RISK!

Two storytellers, two very different ways of inheriting the past.

Shauna McGarry throws a Halloween party with her newly single roommate, hoping for a fresh start after a breakup. A drunk coworker zeroes in on the roommate, her little brother in a Charlie Brown shirt enters the mix, and the night expands into something Shauna has been watching her whole life: the strange, exhausting game of male presumption that nobody asked to play.

(Content note: Holocaust, genocide)

David Zellnik arrived in Vienna for the first time as a dual US-Austrian citizen, his father having fled the city as a Jewish child in 1939. At a food festival, he ends up in a charged, flirtatious conversation with a tall blond Jewish convert that spins into a debate about Israel, Zionism, and who gets to claim a people's history.

Share your reactions and find episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/patreon-picks-6

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Originally recorded live at NYC Podfest in January 2014, this is one of those classic RISK! episodes where the theme, confession, actually delivers on its promise.

Kevin Allison opens with a story he has told for years, then stops midway to admit he has been leaving out the best part. What he adds reframes everything.

Alex Edelman turns a power strip at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport into a secret-collecting operation, until a soldier from Ramstein Air Force Base shares something that neither of them can easily walk away from.

Chemda recounts her first time getting high, which escalated from bong novice to shirtless Hulk impersonation to improvised superhero capes, and ended face-first in a party-size snack mix.

Keith Malley spent months in a baffling odyssey through free clinics and baffled physicians over a rash that ultimately resolved without medical intervention.

Selena Coppock traces her lifelong suspicion of genuinely nice men back to a seventh-grade ski trip, then confesses to acting on that suspicion in a way she is not proud of.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/live-from-nyc-podfest-2014-cre514 

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Two stories about what the body holds onto and what it eventually gives back.

Ali Mac took a job in crypto after two years of Nazi death threats courtesy of Fox News. At the Miami Bitcoin Conference in 2022, she finds herself escorting her boss down a hallway and comes face to face with Tucker Carlson, broadcasting live, sitting very low, blissfully unaware of what is about to happen to him.

(Content note: death of a partner)

Gordon Blitz had been with his partner Scott since 1973, through an informal wedding, years of infidelity Gordon never told anyone about, and the terrifying early years of the AIDS crisis. "Bonded" follows Gordon through an HIV test, a week of waiting, and the long, complicated road of caring for the man who put him at risk.

Leave your reactions and find episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/what-the-body-keeps

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Two mothers' days that look nothing alike, but hit just as hard.

Jobim Santos grew up watching his mother Linda lose her battle with ALS piece by piece, from cane to wheelchair to hospice bed, all while praying at church each week that she would just live long enough to see him turn 13. She didn't quite make it. What he didn't expect was that grief would take another 13 years to fully arrive.

(Content note: domestic violence, murder)

Amy Brooks got a phone call one Monday morning about a blue-eyed three-year-old whose father had killed his mother. She said yes before the social worker finished the sentence. What followed was two and a half years in court while raising a child whose trauma was showing up in holes in the walls and phone calls from the police.

For more info and music featured in this episode, visit risk-show.com/podcast/the-best-of-mothers-day-stories-4 

And you can find all of our Mother's Day Stories at risk-show.com/mothersdaystories 

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This episode brings together two of the most gripping conversations in the show's recent run: a man who survived an extended stint in a Philippine jail on fabricated charges, and a medical student whose addiction and grief turned out to be more entangled than she had ever let herself understand.

(Content note: accusations of sexual assault, child abuse, false imprisonment)

Scott McMahon went to Manila for a construction job, ended up befriending a Belgian neighbor, and got pulled into a nightmare when that neighbor's wife turned the Philippine justice system against him. What followed was five and a half years in a maximum-security cell with 300 men, corrupt cops showing up every six weeks with a cash demand, and a family he could only see through a chain-link fence. It is one of the most staggering survival accounts this show has ever aired.

(Content note: addiction, overdose death)

Chelsea Dalsey was a medical student with a photographic memory, a habit she couldn't shake, and a lifelong partner in crime named Alex. Her conversation with Kevin Allison is part confession, part excavation, arriving at a truth she had spent 14 years burying alive.

Leave your reactions to these stories and find episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/the-best-of-risk-35 

You can find all of our Best of RISK! episodes at risk-show.com/bestofrisk

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From the RISK! archives, this January 2014 episode gathers three storytellers around a theme that sounds simple and turns out not to be: actually being okay with yourself.

Joel Kim Booster grew up as a gay Korean adoptee in an evangelical family, and it wasn't until he fell for a man who specifically desired him because of his race that he realized how thoroughly someone else's rejection had shaped his sense of his own worth.

Dylan Brody has been performing the postmortem on his own victories since fifth grade, and it took competing in a full-contact TaeKwondo tournament at 41, with blood running down his face, to get a piece of advice he hadn't been able to give himself.

