Mementos is a member of Hub & Spoke (www.hubspokeaudio.org), a nonprofit collective of independent audio essayists dedicated to helping one another shine. Today, for Valentine's Day, we're sharing an episode of the Hub & Spoke Radio Hour. It highlights the work of four Hub & Spoke podcasts focused on the same theme: love. Join Mementos creator Lori Mortimer as she hosts the Radio Hour and shares all the love, Hub & Spoke style.

Liz Sumner and her husband wanted to move to Italy, but they had no family there and no Italian heritage, so Liz was worried that they'd have trouble feeling like they belonged. She joins us to tell us about a memento they found in Italy that helped her put those worries aside.

Jeff keeps an empty rum bottle from the day of his best friend's funeral 20 years ago. The bottle is a snapshot in time, but Jeff has a more "ethereal" memento from his friend that has ebbed and flowed with the changes in Jeff's life.

Here's a treat for Halloween! My guest Bréjean reads her grandmother Ruth's poem, "Halloween," written in 1932, when Ruth was 11 years old.

Bréjean finds a folder of her deceased grandmother's poetry tucked away in a closet and learns that she has a lot more in common with her "prim and proper" grandmother than she thought.

Additional new Mementos episodes are coming this fall. The next episode will drop next Wednesday, October 27, 2021.

Jared meets his match in an aggressive little Senegal parrot named Cricket, who ultimately charms Jared and changes his life for the better. Jared keeps a large scarlet macaw feather as a memento of the relationships in his life that led to his becoming a "flock leader."

Cherie inherits a stack of 33 letters, written by her grandfather, who died during the Korean War, and who Cherie's family never talked about. Before receiving the letters, she knew almost nothing about him. She hadn't even seen a picture of him. But the letters unveil who he was and the fateful decisions he made that affected not only his life but also still affect her life today.

Crystal Chandler finds the perfect memento of her grandfather, a former Seventh Day Adventist preacher, to bring with her when she moves to New York.

Mementos is coming back! New episodes start dropping this September, just after Labor Day (2021).

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