Quid Pro Quo, Revisited

RISK!

Personal Journals, Arts, Society & Culture, Comedy, Performing Arts

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

(Content note: child sexual abuse) In 2016, Ed G. got on stage at RISK! and told a story he'd never told anyone. Now, ten years later, Ophira Eisenberg sits down with him to go places that story couldn't: the FBI, the Pope, the survivors who found each other decades later, and the hard-won question of where shame really belongs. Ed's story begins in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where a boy abandoned by his violent father and drowning in poverty finds an unlikely lifeline in the local Catholic church. What the bishop who runs it asks for in return will take Ed the better part of a lifetime to fully reckon with. 🎶For more info and music featured in this episode, visit risk-show.com/podcast/quid-pro-quo-revisited Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on March 17th, 2026 • ✍️ Pitch your story⁠ • ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠ • 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠ • 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello,
0:02.0	Hello, folks. This is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they
0:26.9	dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison, and today we're revisiting a story by Ed G that he told on
0:34.8	risk back in 2015, plus a conversation that he had with his good friend, Ophira Eisenberg, a whole decade later now.
0:45.8	Both are brilliant storytellers and longtime friends of the show, and were just so honored that they recorded this thoughtful and heartfelt conversation for us.
0:58.9	Now, this story concerns child sexual abuse.
1:04.3	Other than that, after a quick break, we'll revisit Quid Pro Quo with Ed G and Ophira Eisenberg.
1:16.9	Hello, it's Ed Gavigan. I have been listening to Kevin Allison for more than 10 years live. And I would go to those shows in
1:30.8	basements and small theaters. And one day I decided to get up and tell a story according to
1:39.0	the theme of risk, a thing that I had not talked about. And this was in 2015, gosh, more than 10 years ago. And it was a very
1:48.4	difficult story to tell. I hadn't done a lot of preparation. And so listening to that today,
1:55.8	I wanted to have my dear friend Ophira. Storytelling compatriot.
2:02.3	We've told stories all across America together for, I would say, 10 years now.
2:08.0	And we commiserate on marriage and parenting and storytelling and trauma and also trauma. Don't forget the trauma that's the original bond
2:21.3	yeah thank you for coming oh my pleasure and you know the one thing as you will hear as soon as we
2:26.7	roll the story is that every one of ed's stories obviously they are incredibly well crafted
2:33.4	because he's a great storyteller, as you will
2:35.3	hear. But also, especially with this one, the topics that you decide to tackle from your life
2:42.6	are difficult, ones that people don't necessarily bring to light. And also, I think ultimately, when you you tell these stories people come up to you
2:52.7	afterwards and they divulge a lot about themselves they do because they feel like they finally
2:58.3	heard someone talk to them about something that they've been holding on to yeah and I hadn't
3:02.5	understood that this story was probably the fourth or fifth time I'd ever been up on stage.
	...

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