RISK!

Morgan revisits her story from 2012 called “Always A Woman” with Kevin Allison and considers how much has changed for trans folks in the 13 years since.  🎙️Radio Story: Always A Woman by Morgan A biker and ironworker has a lifelong secret. After a nearly life-ending accident, Morgan finally decides to transition from man to woman. The people in her life are amazed, but they adjust. keywords: LGBTQIA+ storyteller, Trans storyteller, transgender 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on December 11, 2025 • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inky Montaine tells Taj Easton about how, before he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, he truly felt like he might have come from another planet.  Check out all of our Conversation Stories! 🎙️Conversation Story: Pretending to Be Human by Inky Montaine Inky spent a lifetime switching masks but felt a certainty of unbelonging. Later in life, an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis didn't lead to yet another identity, but gave a name to the one he’s always had. keywords: ASD, autism, neurodivergent, youth gender identity, punk rock, outsider, alienated, superman obsession 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC ([November 11th) • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this captivating discussion, Brian Simpson, a stand-up comedian and former Marine, shares his harrowing story of serving in Kuwait during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He reveals the chilling reality of malfunctioning gas masks, with a staggering 50% deemed defective. As Simpson reflects on the absurdity of his biological attack drills and the dread of potential missile strikes, guest-host Ray Christian offers poignant insights and connects their military experiences. It's a raw, personal narrative that brings the weight of war into sharp focus.

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in August of 2013, when DC Pierson, Selena Coppock, Brad Lawrence and Nina Davis shared stories of love and loss. 🎙️Radio Story: Let Me Sleep On It by Brad Lawrence In his youth, Brad finds and loses love with a fellow bookstore employee. Later, after marrying someone else, he sees his feelings for his fellow employee were just a crush, and that real love allows for making mistakes.keywords: crushes, love, marriage, relationships, youth 🎤Live Story: In the Belly by DC Pierson As a nerdy virgin in high school, DC and his friend’s girlfriend become friends and have an affair in which he only kisses her stomach until eventually she goes down on him spontaneously and breaks up with her boyfriend.  keywords: teenage, high school, affair, sexual exploration, cheating, relationships, youth, virgins 🎙️Radio Story: Remember You Like a Child by Nina Davis At 14, Nina fell in love with a boy while on vacation. Decades later, she finally found him again. He’d been through homelessness and heroin addiction. Now, he was married with a child. keywords: long lost love, lost and found, reuniting, young love 🎤Live Story: Complete by Selena Coppock In her freshman year of college, Selena fell head over heels in love with a young man who had already graduated. It was never meant to be, but years later Selena got to share with him how much he’d meant to her. keywords: love, dating, college, recent graduate, reconnection, closure, support, self love, self belief, confidence, unrequited love 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on December 11, 2025 • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kevin hears Diane Weipert’s “The Living Room” story from Love and Radio for the first time and gives you his instant reactions. You can also watch this episode on YouTube! This is part of our RISK! Reacts series, where we listen to a story told on another show and give our first reactions. 🎙️ Story: The Living Room by Diane Weipert Through an unobstructed window, Diane observes the lives of a young couple in the apartment across the street, becoming a silent witness to their private moments, which become more and more profound.  keywords: voyeurism, neighbors, rear window, death 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York City on December 11, 2025 • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three of our favorite scary stories from Halloween specials of our past.  🎤Radio Story: The Thing by Thomas McKean When Thomas was a kid, he and a friend saw a shadowy oblong shape following them on a beach. Years later, he feels chained to his bed in the middle of the night when the same figure, then two more hover over him.  keywords: Paranormal encounter, Shadow figure,Beach sighting,Sleep paralysis,Night terrors,Childhood mystery,UFO-like entity,Supernatural experience 🎤Radio Story: Your Health and Your Soul by Erika Steigerwald As a psychiatric nurse, it’s out of Erika’s wheelhouse to accept that a patient is possessed by a demon, and yet… the series of inexplicable and terrifying phenomena she experienced with one patient made her a believer. keywords: Possession phenomenon,Haunted patient,Paranormal psychiatry,Demonic influence,Psychological horror,Supernatural events,Spiritual awakening,Mental health, spirits 🎤Radio Story: The Man in the Top Hat by Alan Weber Alan and his little brother saw a growling man in a top hat one night in their bedroom. Alan's brother was so haunted by the figure that he stabbed himself, and later at church, was hurled toward the altar against his volition.    