RISK!

On the 16th anniversary of the podcast, Jill Karliner and Kevin Allison share stories from their own sixteeny days. 

🎙️Radio Story: Save a Prayer for Jill by Jill Karliner

When she was sixteen, Jill went to a Duran Duran concert in an attempt to fit in with her friend group and got so inside her own head about not enjoying it, she panicked. 

keywords: concert, classical, duran duran, rick springfield, squeeze, high school

🎙️Radio Story: What’s in the Box?! by Kevin Allison

After being slighted by his high-school crush, a young Kevin mailed the unsuspecting straight boy his poop.

keywords: poop prank, mailing feces, unrequited teenage love, queer crush, revenge, poop

Watch Kevin's chat with Sean Malin, author of Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen, on YouTube.

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on December 11, 2025

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Andrea Dunlop tells Kevin about the time her sister was investigated for Munchausen syndrome by proxy child abuse and how this set her off on a long path towards advocacy, outreach and the pursuit of justice, through her podcast Nobody Should Believe Me.
This episode is guest-hosted by Taj Easton.
You can also watch it on YouTube!

Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

🎙️Conversation Story: Believe Her by Andrea Dunlop

(Content note: child abuse, child murder) Andrea’s sister is prosecuted for Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP) child abuse, which sets Andrea off on a long path towards advocacy, outreach and the pursuit of justice for victims of MSbP. Years later, her podcast and vigilante journalism lead her to uncover irrefutable evidence of an unprosecuted, hideous crime, as well as towards healing of her own deep, familial wounds.

keywords: Munchausen by proxy, MSbP, Factitious disorder imposed on another, FDIA, medical child abuse, ethical true crime, true crime podcast, family trauma, child murder, Nobody Should Believe Me, 

Special thanks to Rafter for the generous and essential musical contributions.

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York (Thursday, December 11th)

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Scott Whitney revisits his story from 2013 about losing his faith called “Revelations” with Kevin. He has many new insights twelve years later. You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

🎤Radio Story: Revelations by Scott Whitney

(Content note: cults, suicide ideation) A Jehovah’s Witness struggling with his faith, Scott knocks on the door of a traumatized recluse to attempt to convert him. The brief, troubled friendship convinces Scott to leave the church.

keywords: Awake!, door-to-door, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Watchtower

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (December 11)

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Our 33rd compilation of some of our favorite recent stories shared on the RISK! podcast, guest-host by Cyndi Freeman.

🎤Live Story: Hope Under the Sky (excerpt) by LP Nguyen

In 1975, the North won Vietnam’s civil war, and LP's dad, high ranking in the Southern Army, was imprisoned. The children lost everything, hunted for food, swam to school, and after 7 years, got their father back.

🎤Radio Story: Black Is the Loneliest Color by Larry Dorsey Jr.

Larry saves a suicidal Black man’s life on the streets of SF and examines his tendency to bridge things between people of different races and classes.

keywords: Black experience in San Francisco, homeless, knife attack subway, people experiencing homelessness, public violence bystanders, racial isolation, urban survival stories

🎤Live Story: What the Blorp?! by Kerri Doherty

Kerri falls in love with a guy who tricks her into helping him lie to the army while he resumes his other life with his wife and daughter. 

keywords: army, cheating, lying to the army, relationship

🎤Radio Story: The Silver Dollar (excerpt) by Daryl Davis

Daryl backs the Ku Klux Klan into a corner and demands that they tell him why they hate him, and he really listens. 

keywords: blackness, changing minds, communication, conflict, empathy, grand dragon, ku klux klan, open minds, prejudice, racial hatred, racism, resolution, unchecked bias

🎤Live Story: Orgasmic by Yossi Rosenberg

Yossi is a shy guy raised in a conservative Jewish household with intimacy issues. He gets involved with the Orgasmic Meditation Scene, a somewhat iffy tribe that practices clitoral stimulation as a meditation.

keywords: clitoral stimulation, culty, Orgasmic Meditation

🎤Radio Story: Breaking Point by Heather Farley

Heather has a psychotic break and leaves a Rauschenberg painting worth millions left to her in the divorce on a park bench. 

keywords: divorce, Psychotic Break, Rauschenberg Painting

🎤Live Story: The Big Secret (excerpt) by Brad Lawrence

(Content note: child sexual abuse, murder, suicide) In a church where guilt is weaponized and silence rewarded, teenage Brad listens to a friend's secret that echoes into adulthood, long past her violent death.

keywords: abortion, childhood abuse, church youth group, evangelical guilt, murder, shame, strangulation, U2

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on December 11, 2025

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

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• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in July of 2013, when Kevin Boggs, Stephanie Garibaldi, R. Levin and Amy Saidman told stories at the first RISK! live show in Washington, DC in association with SpeakeasyDC.

🎤Live Story: Standing Up by Kevin Boggs

Working as a waiter at an upscale Washington DC restaurant, Kevin gets into an emotional fight with an angry customer who calls him a "faggot." 

