Moth stories have the power to bring you into a world that is often not your own and leave you wishing that you could live in that world

Just a little bit longer since 1997 the moth has shared more than 50,000 stories with audiences around the world through shows,

workshops and on the moth podcast and the moth radio hour once the curtains have closed the rooms emptied and the voice is

Quieted it's the stories still ringing in our ears that whisper over and over we are all of us more alike than we are different

Help us write the next 25 years of the moth story by making your year-end gift today

Text moth22 no spaces to 41444 to make your gift and help provide the space, tools and resources needed for more people to embrace the art and craft of

Personal storytelling in their own lives. Thank you.

From PRX this is the moth radio hour. I'm Meg Boles. When the moth reached its 20th year, we all celebrated.

We celebrated 20 years of stories and storytellers, 20 years of staff and volunteers and all the people behind the scenes who worked

Passionately to keep the moth alive over the years.

I remember the first moth show I ever went to. I had met the founder George Dawes Green one afternoon through mutual friends and he invited me to come to an evening of stories they were producing at

Lanskies Lounge. It was the speak easy down on the lower east side of Manhattan. It was behind the now closed Ratner's deli. You had to go through this alley to get to the entrance.

It was a really cool place. It didn't hold that many people and I remember when I walked in it was packed.

Jonathan Ames and Maliki McCourt told stories. There were others and I fell in love.

The energy in the room was so infectious and not to get too overly sentimental but it really felt as if the stories connected the room.

Such a simple thing storytelling. People standing up telling true stories from their lives, laughing at their mistakes, marveling at the chaos life can sometimes throw at you.

But mostly being willing to admit they're human.

The moth has grown and changed over the years but the stories keep coming. In this hour we bring you three stories.

Our first story comes from Aaron Napersack. He told it in an evening we produced at the Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles presented by local public radio station KCRW.

Here's Aaron Napersack, live at the mall.

Thank you. It was December 2001 and I was living in this one bedroom apartment on the third floor of an old brownstone on Clinton street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

It was nice place, very affordable. It had three big windows facing the street, lots of great light. There was just one problem with this spot.

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