Jolenta Greenberg built an entire adolescent identity around the belief that she was a diamond in the rough, and her high school crush Brian eventually put that idea to the test.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/im-okay-youre-okay-cre513 

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Guest-hosted this week by Taj Easton, stepping in for Kevin to present a story by LeCount Holmes Jr., now Taj’s surrogate pops.

(Content note: explicit sexual activity involving a minor)

LeCount Holmes Jr. grew up with a father who told him he loved him, hugged him, cried in front of him, and believed that teaching his son how to love a woman was one of the most sacred things a father could do. This is the story of that education, of what was passed down through three generations of loving men, and one of the most unusual love stories RISK! has ever told. 

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/pop-obies-vibrator 

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Two RISK! stories pulled from the archive, and both are worth your time. "The Best of Adventure Stories #3" is funny and unsettling in equal measure, sometimes within the same story.

Winter Tashlin was 16 years old, at a Jewish summer camp in New York, and desperately wanted one good day. The plan was the Empire State Building and a performance of Les Mis. He has Tourette syndrome, the city is unforgiving, and the day keeps getting worse.

Meanwhile, Marshall York drove solo across the American West, pitched a tent alone in the Grand Tetons, and went to sleep. Sometime in the night, a voice started speaking to him from inside the tent, calm and close and saying something he could not explain.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/the-best-of-adventure-stories-3

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This episode is a love letter to people who are magnificently, irrepressibly, sometimes accidentally weird.

Larry Dorsey Jr. opens with the true account of his first day teaching standup comedy at Northern California's top improv venue. He has TAs, a curriculum, a strategy. None of it survives contact with a visibly high student who, roughly fifteen minutes into class, pulls out his ding-dong and just starts going, putting Larry in an impossible position. And Tuesday Thomas moves to LA fresh from a divorce, meets Alexis Arquette within her first week, and ends up at a film premiere with Danny Elfman, where she personally escorts a legless, increasingly volatile Susan Tyrrell down Hollywood Boulevard in stiletto heels on a Friday night. She thought she had finally made it in Hollywood. And in a way, she had

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/weirdos 

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Think you've heard it all? You haven't.

People pull over because they're laughing too hard to drive. People cry on treadmills. People share episodes with new friends thinking: if this person loves these stories as much as I do, they're my people. That's RISK! — the show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share. RISK! has been the world's most surprising, most human, most unfiltered storytelling podcast for nearly 17 years. Created and hosted by Kevin Allison (The State on MTV), new stories every Tuesday, classics every Thursday. Much more at risk-show.com.

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JP Michael first told "A Hard Landing" on RISK! in the summer of 2016, and it became one of the most talked-about episodes in the show's history. Now, a decade later, he's back with Kevin Allison to listen to it together and reckon with everything that's happened since.

(Content note: self-harm, suicidal ideation)

The original story follows JP shortly after he relocated to New York City for a job that quickly fell apart, leaving him isolated and adrift. He meets Claire, a razor-sharp, deeply perceptive woman who becomes his anchor in the city, and when she develops a mysterious and terrifying illness, JP steps up as her primary caregiver. What unfolds over the following months is almost impossible to believe.

In the conversation that follows, JP reflects on the three-year gap between the events and telling the story, the therapy that helped him finally make sense of it, and a stunning new development: he recently tracked down one of the story's key figures and got answers he'd been missing for thirteen years.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/a-hard-landing-revisited 

And check out all of our Revisited Stories!

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Bad Medicine brings together three storytellers whose bodies, doctors, and circumstances all conspire against them in very different ways.

Pam Stepansky throws out her back on a spin bike, ends up bedridden at her father's apartment, and asks him to do something she never imagined asking any parent to do. What follows is a five-day hospital stay where she's dosed with narcotics she explicitly refused, and a long recovery that forces her to finally reckon with who she wants to be.

Brad Lawrence walks himself to the ER after gaining 25 pounds in five days and charms an entire floor of doctors and nurses into basically hanging out with him. Then his wife shows up to get shit done. Kevin Allison takes his first trip to San Francisco in 1993 with his best friend, buys three doses of surprisingly potent acid from someone who looks a lot like Jesus, and things escalate from there.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/bad-medicine 

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Two RISK! veterans deliver stories about plans that—you guessed it—backfired.

As a teenager Nate Runkel built a satirical website that sexualized cartoon characters as a parody of how guys talk online. It got a million views, landed in Complex Magazine and a Maureen Dowd book, and earned him more attention than he ever wanted. The people he respected weren't laughing.

(Content note: conversion therapy) And Kelli Dunham’s story is set in the sweaty, armadillo-haunted wilds of an evangelical Florida summer camp. She was there by her own choice, fundraised her own way in, and came home proud, convinced for the next 20 years that the whole adventure was entirely her idea. It wasn't.

