A young man visits his estranged father after a health scare and uncovers a quiet truth neither of them could say aloud.

#TheUnwittingHero #ShortStory #FathersAndSons #EmotionalHealing #LiteraryFiction #FamilyTension #RedemptionArc #Storytelling #EmotionalShortFilm #GaragePhoto

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

Before he was Mark Twain, Sam Clemens set sail expecting to be amused by the world — but what he found changed him in ways no river ever had.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

A major league pitcher is drowning in regret and fear—until a quiet reminder pulls him back to the moment he's already in.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

There’s a place in Wyoming where a single drop of water decides between two oceans—east or west.

In this episode, we explore how your smallest choices—what you think, what you say, what you don’t say—shape the inner landscape of your life.

Peace or resentment.

Growth or stagnation.

Connection or slow, silent drift. Most of the time, it starts with something you barely noticed.

You’re not stuck. But you are always flowing. The question is: which way are you leaning?

#TheUnwittingHero #LifeChoices #TinyDecisions #EmotionalIntelligence #SelfReflection #PodcastEpisode

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

A gifted young fox believes he’s mastered the sacred forms until a mismatched tortoise shows the meaning of true mastery -- not through correction but through example.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

She refused the emperor's hand before he was the emperor. Not with rebellion, but with calm.

She was the one thing beyond his reach—and it was that quiet refusal that kept him grounded, year after year.

This is the story of a forgotten rite, a fig tree that heard all, and the memory that steadied a crown more than any sword ever could.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

A wise young owl falls into a world of mud and beasts—only to discover they see more clearly than he does.

#Allegory #ShortStory #Wisdom #TheOwl #MythicParable

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

In a sterile world governed by moral scores and emotional compliance, repentance is obsolete—and memory is dangerous. Aren, a high-level auditor in the Department of Morality and Inner Sanctity, uncovers a forgotten case file. It should have been sealed. Deleted. Forgotten. But instead, it lingers. As she begins to remember—not just the subject, Elias Venn, but her own buried complicity—she faces a choice: uphold the system or preserve the truth no one else will. “I Remember Niko Venn” is a quiet rebellion. A story about judgment that collapses, and memory that endures. About the moment a soul unseals itself… and steps outside the machine.

—

Written by James D. Newcomb

Narration and Visual prompts generated with AI from original concept

#DystopianFiction #ShortStory #MemoryAndJudgment #AIStorytelling #IRememberNikoVenn #NarrativeSciFi #MoralPhilosophy #StJohnClimacus #DigitalSurveillance #LetItEnd

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

Eli didn’t think he was the problem. Other people were addicted to noise. Other people needed distractions.

But when an odd little YouTube podcast called The Unwitting Hero keeps popping up—quiet, slow, and almost infuriatingly sincere—his resistance starts to crack.

What begins as irritation becomes reflection.

And maybe, just maybe… healing.

The Bluebird and the Raven

The River and the Wind

The Question of the Glassblower

Subscribe to The Unwitting Hero https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqjM8B3e8kTlDpX1gqNHLpcgWWY-qnL6r

#TheUnwittingHero #slowmedia #digitaldetox #modernparable #storytellingseries #quietcontent #mindfulmedia

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com

We live in a world that treats boredom like the plague. A single unoccupied moment—no pings, no notifications, no sudden distraction—and we’re unsettled, jittery, desperate to fix whatever lurks under that blank stare. Yet, what if boredom is not a glitch in our wiring but the operating system itself? What if, beneath its uncomfortable surface, lies the fertile ground of invention, self-reflection, and even compassion?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jamesdnewcomb.com