The Moth Radio Hour: Voicing Tough Truths

The Moth

Arts, Performing Arts

4.6 • 25.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this hour, tellers who tell the truth and nothing but the truth, even when it's hard. Finding the right words in front of the president, in the face of the patriarchy, during a shocking encounter, and to pass on knowledge. This hour is hosted by Moth Artistic Director, Catherine Burns. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Storytellers:

David Litt channels his alter ego, "Lips," while working as a presidential speechwriter.

Nimisha Ladva sees the subtle ways her mother defies the patriarchal structure of her extended family.

Alexis Barton learns nothing good happens after midnight.

Sharon Salzberg's meditation teacher encourages her to use her voice and past experience to help others

Podcast: 657

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The moth is coming back to London at Union Chapel for our main stage.
0:05.0	Join us on Friday, September 27th for the quintessential moth two-act experience,
0:10.6	featuring a musical act and five unforgettable true stories told live as they're recorded for
0:16.2	episodes of the Moth Radio Hour and the Moth Podcast.
0:19.7	You can buy tickets now at the Moth.org slash London. We'll see you there. This is the moth radio hour from PRX. I'm Catherine Burns and this time we're hearing stories about tough truths, admitting hard things and
0:45.7	then finding the courage to say them out loud, especially when it feels a little
0:49.5	dangerous. That was a case with our first storyteller David Litt.
0:54.0	He shared his story at the College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut
0:58.0	for he partner with Premier Concerts.
1:01.0	Here's David Litt, live at the mall.
1:07.2	Back when I was a speech writer for President Obama. Thank you, that's my story.
1:17.0	Back when I was a speechwriter for President Obama, the ultimate White House power move was to stand up after you finished a meeting with the President, swipe an apple from the bowl on the Oval Office coffee table, and then on your
1:37.9	way out the door, take a big juicy bite. And I never did that. I never even came close to doing that. It wasn't
1:49.2	the writing part of my job that worried me. But you know how some people are afraid of spiders and some people
1:54.8	are afraid of heights? When I started at the White House, I discovered that my very specific, very
2:00.1	crippling fear was of being in an enclosed space with an important person and having to say things.
2:07.0	Which turns out to be a problem when you work for the President of the United States.
2:14.1	This was an especially big problem in March 2013.
2:18.3	I had just gone from writing speeches for the senior staff to writing speeches exclusively for the president and I was a
2:24.4	hundred percent sure that I deserve this promotion except for a very large part of
2:28.8	me that wasn't. And so my my, Cody, it's my first Oval Office meeting in my new job.
2:36.9	My boss saunters into the Oval.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Moth, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Moth and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.