The Apple Seed

Assistant Producer Valerie Garofalo shares one of her favorite stories from teller Carol Birch about the legendary baseball player Lou Gehrig who played for the New York Yankees. Valerie also shares another story by North Carolina teller Donald Davis.

Today we're spotlighting Mexican teller Valentina Ortiz, who is known for her artful weaving of bilingual stories and songs. We'll hear some of those today. We'll also hear parts of a conversation we had with Valentina at the National Storytelling Network Summit in Kansas City. We end the episode with another Mexican tale from Leeny Del Seamonds.

Stories and snippets that we've adored from the week of September 24, 2018 to September 28, 2018. We're bringing you stories from Heather Forest, Bil Lepp, and part of an interview with Noa Baum about her book "A Land Twice Promised." These tidbits come from our episodes "Selkies," "Mischief Among Friends," and "Noa Baum & A Land Twice Promised," which can all be found in our online archive.

Friends and mischief are like peanut butter and jelly--they always seem to go together. In today’s episode, we’re sharing stories about the mischief we make with our friends, whether we’re pulling pranks on each other or on other people. You’ll hear stories from Adam Booth, Connie Regan-Blake, Bil Lepp, and from the entire Apple Seed team.

Noa Baum's book, A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace details the extraordinary changes in an Israeli woman, living in California, who makes an unlikely friend in a Palestinian neighbor. As the friendship deepens, deep notions of "otherness" are challenged. In the author's preface, she writes "I have never met anyone who was not in favor of peace." That's a great introduction to this episode of The Apple Seed, in which Sam chats at length with Noa about the personal experiences described in the book and on stage. All that, and a story about gefilte fish too!

Today's episode features stories about what it feels like to be a fish out of water- we're talking about selkies. Half seal and half woman, the selkies in this episode are all torn between two different worlds, but learn to love both. Today's stories from from tellers Sophie Snell, Mike Agranoff, Laura J. Bobrow, and Heather Forest.

Stories and snippets that we've adored from the week of September 17 2018 to September 21, 2018. You'll hear stories from Waddie Mitchell, Leeny Del Seamonds, Donald Davis, and Sam Payne. You'll also hear a conversation with BYU custodians, and an interview and story from Sheila Arnold Jones. These all come from our episodes "I Would Catch It," "Custodian Confessional," and "Sheila Arnold Jones," which you can find in our online archive.

Today's Episode Features

Stories from and interviews with Sheila Arnold Jones.

This episode is all about the unsung heroes of cleanliness: custodians. Although they often are overlooked, we really do owe them a lot. We'll bring you a story from Anthony Burcher about a 1st grade classroom disaster, another from Andy Offut Irwin about a phantom janitor, a conversation with BYU custodians, and finally, a story from Sam about his inspiring elementary school custodian.

Today’s episode is called, I Would Catch It, in reference to a scene from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy where Drax the Destroyer claims, “Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it." Not unlike Drax, we often find ourselves misinterpreting the world around us. We're sharing stories from Waddie Mitchell, Leeny Del Seamonds, Bill Gordh, Donald Davis, and Bill Lepp.