From PRX, this is the Maltha Radio Hour. I'm Jay Ellison, producer of this radio show,

and I'll be your host for this episode about our fathers, grandfather, stepfathers, and

our first story about becoming a dad yourself, a moment that's transformative for most men.

It's the moment you join the generational flow when you play an actual role in the continuity

of the species. And you discover the wild love that as it turns out was lying dormant,

waiting for that moment of birth to flame into being. Before you get there though, there's

the actual process of birth to go through. Admittedly, quite a bit easier for men than

for women, but for some, like our next storyteller, still a challenge. Here's Andrew Post,

from a Maltha Show with the theme, Gutz, Stories from the Razor's Edge.

I was 18 the first time I fainted my cousin's bris. He was eight days old, and he was to

be circumcised. It was summer, very hot, an overcrowded room, and someone pushed a

movie camera into my hands and told me to film it. For some reason, I listened, and I

put my finger on the zoom button. And as the oil was about to do his business, I remember

hearing my mother call out to my father and say, Neil, catch him. And I wondered who she

was talking about. The next thing, someone was loosening my belt, someone else was loosening

my tie. And as I realized what had happened in the commotion I must have made by fainting,

I looked up, and I was panicked that what I had done might have made the oil miss. But

he looked down at me, and he assured me that almost every time he did this, he lost at

least one man. So I was in good company. A little less than a year later, I was in college.

I fainted for the second time. This time it was in a movie. And I wish I could tell you

it was a hyper-violent film like the Salvador Dali movie where someone apparently takes

a razor blade and slices open an eyeball. But I believe I am the only person ever to

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