Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, and so on, oh, oh, oh, oh, ah, oh, oh, oh, and a, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share.

I'm Taj Easton, and the music in the background now is a song that today's storyteller and I

recorded back when we were fucking kids. And this here is a new format of risk episode that we are

experimenting with. You've heard our live stories told in front of an audience. You've heard our radio stories

recorded privately with music and sound design. And now, just when you thought we couldn't get

any more intimate and real and motherfucking mind-blowingly personal, we are humbly yet confidently

presenting you with episodes like this one. We are humbly yet confidently presenting you with episodes like this one,

where someone tells a story in conversation with the host and we chat about it. Simple,

friendly, entertaining. What else? Beautiful? Yeah, it's beautiful. It's like here is one person telling another person all this

deeply personal shit. And that's why they call it personal. I don't know if that's true.

In this episode, I am genuinely excited to present you a story told to me by one of my oldest, dearest,

and most special treasured, fantastic, fabulously beautiful, awesome friends, Adarius Bell.

Avid listeners may remember that the first ever story we did in this

kind of format was way back in September of 2022, and that was a conversation between Adarius and

myself on an episode called Mercy. Today, we switched seats, and Adarius told me this shit-kickingly awesome story you're

about to hear. Thanks for being here. We love you. We appreciate you. Without any further ado,

here is the inimitable Adarius Bell with a story we call ego death.

What's up, man? It's good to see you.

It has been a minute. It has been a minute.

And it's not an uneventful minute, as I understand it.

It's been some real eventful minutes.

It's a lot going on right now.

...