Experiencing the world through my senses, by Fred Minnick
Meditative Story
WaitWhat
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Fred Minnick returns from his military service as a photographer documenting the war in Iraq, he finds himself haunted by what he saw through the lens of his camera. Trauma, as a result of the battlefield and his childhood, holds a grip on him until a bag of barbecue potato chips unlocks something in his brain. An untapped talent — he was born with a remarkable sense of smell — serves as a lifeline back to the present moment, and back to himself.
Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | High listeners, it's Dorothy Abrams, one of the producers behind Meditative Story. |
| 0:05.6 | In the spirit of continuing to deepen the show's impact, we'd love to hear directly from you. |
| 0:12.0 | What are we doing well? What can we be doing better? And what else might be on your mind? |
| 0:17.4 | We'd love it if you would share your thoughts in our listener survey at meditativestory.com forward slash survey. |
| 0:26.1 | Your time is incredibly valuable. So to show our appreciation, we're offering a reward to the |
| 0:32.4 | first 500 respondents who complete the survey before Sunday, December 11th, 2022. |
| 0:39.2 | You can find the survey and reward details at meditativestory.com forward slash survey. |
| 0:46.5 | We look forward to hearing from you. Hey there, it's Rohan. Have you ever felt stuck? |
| 0:59.5 | Like you'd really like to make a change in your career or your personal life, but you just |
| 1:04.2 | couldn't move. Most of us feel stuck at one point or another. And here's the interesting part. |
| 1:09.3 | We actually already have the ability to get on stuck. So why don't we do it? Our coaching partner |
| 1:15.6 | BetterUp suggests that because we fear change, we talk ourselves out of it. Maybe even overthink or |
| 1:22.1 | overcomplicate the steps we need to take to keep ourselves from taking action. Our internal |
| 1:27.2 | antibodies to change, that is to say fear, takes over. As a quick reminder, we're collaborating with |
| 1:33.6 | BetterUp by using meditativestory and the episode themes to coach you through challenges like getting stuck. |
| 1:40.3 | If you're feeling stuck, BetterUp can help because here's why their coaches know. We like to |
| 1:45.3 | think of ourselves as rational beings, but what really motivates us is positively charged emotions |
| 1:51.6 | that act as feedback loops when we need to act. After today's meditative story, I'll share a brief |
| 1:57.6 | exercise from BetterUp to kickstart the change you'd like to make in your life. |
| 2:17.4 | I pick up a vial of eucalyptus. Unscrew the cap and put it to my nose. I close my eyes and breathe in. |
| 2:34.0 | A sharp mint decent hits me. The smell winds its way to the very back of my nose. |
| 2:39.9 | I smell eucalyptus hundreds of times, but I've never taken the time to really just become and |
... |
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