Keywords: Waiter, Rude customer, restaurant

🎤Live Story: Virgin Sacrifice by Stephanie Garibaldi

Stephanie visits a Mayan village, where Mayan culture lives on to this day. When the villagers decide she is a "fertility goddess," they begin preparing for her to marry a young man from the village. 

Keywords: fertility, Indigenous, Mayans

🎤Live Story: Mofo by R. Levin

R. discovers new things about herself while experimenting with a group of fellow moms in the kink community, where she ends up meeting her husband. 

Keywords: Kink, BDSM, Privacy, Moms 

🎤Live Story: Little Sister by Amy Saidman

Amy learns how to stand up to her older sister, and in the process, ends up unexpectedly bonding with her.   

Keywords:: Older sister, little sister, funeral

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York City TONIGHT! 9/25 at Caveat

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Scott McMahon tells Dawn Fraser from the RISK! podcast his story “Midnight in Manila,” about the time he was pulled into a nightmare of corruption, false rape charges, and five years in a Philippine jail. 

Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

🎙️Conversation Story: Midnight in Manila by Scott McMahon

Scott McMahon tells Dawn Fraser from the RISK! podcast his story “Midnight in Manila,” about the time he was pulled into a nightmare of corruption, false rape charges, and five years in a Philippine jail. 

keywords: Philippine jail, American imprisoned abroad, wrongful imprisonment, framed, corruption, corruption in Philippines, Manila, Manila prison survival, false rape charge, held without trial

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live!⁠

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• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

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Simpsons fans —THE VAULT IS OPEN! 

I’m Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson for 35+ years, and I’m finally taking you inside Springfield. Simpsons Declassified is your all-access pass to the world’s most iconic, animated  series.  

Each week, we crack open wild predictions, eerie coincidences and fan conspiracies and stories  from 36 seasons (that’s 800+ episodes!) behind-the-scenes with writers, directors, the cast and  celebrity superfans, PLUS…Simpsons-themed games— play along and test your Springfield IQ.  

Hear exclusive stories from our guests who were there! Perhaps some scenes that almost never  aired, the jokes that died, the ones that lived and the moments that still shock me at the mic. 

Produced and showrun by Monica Gil-Rodriguez. From Audacy Podcasts and CRE84U  Entertainment.

Follow now to get new episodes first — and drop your wildest Simpsons’ theory in a review for  a chance to be featured on our uniquely unique podcast, Simpsons Declassified.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in July of 2013, when Cameron Esposito, Kris Grey and Kevin Allison shared radically different stories of LGBT life in the early 2010’s. 

🎤Live Story: All the Rage by Kevin Allison

A man living in Kevin's neighborhood started screaming, "Faggot!" at Kevin whenever he was in eyeshot. Then one day the man switched from screaming to punching. 

keywords: gay, homosexual, lgbtqia, queer, faggot, violence, homophobia

🎤Radio Story: The Other by Kris Grey

Kris talks about how peculiar it was to be a trans man attending the various sex parties among the gay men on Fire Island, most of whom had never seen a vagina before. 

keywords: Hate crime, Street harassment, Growing up gay, internalized shame, transgender, Trans man, Queer nightlife, internalized stigma, cruising, genderqueer identity

🎤Live Story: Come Together by Cameron Esposito

The week that gay marriage was made legal throughout the land, Cameron told the moving story of her family's coming to grips with her being gay. 

keywords: civil rights, lesbian identity, Catholic upbringing and queerness, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ community spaces, coming out to Catholic parents, gender nonconformity, gay rights history

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York (Thursday, September 25th)

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Kevin Allison, Rachel Frost and Luke Oyler share stories about being wasteful. 

Live Story: The Pickles Pickle by Kevin Allison

Kevin flushes a jar of pickles down his brother's toilet while making his first student film in college and causes a plumbing issue, which becomes a story the Allison family retells for years to come.  

keywords: Pickle jar, brother, student film

🎤Live Story: The Inside Scoop by Rachel Frost

Trying to be a perfect girlfriend, Rachel hides her human bodily functions from her "rolling sixes" boyfriend, to the point where she scoops her own poop out of a toilet when it fails to flush.

keywords:  clogged toilet, perfect girlfriend, poop, embarassing

🎤Live Story: My Least Favorite Pants by Luke Oyler

Luke pursues his lifelong dream of shitting his pants while visiting friends in the cafeteria of their college. He succeeds and everyone at nearby tables can smell it, as he runs off outdoors shaking the shit out of his shorts. 

keywords: poop, pooping pants, shitting pants, performative pooping, pooping in public

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC September 25 or December 11, 2025

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Tori Weston revisits her story about surviving childhood sexual abuse from 2014 called “The Power” with Kevin Allison. Tori has many new insights eleven years later. You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

🎤Radio Story: The Power by Tori Weston

(Content note: child sexual abuse, suicidal ideation) At 12, going on 13, Tori was raped by her stepfather. When she came out about it, the situation pitted family member against family member. 

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (September 25 or December 11)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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