Everything Is Stories
Created and produced by Mike Martinez and Tyler Wray, Everything is Stories is an ongoing survey of personal histories. Each episode is a first person narrative from someone who has lived through consequential changes to their notion of self and the world. Harry Crews said it best: “Nothing is allowed to die in a society of story telling people. It is all–the good and the bad–carted up and brought along from one generation to the next. And everything that is brought along is colored and shaped by those who bring it. These voices have told their greatest moments where peace is far and death is close. Sometimes these stories explore the philosophy of outsiders. But most importantly, these stories examine what it is to be human. We don’t record to defend or demonstrate an idea. Rather, we create a document of what was seen and felt during their transformative experiences. Take a listen. Start anywhere. You may find a new definition of reality’s highs and lows. Know of a story or storyteller? Send us your tales of genuine characters and unfamiliar places for consideration to: HQ@everythingisstories.com. No story too troubled, no atmosphere too strange, no realm too foreign.
Episodes
September 26, 2023 • 46 mins
Tommy Cotter worked as a soundman for network television show COPS. For one year, Cotter experienced several forms of crime alongside officers in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Fort Wayne, Texas. He captured sound of prostitution stings, robberies, and domestic disputes. Ten years after leaving the job, Cotter reveals how this experience transformed him.
****** **** is a photographer who spent time as a crime scene specialist in a sout...
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September 26, 2023 • 46 mins
Diego Palma is a healer. Kush is a shaman. Both are located in Peru.Their methods for spiritual discovery include medicine songs, mantras, icaros, tobacco smoke, and ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a brew made from the caapi vine and the chacruna shrub. Amazonas have used ayahuasca for centuries. When ingested, it opens the mind to cosmic possibilities.
Peter Gersten is a retired lawyer. In 1987, he sued the United States Government for UF...
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September 26, 2023 • 53 mins
Originally released in 1969, Dave Bixby’s Ode to Quetzacoatl is considered an underground classic in the psychedelic folk genre. With tracks such as “Drug Song” and “666″, the album remains dark, revelatory, and spiritual even in the 21st century. For years, rumors of Bixby’s disappearance and death spread amongst listeners. No one knew his story or his whereabouts or what influenced him to create an album dedicated to a Mesoameric...
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September 26, 2023 • 57 mins
After surviving cancer, Forrest Fenn, a dealer of antique luxuries, hid a treasure chest filled with gold coins, gold dust, gold nuggets, rubies, and other valuable things. The treasure is said to be worth over one million dollars, and he’s only given clues to where it may be in his poetry, prose, and the occasional television appearance.
In this story, Forrest Fenn is interviewed at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he shares...
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September 26, 2023 • 39 mins
Mat Fraser is a performance artist who starred on the FX television show American Horror Story: Freak Show. Born with phocomelia, a condition that results in malformation of the limbs, Fraser embraces his disability through activism, art, and the carnie-sideshow experience. In this episode, Fraser tells the stories of his condition, his relationship with Coney Island, and how he entered show business with a physical deformity.
Prod...
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October 10, 2023 • 38 mins
Lois Gibson is considered by many to be the most successful forensic artist in the world. Using skills in art, witness interviewing, and facial reconstruction, Gibson has helped solve over 1,200 cases by sketching portraits of both victims and criminals all over the United States. In 2005, she was even placed in the Guinness Book of World Records because of her success in suspect identifications. EIS finds Gibson at her home in Spr...
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October 10, 2023 • 59 mins
As a young man growing up in the Dominican Republic, Miguel Vargas-Caba had an early interest in foreign language. With minimal resources in a country wrapped up in political turmoil and an eventual civil war, Cabas began writing to people overseas to request books and stamps for his collection. After teaching himself various languages from Latin to Russian, it was ultimately his curiosity in the latter that would land him in the U...
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October 10, 2023 • 51 mins
For over 30 years, Peter Willcox has been a sea captain for Greenpeace, an environmental organization based out of Amsterdam. Willcox helps international campaigns against whaling, anti-nuclear activities, and global warming. In this episode, he tells his experiences of growing up in an activist family, his first protest at sea, being attacked by the French government and jailed in Russia. He also shares the history of the Rainbow ...
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October 10, 2023 • 32 mins
Scooter Tramp Scotty is a writer who’s lived on the road for over 20 years. Traveling across North America on an old Harley Davidson, Scotty never stays in a single place more than two months. In this episode, we find Scotty in New Orleans, Louisiana and Harlingen, Texas where he talks about becoming a drifter, finding places to stay, and the loneliness of the road.
