This autumn, fall for moth stories as we travel across the globe for our main stages.

We're excited to announce our fall lineup of storytelling shows from New York City to Iowa City,

London, Nairobi, and so many more. The moth will be performing in a city near you,

featuring a curation of true stories. The moth mainstaged shows feature five tellers,

who share beautiful, unbelievable, hilarious, and often powerful true stories. The Moth Mainstage shows feature five tellers who share beautiful,

unbelievable, hilarious, and often powerful true stories on a common theme. Each one told

reveals something new about our shared connection. To buy your tickets or find out more about

our calendar, visit the moth.org slash mainstage. We hope to see you soon.

Welcome to The Moth podcast. I'm Michelle Jalowski, your host for this episode.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what we owe each other.

What our responsibilities are as strangers, as friends, as family members, as fellow human beings.

What the balance is between looking out for yourself and taking care of everyone else?

I like to think that it's everyone's responsibility to give kindness and care

and that they're owed the same in return.

On this episode, we'll have two stories, along with the pitch from our pitch line,

about that very topic, giving and receiving kindness.

First up is Matthew Dix, who told this at one of our open mic story slams in Boston.

Here's Matthew, live at the month.

I'm sitting in the break room of a McDonald's restaurant in Milford, Massachusetts.

I'm eating an egg McMuffin, and I am not happy.

It is the spring of 1987.

I'm 16 years old, and it's not the egg McMuffin that's causing me to be unhappy

...