Two stories about getting exactly what you didn't ask for. Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/backfire 

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For the first time, we’re putting a Best of RISK! episode back on the feed. Originally released in July 2017, #12 remains one of the most epic compilations of RISK! stories ever: it’s funny, filthy, tender, and at times almost unbearably real, sometimes all at once.

Richard Cardillo spent 14 years in a Catholic monastery before leaving his vows and landing in Lima, Peru, newly out and profoundly inexperienced, with a very steep learning curve ahead of him, while Michelle Buteau takes on a brain tumor, IVF, internet trolling, and multiple heartbreaks without ever losing her grip on the absurdity of it all.

(Content note on these two, for physical abuse, child sexual abuse, animal abuse)

Moloch Masters maps the darkness running through her family tree, from great-grandfather to father to herself, and what she found hiding in a closet she was never supposed to enter. And Tim C. spent 17 years conducting human trafficking and child sex slavery investigations. This is one case he will never forget.

Pollo Corral tells the story of being held hostage by a Juarez cartel for nearly 40 days, and what his father gave up to bring him home. And in the middle of it all, Kevin Allison goes to a secret all-male kink camp alone and anxious, which turns out to be exactly the wrong and right place for a lesson about fear.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/the-Best-of-risk-12-cre842 

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(Content note: sexual assault, justifiable homicide)

Annie Carnrike spent years close to her cousin Michael, a man of fierce loyalty and an equally fierce temper. When he showed up at her home one Thanksgiving night, drunk and out of control, what began as a familiar crisis turned into a fight for her life.

What Annie faced that night was devastating enough. What came after was its own ordeal: arrested, charged with first-degree murder, and placed in a men's maximum-security prison as a transgender woman. The case against her was built not on evidence but on bias. Her story is one of the most remarkable RISK! has ever featured.

Help support Annie on Go Fund Me

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/into-the-moving-dark 

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🎟 See RISK! live⁠ at Caveat in NYC on June 9th, 2026

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This is a classic RISK! episode from January 2014, and it holds up with a particular kind of ferocity.

(Content note: sexual assault)

Ellie Jackson spent 12 years convincing herself she had moved on from being raped at a college party her freshman year. She'd built a careful system for managing intimacy, or avoiding it, and mostly it held. Then a routine visit to Planned Parenthood, a persistent social worker, and an accidental encounter with a Crest commercial undid all of it at once.

(Content note: physical abuse, domestic violence, child abuse)

Liz Stewart grew up with a sociopathic father and a paranoid schizophrenic mother who once pinned her to the floor to perform a homemade exorcism. She had boxed for eight years and never once hit back. Until she did.

Two stories. Both women fought back.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/fighting-back-cre515 

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Three stories so worth your time, from darkly funny to devastating. Our 34th compilation of some of our favorite recent stories shared on the podcast.

(Content note: sexual assault) Fixxy starts a summer in Pittsburgh doing sex work for quick cash before a move to New York City. One night a client seems different, with an unusually easy request and a ride out to the suburbs. Things escalate in ways Fixxy never anticipated, leading to one of the more genuinely terrifying stories we’ve ever aired. In a completely different vibe, Kevin Allison tells the family legend he’ll never live down: a Super 8 film project, a borrowed jar of jumbo pickles, and an ADHD brain running out of options with the clock ticking.

(Content note: child abuse, death) Then there’s Mishelle Roberts, who grew up believing her mother was a devoted caregiver. Years later, she started finding records, asking questions, and pulling at threads that had held her family's story together her entire life. Mishelle’s story was also the focus of Season Six of Nobody Should Believe Me.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/the-best-of-risk-34

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Three stories about snap decisions and what happens next: a classic RISK! episode from December 2013 that still hits hard.

Lauren Cook found her date for a stranger's New Jersey wedding on Craigslist Casual Encounters. She showed up with a fake identity, a room full of people who knew nothing about her, and a night that kept escalating in directions she did not plan for.

(Content note: gun violence)

JJ grew up in 1980s Bushwick, Brooklyn, fought his way into Wesleyan and then Wall Street, but one afternoon a neighborhood confrontation pulled him back to a version of himself he thought he had left behind. He came very close to throwing everything away.

Daniel Lobell sank $2,000 into a hairless cat as the foundation of a breeding empire. When the cat ended up at a friend's apartment and she stopped returning his calls, his plan to get it back got increasingly creative.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/impulsive-cre510

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Kevin hears Timothy Vaux's "Males of the City," a story from So Say We All, for the first time. In RISK! Reacts episodes, there's no preview, no prep, just Kevin listening along with you and sharing everything the story brings to his mind.

The story: Timothy is a happily single gay man living in the heart of North Park, San Diego, where a buzzy Saturday night out ends with a casual wave to a stranger that sets off a chain of spontaneous, increasingly elaborate, and very adult events.