keywords: Haunted figure,Top hat ghost,Nighttime apparition,Childhood trauma,Psychic disturbance,Spiritual haunting,Nightmares and visions,Supernatural horror 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC at Caveat on 12/11! • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our 17th annual Halloween special with scary true stories about ghosts, corpses and mortal danger.  🎤Radio Story: Do You Know My Name? by Robert Oakes Robert leads ghost tours, but unlike his father, he’s unsure he’s a believer. After his father dies, Robert’s tour of a haunted house is visited by paranormal investigators, who have him ask a question to the spirits there which reveal a family connection.  keywords: haunted house, paranormal investigation, EVP session, skeptic vs believer, Berkshire ghosts, Venford Hall, Edith Wharton, paranormal tourism 🎤Radio Story: A World of Corpses by Johanna Stein As a child Johanna faked all sorts of finding of dead bodies, until the day she discovered a very real one in the dark waters near her house.  keywords: Little kid, dead bodies, corpse, river 🎤Radio Story: Saint Andrew's Cross by Fixxy New to sex work in his late teens, Fixxy gets picked up by a guy who pays Fixxy to be tied up and tickled. Things start out as negotiated, but once Fixxy has been bound and blindfolded, things become terrifyingly nonconsensual. keywords: sex work, kink, consent, tickling fetish, fetish culture, BDSM, power dynamics 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on Dec 11th! • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in August of 2013, when Mather Zickel, Jen Curran, Joel Kim Booster and Julie Threlkeld told stories of times they crossed over the edge. 🎤Live Story: Waiting for the Man by Joel Kim Booster Joel would love to find a kinky Dom to write "Bitch" around his asshole. One night, he plays with a Dom who is a huge disappointment. keywords: Asian storyteller, gay, homosexual, lgbtqia, queer 🎤Live Story: Stop Thief by Jen Curran Jen confesses that she feels no guilt about stealing. In college, she stole thousands of dollars worth of text books and got caught. She had to imagine she had murdered someone in order to muster guilty enough sounding words of apology. keywords: theft, Guilt, Stealing, Honesty, Confession, coming-of-age, crime 🎤Live Story: You’ve Made Worm’s Meat of Me by Mather Zickel Young Mather’s leather-clad skateboarding nights in New York in the mid-90s end in a brutal street fight in a small Southern town, revealing the fleeting nature of toughness. keywords: 1990s, grunge, skateboarding, street fight, masculinity, rebellion, youth culture, small-town America 🎤Live Story: Snake/Mouse by Julie Threlkeld Growing up in a neighborhood filled with legends of 60s/70s rock and roll, pre-teen Julie became friends with the girlfriend of a member of the Jefferson Airplane at the same time that the Vietnam War kept taking her journalist father away from home. keywords: rock and roll, neighborhood legends, Jefferson Airplane, Vietnam War, music history, childhood, friendship, cultural nostalgia 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NY (December 11th) • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hannah Sussman and Swapna Deshpande tell stories about coming to terms with mortality.  🎤Anecdote: Another Conversation with my Dead Mother by Hannah Sussman Hannah reflects on her relationship with her deceased mother—waking from a dream, looking in the mirror and eventually coming to peace with her own aging.  keywords: mother daughter relationships, aging, grief 🎤Live Story: Each Other's Angels by Swapna Deshpande Dr. Swapna Deshpande recounts her experiences with a patient she befriended named 'John' at a trauma center. She practically saved his life on a couple of occasions, but grieved when he passed after she’d been on a brief vacation.  keywords: Doctor, Parkinson's, ICU, Coma 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC on Thursday, 12/11 • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in August of 2013, when Brad McMurran, Alicia Camden, and Sean Devereux told stories at the Norfolk Comedy Festival. 🎤Live Story: The Color Purple by Brad McMurran Brad’s first sexual experience goes wrong when an allergic reaction to spermicidal condoms sends him to the ER, where his mother discovers his purple-stained underwear. Keywords: teen angst, losing virginity, sex mishaps, allergies 🎤Live Story: Robble Robble by Alicia Camden After returning home broke and aimless, Alicia hopes Halloween plans with her best friend will cheer her. But a night dressed as the Hamburglar is humiliating, until Alicia finds the comedy in it.  keywords: Halloween costumes, costume parties 🎤Live Story: Train du Matin by Sean Devereux Sean dates a girl who he only sees when they are both drunk till he realizes they have nothing in common. To his bewilderment, she tries to convince him to stay by playing a French version of "Morning Train."  keywords: drunk love, mismatched couples 🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved • 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (12/11/25) • ✍️ 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 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices