This week on Prompt, we spoke with Maryam Moosavi, a Sacramento comedian who shared a roller-coaster of a story at our April Nutshell show—so well told and filled with all the best aspects of storytelling that it was hard to believe this was Maryam’s first serious attempt at it. On the surface, her story is about being fourteen and getting sexually involved with a nineteen-year-old, and how that experience unravels her family, her school, and herself. But on a deeper level, it chronicles a young person’s struggle for self-actualization within a constrictive family, the loneliness that such a struggle breeds, and how alienating and indifferent the world and its authority figures can be—even as they claim they are only “trying to protect.”

Maryam shares this story of her younger self with humor, vulnerability, and impressively, without watering down any of the ambivalence or contradictions that come with being fourteen years old. So sit back, settle in, and enjoy the story. My prediction is: Anyone who was a fourteen-year-old girl will relate, parents listening will hold their breath to the end, and the rest of us adults will wonder for the hundredth time how we made it out of our teenage years alive.

(PS We had some mic and tech issues this round—more than usual, that is. Sorry for all the pops and clunks and thuds. It’s still an excellent conversation!)

Prompt: is presented by In a Nutshell Storytelling

Hostest: Amy Bee

Mostest: Keith Lowell Jensen

Producer: Aaron Carnes

Thank you to:

DJ Yuma Tripp for allowing us to use his song “Lazy Skank” for our episodes and our live show.

Hyperpixel for audio and video services.

Sofia Theatre for a beautiful stage to gather around.

Babalou for watching over our event table and engaging with people in the best way possible.

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