This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jennifer Hickson.

The first Moth Story Slam was in 2001, and we are still going strong.

There's different themes and different hosts in different cities.

A lot has changed. A lot continues to change.

But one thing stays the same.

Every February, as a sort of answer to Valentine's Day, or an alt Valentine's Day,

we put on shows all over the country with the theme, Love Hurts.

Now, maybe it sounds to you like it would be a huge bummer, but somehow it's not.

Yes, people bring stories of heartbreak and good love gone wrong and being crushed and

kick to the curb, all of that. But it's always somehow a lot of fun, too.

The math of love always switches things around. You lose, but then,

lo and behold, you find again. We always enjoy the interpretations of our themes, and in this hour,

we'll hear five stories all born in February at a Love Hurd Story Slam.

Our first story was told at the Love Hurd StorySlam in Boston, where we partner with PRX and WBUR.

Little Inside Baseball.

At our storytelling competitions, people sign up to tell, but there are often more wannabe tellers than there are slots.

So as a rule, we only hear 10 stories.

After those 10 stories are told, we have all the people who didn't get a chance come up and give their first lines. But every once in a while, there aren't three or eight extra names in the hat,

but just one extra. And if the audience gets wind of it, well, just listen to how our Boston host handles it.

Here's Jeremy Brothers trying to keep the Boston crowd at bay,

and then after that, the 11th storyteller, Andrew Brown.

Let's welcome up right now the person who didn't get to tell his story tonight,

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