The reaction: Kevin is instantly charmed, finding echoes of his own younger self in Timothy's freewheeling urban adventures. He shares his own surprisingly relatable stories about role play, improv, and the particular chaos of letting a night take you wherever it wants to go.

For more info and music featured in this episode, visit risk-show.com/podcast/males-of-the-city-risk-reacts 

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True Crime News: The Podcast is your weekly dose of real-time updates on the most gripping true crime stories, current cases, investigations, scams, and schemes. Host Ana Garcia is joined by crime experts, police officers, defense attorneys, and other leading authorities in their fields as they cover murders, scams, investigations, and unsolved crimes from across the country. Join us each week as we take you inside the biggest, most shocking, and most bizarre true crime cases.

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First released in December 2013, this live RISK! episode from Philadelphia's First Person Arts pairs two storytellers with a lot to say about losing control and getting it back.

Dawn Jewel Fraser's "Brasilado" follows a young American woman deep into an immersive year in Rio de Janeiro, learning Portuguese street by street from her chain-smoking instructor Marcy, until a late-night taxi ride home unravels spectacularly when Brazilian police find weed in her bag and mistake her for a drug trafficker.

Then Katie Samson tells "The First Time Again," the story of rebuilding a romantic and sexual life after a sledding accident left her with a spinal cord injury at 20. Her homecoming weekend story is tender, funny, and genuinely triumphant.

Two women, two very different roads back to freedom.

Full episode details and music credits at risk-show.com/podcast/live-from-philly-4-cre509 

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(Content note: child sexual abuse)

In 2016, Ed G. got on stage at RISK! and told a story he'd never told anyone. Now, ten years later, Ophira Eisenberg sits down with him to go places that story couldn't: the FBI, the Pope, the survivors who found each other decades later, and the hard-won question of where shame really belongs.

Ed's story begins in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where a boy abandoned by his violent father and drowning in poverty finds an unlikely lifeline in the local Catholic church. What the bishop who runs it asks for in return will take Ed the better part of a lifetime to fully reckon with.

🎶For more info and music featured in this episode, visit risk-show.com/podcast/quid-pro-quo-revisited 

Support RISK! & Get Involved

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In this crossover episode with The Story Collider, Karen McCaffrey and Mary Cyn share stories that illustrate the importance of compassion in healthcare.

🎤Live Story: More than Survival by Karen McCaffrey

(Content note: sexual assault, rape) After surviving rape and a traumatic hospital experience afterward, Karen transformed her pain into purpose. Decades later, she directed a sexual assault forensic examiner program, advocating for victims' rights and ensuring survivors receive trauma-informed care.

🎤Live Story: My Vagina Job by Mary Cyn

Drawing on her own traumatic experiences with dismissive care, Mary transforms vulnerability into a tool for empathy, helping future doctors treat patients with compassion and helping women feel less fear and isolation about their bodies

🎶For more info and songs featured in this episode, visit risk-show.com/podcast/where-it-hurts

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🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York City on March 16th, 2026

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Michael McFadden and Adrianne Frost share stories about evolving feelings about their bodies over time. 

🎙️Radio Story: Growth by Michael McFadden

Michael is a child swimming prodigy trapped in a grown man’s body who fails a humiliating puberty test, loses his athletic destiny, and ultimately redefines masculinity and self-worth beyond the pool and beyond his penis size.

🎤Live Story: Smoochin' and Fiddlin' by Adrianne Frost

(Content note: child sexual abuse, self-harm) After surviving childhood sexual abuse and years of debilitating endometriosis, Adrianne equates beauty with value and spirals through painful sex and self-harm before discovering lasting love on new terms.

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Byron Bowers and Amy Salloway share experiences from their formative years. A part of The Best of Coming of Age Stories series.

🎤🎙️💻Live Story: My Father's Son by Byron Bowers

At 10, Byron goes to visit his dad's crack-addicted father near the projects. Four years later, Byron is selling crack, and he breaks down, wondering how he let his life become like his father’s.

🎤Live Story: Sister Act by Amy Salloway

Amy understands as a child that her relationship with her mother isn’t loving. When her half-sister is born, her mom casts Abbie as the angel to Amy’s devil. Even the cleaning lady says Abbie is the reincarnation of Anne Frank. 

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Ria Spencer, Mindy Myers and Josh Connors share stories about learning to feel at home in your body.

🎤Live Story: The Only Girl by Ria Spencer

Six-year-old Ria is diagnosed with severe cradle cap and must enter an all-male Arkansas barbershop to have her beloved locks shaved. It might have been traumatic, but the men were supportive and encouraging. 

🎙️Radio Story: Ample Package by Mindy Myers

Mindy orders therapeutic vaginal stretching dildos. When the package goes missing, she discovers one—nicknamed "The Rock"—was mistakenly delivered to a children's cooking class, where a student innocently used it as a mixing tool and taste-tested the sauce.

