Isthmus Inside Stories: Recent Episodes
Jen Rubin & Takeyla Benton
Jen Rubin and Takeyla Benton explore Madison, Wisconsin, one story at a time. These episodes are produced in partnership with Isthmus Community Media.
Jennifer Esperanza told her story about what immigrant children get away with at The Moth in Madison. "It's 1982, I'm in third grad, and the next lesson for my parents is that every American little girl needs a dollhouse. And in my case, it has to be a Barbie town house," she says. She also talks about crafting the story to tell in front of an audience.
After her daughter died, Debi Kennedy says she cried her way through Madison for a year. But she says she also learned that people would be there to help her through it. She tells Takeyla and Jen about telling a story about grief with humorous and heartbreaking parts.
Esteban Touma talks about getting married in Las Vegas on a cross-country trip. He also discusses the impact of comedy in storytelling, what happens when you quit your job to travel around the country months before a pandemic shuts everything down, and the watercolor art he started to make during the pandemic.
Albert Watson leads a cooking club inside the Dane County Juvenile Detention Center. In this episode, Albert shares a story with the UW-Madison Odyssey Program writing class, exploring the themes in the story and discuss how he crafted the story. The story focuses on the cooking club, made up of youth incarcerated at the center, and the day he saved the life of a teenager there. We talk about his philosophy of working with juveniles, his cooking club, and how to cook neck bones.
Ann Imig is a Madison writer, speaker and performer who created "Listen to your Mother," a nationwide storytelling series and book. The event has expanded to 60 cities (and counting). In this episode, Ann shares a story performed at "Listen to Your Mother" about her "very real" chaotic life at home with young children that will resonate with any parent. She also discusses her writing and performance with Takeyla and Jen. Ann’s writing has been featured on sites like CollegeHumor, McSweeney’s, The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. National TV appearances include ABCnews.com, NBC Nightly News and the webseries’ Battleground and The Louise Log. Ann’s blog (annimig.com fka Ann’s Rants) was once named a Babble Top 100 Mom Blog, A BlogHer Voice of the Year, and a SheKnows Top 5 Funniest Mom Blog.
The story Wilson wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal about meeting his birth mother in Seoul: https://madison.com/news/local/son-at-center-of-will-s-story-a-tale-of/article_c9d4cbe4-2e8f-5a0f-8075-455a2d2049d2.html
We listen to a story Tandalaya Taylor told at the Odyssey Writing Class in 2019, explore the themes in the story and discuss how she crafted the story.
Kevin Willmott II won Madison's Moth Grand Slam with this story about how something as common as hair can connect us and separate us in unexpected ways. From his corn rows to a shaved head to a large afro, people in Madison had things to say about Kevin's hair. We listen to his story, his experience with racism in Madison, and his perspective on people's fascination with his hair.