Hey y'all, I'm Katherine Burns, artistic director of The Moth. I'm so excited to be sharing

an episode from season three of The Confessionals with all of you. The Confessionals

are a podcast all about ugly confessions from beautiful people, and it's created and hosted

by beloved math storyteller and friend Nadia Boltzweber. If you haven't heard it before,

Nadia describes it as a car wash for people's shame and secrets, and it includes confessions

big and small. We're so proud to be a part of this continued collaboration between Nadia and her

team and our longtime partners, PRX. Today we'll be releasing an episode of the show in our feed,

featuring another beloved mothi, Ray Christian, Ray's a long time all-star of The Moth stages,

and we're so excited for you to hear even more from him. And this honest,

strip-back conversation with Nadia. If you want to listen to more episodes of The Confessionals,

it's available now across numerous podcast platforms. Here's The Confessionals.

There are scenes from movies that no matter how many times I watch them, I somehow can't keep

from crying all over again. Art can do this, excavate a buried thing inside of us,

and hold it up until our eyes adjust to the bright truth of it. There is that scene from Goodwill

hunting when Matt Damon's character who tried to cover the pain of their childhood abuse with

the veneer of toughness and bravado is told by his therapist that it wasn't your fault.

And he brushes it off, but the therapist won't stop repeating it. It wasn't your fault.

Until finally, Will breaks down sobbing, unburdened by the truth and the relief of it.

And there's Robert De Niro's character in the mission set in the 18th century, a mercenary and

slave trader in South America who kills his own brother in a fit of jealousy and says to a

Jesuit priest that he is beyond saving, that for him redemption is not a possibility.

And yet the priest gives him penance anyway to carry a large net full of the trappings of his past,

...