🎤Live Story: Butt Plug Inferno by Josh Connors

Josh falls for Damien, an HIV-positive guy. After a panicked butt-plug-burning incident forces honesty about his fears and desires, they eventually build a trusting, loving relationship that lasts a decade.

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in November of 2013, when Kitty Hailey, Christine Lee and Josh Healey share stories of surprising family situations.

🎤🎙️💻Live Story: Rollin’ With Grandma by Josh Healey

Josh's Grandma-in-law gets a pinched nerve and requires medical marijuana. The hilarity ensues of him buying pot for this little old lady and helping her to smoke it.

🎤🎙️💻Radio Story: Two Bowls by Christine Lee

Christine gets the rare and risky opportunity to visit her family in North Korea. When she sees the poverty, the graciousness and the extremely sheltered worldview that her family members live with, it breaks her heart. 

🎤🎙️💻Live Story: It’s All Happening at the Zoo by Kitty Hailey

Kitty falls in love with a brilliant man who is overcome by a neurological disorder that renders him something more like a 7-year old. When visiting the zoo, he yells out that the gorillas are fucking, causing a scene.

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Emma Yarbrough and Joel Gonzalez share stories about learning and growing from hard times.

🎤Live Story: Searching for Blue Sky by Emma Yarbrough

Emma believes an intruder has broken in her home but it’s a false alarm. It triggers memories of her PTSD following the murder of her beloved Aunt Day. Emma cherishes her aunt’s memory and is stronger for it. 

🎙️Radio Story: Keeping Us Safe by Joel Gonzalez

Joel is working a grocery store job during the pandemic and is in charge of enforcing the mask mandate. Joel has a sick wife at home and becomes overly obsessed with people not cooperating but then starts to calm down. 

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in November of 2013, when students from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design shared true stories at a RISK! live show on campus.

🎤Live Story: Over the Limit by David Jacobs

As a kid, it took David a while to realize he had anger management problems. After a few unfortunate outbursts, a therapist helped him get a hold of himself.

🎤Live Story: Street Smarts by Hania Ansari

Hania is held at gunpoint during a robbery attempt in Pakistan. She offers her TI-89 calculator. The robber asks her to teach him how to use it, revealing his educational background. He leaves without taking anything.

🎤Live Story: As Three by D.H.

In college, D.H. found herself in a happy three-person relationship. But like so many college relationships, it had to end.

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David Zellnik tells Kevin Allison about a moment of sexual liberation in a dark back room at a gay bar in the early 90s. Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

🎙️Conversation Story: Allowed to Look by David Zellnik

David has a transformative night at a gay bar in the early 90s, during the ongoing AIDS crisis. It felt risky but it also helped him to feel more visible and confident in his identity, changing his perspective on sexual relations.

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Reba Sparrow and Smith Galtney share some of our favorite unusual love stories from our 16-year history.

🎙️LIVE Story: Pleasant Mountain by Smith Galtney

Smith had the perfect husband, house and home... till he returned to the crystal meth habit of his younger years. His husband was able to support Smith in getting to rehab and putting his life back together again.

🎙️LIVE Story: Baby Love by Reba Sparrow

Reba has a history of body shame. She’d always felt her breasts weren't big enough. When she met a boyfriend who wanted to role play that he was her baby breastfeeding from her, she was horrified... until they tried.

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Connor O’Donoghue, JC Cassis and Jay Michel share stories about crushes and rebounds. 

🎙️Radio Story: I Was the Appetizer by Connor O'Donoghue

A virgin with body shame issues, Connor falls for a straight guy he befriends in a psych hospital. He has a threesome with his crush and a girl, knowing the guy is only into the girl. Decades later, Connor sheds his sexual anxiety. 

🎤Live Story: Never Again by JC Cassis

JC gets a crush on Bobby, a glamorous classmate, and tells him about it. Bobby rejects her politely,  but when she says, "Let me know if you ever change your mind," with a joking tone, he says, "I'm never gonna change my mind," leaving JC wounded. 

🎤Live Story: Ready for Asking by Jay Michel

Jay joined the military to try to seem straight. He has a nerve wracking hookup on campus, but later has his first magical gay club experience with the guy, falling in love in a flash while kissing… then witnessing the guy hooking up with others moments later. 

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years when Brian Finkelstein, Carrie Wade and Matt Oberg told true stories at the live RISK! show for the 2013 LA Storytelling Festival.

🎤Live Story: She and I by Brian Finkelstein

(Content note: miscarriage, suicidal ideation) Brian’s anxiety around marriage and fatherhood lead to a panic attack at a grocery store just before he learns his wife is pregnant… shortly before he learns of a miscarriage. 