Produced by Garrett Crowe, Mike Martinez, and Tyler Wray.
Music by...
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October 10, 2023 • 49 mins
B.B. St. Roman is the only staff member for the New Orleans Police Department Homeless Assistant Unit. Before helping the homeless, she traveled the world, recording sound for documentaries involving shamans, Buddhist monks, and Mother Teresa. And at one point, she became the tour manager for Dr. John, Louisiana musician and legend.
Now, she works full-time with the homeless. She tells her stories of Hurricane Katrina, shelter issu...
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October 24, 2023 • 33 mins
At age 15, novelist Vanessa Veselka ran away from home and began living life as a hitchhiker in the United States during the 1980s. From highway to highway, coast to coast, truck stop to truck stop, Veselka experienced poverty, perversion, and a showdown with a potential serial killer. She shares her story at the MacDowell Colony for Artists where she works on her second novel, Light the Lamp With the Last of the Whale Oil (Riverhe...
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October 24, 2023 • 49 mins
For the first seven years of her life, Sulome Anderson never met her father, journalist Terry Anderson. Three months before she was born, her father was kidnapped and imprisoned by Shiite Muslim militants in Lebanon. Through hostage videos and letters, Sulome began forming an image of a perfect parent. But after his release, she soon realized Terry Anderson was not the person she imagined.
Years later, Sulome began investigating th...
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October 24, 2023 • 28 mins
Jon Gerwitz’s son was born on April 20th, 1988 and kidnapped four hours later. In this story, Gerwitz describes the peculiar circumstances of the disappearance which includes his hometown, a lifelong friend, and the many corridors of Interstate 40. Gerwitz also explains his emotions at the time which ranged from paranoia to forgiveness. 20 years later, he wonders if the whole experience was a coincidence or miracle.
Produced by Gar...
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October 24, 2023 • 50 mins
An anonymous couple live in an undisclosed part of northern California. Spearheading the back-to-the-land hippie movement, the Husband moved to the area in the early 70s while the Wife traveled the world as part of the Peace Corps. Now, the couple’s home rests off the grid where they grow a very special garden. This garden provides a peaceful and private lifestyle for the marriage. But what happens when outsiders jeopardize the cou...
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October 24, 2023 • 45 mins
Robin Baker dreamed of becoming a Hollywood starlet. As a teenager in the 60s, she became a Whisky a Go Go dancer, socializing with famous actors and musicians. After meeting and marrying Jim Baker, a World War II veteran, restaurant owner, and spiritual leader in Los Angeles, Robin’s life took a different path. With her husband, she established the Source Family, a commune with over 140 members. But when Jim changed his name to Fa...
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November 7, 2023 • 37 mins
After anti-war protests at Washington University in 1970, Howard Mechanic became the first person arrested and charged under the Civil Obedience Act. Claiming innocence, Mechanic jumped bail to avoid prison time. He moved out West and created a new identity. For 28 years, he lived as Gary Tredway while raising a family and starting his own business. But what happens when Gary Tredway’s background is questioned? Can he continue unde...
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November 7, 2023 • 31 mins
At age seven, Hector Barajas crossed the Mexico border into United States as an illegal citizen. His family soon settled in Compton, California, where Hector encountered crime, gang violence, and racial division. Hector escaped the lifestyle by joining the United States Army as a non-citizen, becoming a medic for the 82nd Airborne Division. But personal problems soon led him to honorable discharge, prison, and deportation back to M...
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November 7, 2023 • 42 mins
In the final part of this series, EIS visits the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana. Commonly known as “The Bunker” by residents, the house hosts veterans released from the military and deported out of the United States. A number of veterans tell stories of hardships in Mexico, efforts to join military branches in other countries, and retaining American pride after banishment.
Produced by Garrett Crowe, Mike Martinez, and T...
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November 7, 2023 • 67 mins
For over two decades, Duane “Chili” Yazzie has been an activist for Native American rights. Of the Navajo tribe, Chili has spent his life on the reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, following tribal traditions and questioning the relationship between Native Peoples and Anglo-Americans. As a young man, he became a member of the influential Native American rock band, XIT, playing at political rallies across the United States. Chili w...
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November 7, 2023 • 33 mins
In the Summer of 2016, members from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe began organizing demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), an underground pipeline that would stretch over 1,300 miles. If completed, it would carry oil through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. Many believed DAPL’s route would destroy sacred Sioux grounds and affect the local water source. As Indigenous tribes from all over the world un...
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