comes, I join the light.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: It was a beautiful experience.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: This is something I can say.