🎤Live Story: Power In It by Carrie Wade

Carrie describes how her cerebral palsy affects sex, desire, and pain tolerance. She discovers through a BDSM experience that the very traits she was taught to hide are the source of her sexual confidence and power. 

🎤Live Story: The New Normal by Matt Oberg

With OCD tendencies, Matt strives to seem normal. A disastrous attempt at seduction involving a hidden collection of fingernail clippings leads him to realize honesty matters more than normalcy.

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Ezra Holmlund and Sarah Adelman tell stories about things involving coming... and going. 

🎤Live Story: Things Are Going South by Ezra Holmlund

Ezra and his brother are at home when they begin to suspect a stranger has broken into their house upstairs. When the police arrive, the two brothers are mistaken for being the criminals.

🎤Live Story: The Long And Winding Road (To Semen Analysis) by Sarah Adelman

Sarah is working at a sperm bank but loses her job after the HR department discovers her stand up comedy material is based off her work, forcing her to abandon a rigid life plan and choose an unpredictable creative path.

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In memory of Jan Scott-Frazier, we revisit her 2011 story called “The Riverside” and, until now unreleased, her conversation about the story in 2021 with narrative therapist David Newman. 

00:00 Introduction

01:34 The Riverside by Jan Scott-Frazier

(Content note: suicide) At 22, Jan moved to Japan, but was lonely, as foreigners often feel. She began to notice a woman who visited the same river she did, who was even more depressed. Jan strategized how to comfort this stranger, but was too late, discovering from the newspapers that the woman took her own life. 

15:49 Discussion: Jan Scott-Frazier & David Newman

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Stella Mayerhoff and Rebecca Heron tell stories about the unbearable weight of truth.

🎙️Radio Story: In Ways I Never Could Have Imagined by Stella Mayerhoff

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, out in the field studying bonobos, Stella has to get a local man back home by lying to him, saying his baby is sick, when in fact, his baby has already died.

Keywords: Congo field research, bonobos, primatology, grief in the jungle, moral dilemma, scientific fieldwork, malaria loss, human conflict abroad

💻Workshop Story: Unfolding by Rebecca Heron

(Content note: sexual assault, emotional abuse, child sexual abuse.) In a Zoom session for Kevin’s online storytelling workshop, Rebecca considers how her uncle, a victim of child sexual abuse never shared his story and she feels holding that in killed him, so she shares her own story of her own survival of sexual abuse. 

Keywords: trauma memory, dissociation, childhood coping, sexual assault survival, storytelling workshop, inherited pain, silence and disclosure

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in October of 2013, when Janine Latus, Scott Whitney and Dan Telfer told stories about brushes with madness that left scars.

🎙️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.

Check out our “Revelations, Revisited” episode, where Scott talked to Kevin about his then 12-year-old story.

🎤Live Story: Boots on the Ground by Dan Telfer

(Content note: suicide, suicidal ideation) After his brother’s suicide, a grieving young man channels despair into obsessive protest attendance until a police kettle triggers a panic-driven flight that forces him to confront his own paralysis and fear.

🎙️Radio Story: If I Am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus

(Content note: murder, domestic violence) Janine's sister is murdered by an abusive boyfriend. In retrospect, there were too many signs witnessed by too many people who knew the victim and her killer, but no one was sharing the story.

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Shem, Nonye Brown-West and JC Cassis share stories of sexual discoveries.

🎤Live Story: Shem's Guide to Sexuality by Shem

As a joke, young Shem's frenemy gives him a sexy book, but it's a feminist book and he learns less about eroticism and more about the emotional needs of middle aged American women. 

🎤Live Anecdote: The Joy of Toes by JC Cassis

JC marvels at the outsized role that men’s big toes seem to play in that legendary guide to love making from the ‘70s, The Joy of Sex.

🎤Live Story: When I Came To by Nonye Brown-West

After a long history of medical trauma, Nonye is diagnosed with colon cancer. It is scary but eventually she is grateful she got her early diagnosis, and it all ends with her having an orgasm while getting a colonoscopy.  

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in October of 2013, when Stephanie Douglass, Shannon Cason, Lily Be and Jim Padar were at our very first show in that toddlin’ town.

🎤Live Story: You Don’t Know Jack? by Stephanie Douglass

A high school erupts in laughter over a mysterious name on the morning announcements, sending a well-meaning teacher on a frantic mission to protect a bullied student who, disastrously, does not exist.

🎤Live Story: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by Shannon CasonAfter obsessing over penis size and attempting a risky DIY “enhancement,” a man temporarily loses sexual function, panics through days of humiliation, and learns the terrifying medical reason behind his self-inflicted scare.

🎤Live Story: The Great Detective by Lily Be

Lily learns the reason her mom threw her dad out was that her mom once took on the role of private detective and hid in a car while her husband and his mistress had sex in it.

