In this week’s episode, both of our storytellers come face to face with one of their deepest fears: the ocean.

Part 1: When the children’s TV show host Carly Ciarrocchi is assigned a scuba diving episode, she’s forced to confront a lifelong fear of the ocean.

Part 2: Growing up, Darcie Little Badger was wary of the ocean. But when she takes an oceanography class in college, she begins to question her fears.

Carly Ciarrocchi (she/her) is an Emmy-nominated host, writer, musician, and producer. A true multi-hyphenate, she has spent most of her career in children's media, making and hosting TV shows and podcasts with collaborators like Universal Kids, Disney+, Nick Jr, Nat Geo Kids, Sprout, Tinkercast, Sesame Workshop and the LEGO Foundation. She's a Moth Story Slam winner and has told tales with Stories from the Stage (PBS), Generation Women, the Artichoke, The Tell, Soup and Stories and more. She teaches clown-theatre classes at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. In everything she does, she hopes to create the conditions for people of all ages to access their most authentic state of play. www.carlyciarrocchi.com

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Her third novel, Sheine Lende, is the prequel to Elatsoe and has received six starred reviews. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

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In this week’s Best Of episode, we present stories from people who navigated our changing relationship to technology.

Part 1: As a kid, Samy Kamkar discovers his superpower -- hacking.

Part 2: When Jordan Bush's father-in-law-to-be is diagnosed with cancer shortly before her wedding, she finds a creative way to help him attend.

Samy Kamkar is a hacker-turned-security researcher building tools to highlight security implications of everyday technologies. Exiled from computers and the Internet as a teenager by court-order for developing the fastest-spreading virus of all time, his work post-ban has been cited by the NSA, triggered hearings on Capitol Hill, and has advanced the security from the device in your pocket to the ones surveilling you from the sky.

Jordan is finishing up her dissertation in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her research focuses on when and where lizards fight over territories. She asks that you not confuse her obsession with lizards as a general interest in all reptiles - she does not like snakes, keep your snakes to yourself. After graduating, she has a real goal of becoming a professor at a liberal arts college, and a secret goal of becoming a science journalist and children's book author. She currently lives in Knoxville, TN with her wonderful husband, two babies, and two dogs.

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In this week’s episode, both storytellers discover just how far people will go for the ones they love.

Part 1: When Bailey Swilley’s dad goes into cardiac arrest, she watches her mom care for him and starts to reevaluate what love really looks like.

Part 2: At rock bottom, Pam Stepansky turns to her dad for support with her alcoholism.

Bailey Swilley is a writer, comedian and storyteller from Memphis, Tennessee. She is a Moth StorySLAM winner and hosts the monthly storytelling show We ❤️ a Theme at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. In 2026, she is performing a new show, A BABY FOR ME? NO THANK YOU, PLEASE!. Follow her on Instagram @heybailay for future show dates.

Pam Stepansky is a writer, stand-up comedian, and actor who splits her time between New York City and Puerto Rico. A mostly-Jewish millennial from Long Island, she blends snark, sincerity, and joie de vivre into a creative perspective that’s as dazzled as it is befuddled by the facts of life. She lives with her husband, Adam, and their spirited tuxedo cat, Gumbo.

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