The Leaks of a 12 Year Old

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When I was reading your book, some of the stories were hard to digest pause for laughter there. There are parts that a 12 year old version of me would not have wanted to tell. And he leaks them by accident. You're kind of shot if you work with kids like that or you've been around them. One of the things you'll be note is sometimes they'll say the most horrific things in the most cavalier way.

Do the stories we tell about ourselves have the power to change us? Our guest today says they can.

To wrap up our season on meaning and purpose, we talk with author Daniel Nayeri. In his award-winning young adult novel, Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel writes from the perspective of his twelve-year-old self, sharing the story of how he, his sister, and his mother immigrated from Iran to Edmond, Oklahoma, after his mother’s conversion from Islam to Christianity. Although this immigration kept his family out of prison (or worse), life in the U.S. came at a cost, too. Through his storytelling, Daniel also processes what he left behind: his beloved stuffed animal ("Mr. Sheep Sheep"), a life of comfort in Iran, and his larger-than-life father.

In this episode, we explore finding meaning through storytelling, the impact of an active imagination, and how the sustaining hope of the Christian story makes even a refugee camp in the Italian countryside a place of opportunity and joy.