🎤Live Story: Dressing the Wound by Jim Padar

(Content note: fatal injury) A homicide detective in the ‘70s, Jim saved a dying boy by keeping his hand on the neck wound. The boy’s parents thanked him for giving them a chance to say goodbye.

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Ms. Aishia tells Cyndi Freeman about the time she navigated a complex, emotionally abusive relationship, and ultimately found the strength to prioritize her own happiness and independence. You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

Conversation Story: Create My Life by Ms. Aishia

EDITOR’S SYNOPSIS: After leaving an abusive relationship, Ms. Aishia enters an intense, largely virtual romance that slowly destabilizes her sense of self, leading her to sever ties, confront emotional dependency, and ultimately rebuild her life through radical change and solo travel.

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There’s nothing but laughs in our Funny Stuff compilations of classic RISK! stories on the lighter side. This week, Kumail Nanjiani and Alecia Altstaetter share about penile injuries and barf boats. 

🎤Live Story: Pure Fuckmachine by Kumail Nanjiani

Kumail learns how to masturbate and is so excited that he zips his pants too quickly afterward and cuts his penis on the zipper.

🎤Live Story: That New Ship Smell by Alecia Altstaetter

Alecia and her husband decide to take the kids on the high speed car ferry across Lake Michigan. A huge storm breaks out. The family ends up in the hospital covered in blood, urine, vomit and lake water by the end of the fiasco.

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Michael J Bennett and Jessica Piscitelli Robinson tell holiday stories that are new, true and kinda blue.  

🎙️Radio Story: Santa's Revenge by Michael J Bennett

Michael is a shopping mall Santa when his worst teacher from High School comes in with his kid. The rule of a store Santa is make no big promises the parents have to fulfill. Michael promises this kid the moon and a pony.

🎙️Radio Story: A Mom-Made Christmas by Jessica Piscitelli Robinson

Jessica is a teen when her mom has a stroke right before Christmas. Her mom was the end all be all of making Christmas magical throughout Jessica’s life. But this holiday, the miracle was simply being able to bring mom home on Christmas Day.

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Kevin announces RISK!’s goal this year -- helping listeners connect. More social events, more online fun, and Kevin’s latest online storytelling workshops. One starts on Jan 14, one on Feb 15. Email kevin@risk-show.com to jump on in!

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in September of 2013, when Kevin Allison, Jen Bosworth, Donna Steele and Dare Campbell all shared stories of humiliation.

🎤Radio Story: Mother’s Little Helper by Donna Steele

(Content note: poop) Donna’s mother has a strange habit of pooping in public. On this occasion, it’s into a McDonald’s coke cup in a mall dressing room. Donna is in awe of her mom’s nonchalance. 

🎤Live Story: The Hustler by Kevin Allison

In his early 20s, Kevin goes to a hustler bar to try to raise money for that month's rent. But despite following a friend's "7 Laws of Successful Whoring," his first attempt is a comedy of errors.

🎤Radio Story: We Could Do a Million Other Things by Dare Campbell

A BDSM date with a stranger abruptly derails when Dare’s partner forgets erectile-dysfunction medication, and flees. Dare learns to assure partners that sexual performance is unnecessary. There’s many ways to have erotic fun.

🎤Live Story: Job Satisfaction in Paraguay? by Jen Bosworth-Ramirez

Jen’s mother suggests she take a journey to Paraguay. There, Jen is robbed and then nearly sold into sex slavery, but she fakes insanity by peeing all over herself and gets away.

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JC Cassis, David Crabb and Cyndi Freeman share stories at RISK! live shows when they were hosting

🎤Live Story: Not That Casual by JC Cassis

As a young woman, JC is excited to go to a wild NYE party. A hot guy dances with her as if he's a middle school boy. She says he can be more casual. He takes out his dick and grinds on her. She tells him “Not THAT casual.”

🎤Live Story: Kitchen Nightmares! by David Crabb

After moving to LA, David invites new friends to try one of the few restaurants in his neighborhood open late, only to discover they’ve wandered into a real-life Kitchen Nightmares episode, the most chaotic restaurant ever. 

🎤Livestream Story: Tipping Points by Cyndi Freeman

Cyndi's new boyfriend seems to be a dream boat. Jealous over her getting a big tip at her new bar job, his misogyny shows. Cyndi decides to dump him, whereas in the past, she had stayed too long with toxic people. 

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Every holiday season, RISK! fans ask about this small handful of yuletide perennial favorites. Well here they all are, wrapped up in one neat package with a bow. Unwrap and enjoy these stories from Elna Baker, Kevin Allison, Sarah Long Hendershot, and Kate Bohl.

🎤Live Story: For the Love of Nubbins by Elna Baker

Selling expensive, real-looking baby dolls for the holiday season at FAO Schwartz, Elna “adopts” an unpopular one she calls Nubbins, a Black babydoll. When the doll is bought, Elna grieves.

