From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries. It's part of KCRW's program of Stories and Original Documentaries.

It's part of KCRW's Independent Producer Project,

kind of a laboratory for independent radio producers, writers,

and performers.

And in both of the stories on today's program,

there happens to be a car crash

that leads to unexpected and life altering changes

on the men in the stories.

We begin with the story of Simon Lewis. We live our lives

walking on a canopy of flowers over hell. We're all on that abyss the whole time surrounded by these beautiful

flowers. That canopy of flowers was my life in the seconds leading up to the

crash. Simon Lewis arrived in Los Angeles as an ambitious young man who was trained as a lawyer,

but he ended up producing movies in the early 90s,

including the smash hit,

Look Who's Talking, with John Travolta and Christie Alley.

But in 1994, his car was involved in a horrific hit and run crash that left him with brain injuries that totally altered the way he now sees and thinks.

I spent just over a month in what's called a Glasgow Comer Scale 3, I was completely inert, suspended in life support with

no apparent connection with the outside world.

More than a third of the right hemisphere my brain was destroyed.

So we're talking about a level of neurocognitive damage that left me with a number of,

some might say disabilities. I think of them in some ways as a blessing.

...