🎤Radio Story: The Allison Family Christmas Tree by Kevin Allison

Inspired by a Charlie Brown Christmas, Kevin’s dad begins a Christmas Tree procuring tradition in the early 70s that gets more complex and includes more people each year, featuring long distance travel, the Catholic Mass, and dirty diapers. 

🎤Radio Story: The Present by Sarah Long Hendershot

During a brutally cold winter, Sarah was a single mother with an 11-year old son, but she was out of work and on the verge of going homeless. Then a present arrived. A box filled with money. It was a fellow musician who suspected she might need it. 

🎤Radio Story: Snowglobe by Kate (neé Kevin) Bohl

Kate (at the time, Kevin) is locking up her bar as a blizzard begins. A beautiful young woman begs to come in for a moment to gather her bearings before figuring out how to get home. They slow dance to Billie Holiday

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Ty Gentile, James Rana, and David Hu share yuletide tales about Christmas carols, unorthodox Santas, and of course, excretory health in our annual winter holidays special for 2025.

🎙️Radio Story: A Very Moving Christmas by David Hu

David’s dad has Alzheimer’s. David always struggled to understand how to give and receive love from his immigrant father. But when he buys his dad dearly needed laxatives for Xmas, it’s a touching moment of bonding. 

🎙️Radio Story: The Widow’s Song by Ty Gentile

Struggling with homesickness, Ty gets a gig working as a Christmas elf in costume. He is surprised to find himself crying when an old widow breaks the tension in the crowd by breaking into song singing a Christmas carol. 

🎙️Radio Story: Alternative Santa by James Rana

James gets a gig as a Santa and, in spite of being dark-skinned with a Muslim surname, he takes it and likes it. Then he’s asked to do a party for Kellyanne Conway (of the Trump administration) and is conflicted.

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in December of 2013, when Alex Edelman, Jude Treder-Wolff and Danielle Kramer all shared Yuletide tales. 

🎤Live Story: Oy to the World by Alex Edelman

In the story that eventually became his Broadway show and HBO special “Just For Us,” Alex shares how, in his childhood, his Orthodox Jewish family hosting Christmas to comfort a lonely friend led to life lessons. 

🎤Radio Story: Winter Storm by Jude Treder-Wolff

Driving home for Christmas in a massive blizzard, Jude and her sister get into a huge fight in the car. Jude is going to reveal to the family that she’s leaving the country for a while and everyone is upset about it.

🎤Live Story: To Kids from 1 to 92 by Danielle Kramer

A rebellious teen, Danielle despises Christmas, but after moving away and experiencing the loss of her grandfather and father, she comes to cherish family traditions, realizing the love her parents put into the holidays.

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Nikki Bailey and Hana Nobel share stories about how messy things can get with food and sex, with guest host, Taj Easton.

🎤Live Story: That's Not Sexy, Baby by Nikki Bailey

For Nikki, her hookup’s praise of her body is a boost to her self esteem. But when her digestive system acts up, she must become downright defiant about self-acceptance.

keywords: Plus Sized Dating, Self-Acceptance, Queer, Body Positivity, BoPo, Self-Worth, Body Acceptance, Empowerment, Mr. Big, Sex and the City, Farting, Fuckboys, Hookup, U Up?, LGBTQ+

🎤Live Story: Curry Coitus by Hana Nobel

After returning from a week of mourning, Hana tries to revive the night with a sexy food-play surprise involving Indian takeout. It triggers a rash, and an unexpectedly grounding moment in her early relationship.

keywords: food play, Sex and the City, Samantha Jones, Indian Food, Curry, Shiva, New Boyfriend, Burning Man, Ringworm, unexpected rash, sex positivity, mourning, grief, stages of grief

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

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A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in September of 2013, when Amanda Egge and Nayland Blake shared stories about reconciling their own desires with the desires of others.

🎤Live Story: Servant’s Wages by Amanda Egge

Although she has little interest in the kink aspect of it, Amanda becomes intrigued that a BDSM "slave" would keep her total mess of an apartment clean for free. She quickly learns that her "slave" requires a lot of care. 

keywords: erotic cleaning, fetish foot kiss, MySpace submissive, clean-for-free, dominant-submissive relationship, clutter addiction, prostitution metaphor, Craigslist slave, sobriety story

🎤Radio Story: Absorption by Nayland Blake

Nayland wants to attend the infamous Black Party, NYC’s premier leather event, but he doesn’t have a leather uniform. Instead, he goes in a sanitation worker’s uniform. But when he finds himself in a group sex situation there, he finally feels he fits right in. 

keywords: Black Party NYC, queer leather community, uniform fetish, gay festival story, erotic confession, communal sex, nightclub kink, leather subculture, orgiastic dance

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live!

• ✍️ 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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices