Pod Insights The Moth The Moth Radio Hour: When Time Slows Down About this episode In this hour, stories about places frozen in time, memories preserved, and seemingly interminable moments. A small town, public transportation, an archeological site, and a car with character. This episode is hosted by Moth Producer and Director Jodi Powell. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.
Storytellers:
Scott Gravatt and his family become attached to their new car, Buster.
Nimisha Ladva meets a fellow professor who makes her question her beliefs.
Norman Lear learns the impact of a seemingly small decision years later.
Dylon Killian witnesses a spirited debate on public transit.
Archeologist Hannah Morris races to complete her work before the effects of climate change destroy the site. This story was produced in collaboration with the World Science Festival.
Podcast # 747
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1:39 Speaker 02 This is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jodi Powell, a producer and director at The Moth. After the worst of the pandemic, I took a trip to The Moth office. We were out for over a year. It looked like everything was frozen in time, unchanged, except the plants that were maintained. They were now three times the size. But all else, the pens on the desk in mason jars, postcards sent for birthdays, the calendars still read 2019. From where I stood, the sunset came in like always. We all have moments where time loses its meaning, but sometimes we get reminders that the best moments are right now.
2:21 Speaker 02 Just then, I looked around the whole office. Everything was covered in sunset, in true amber. In this episode, stories about when time slows down, and sometimes, its slowness brings a gift.
2:36 Speaker 02 Our first story comes from Scott Gravatt. He told it at a story slam in Portland, Oregon, where our media partner is Oregon Public Broadcasting. Here's Scott, live at the mouth.
2:50 Speaker 03 My son has always been a little countercultural. When he was in eighth grade, he trade—someone gave him a Guitar Hero video game, and he traded it in for a real guitar. Under the moniker Dad, "Real Guitar Heroes Play Real Guitars." When we moved here 10 years ago, he kept all of that countercultural aspect and found it in Portland in a way that Miami could not provide.
3:21 Speaker 03 "Well, number one, I will be on my bike," he said, "forever, for all time." And he was committed, through high school, to riding that bike. It was a pain in the ass for me, because he would call me at 11 o'clock at night, not wanting to ride his bike home, and I would have to go get him. So there was a couple of times where I begged him to buy a car and to get his license, and he just refused. And then came Xana. Xana lived in Beaverton.
3:56 Speaker 03 All good stories start with love. And my son, while I was sitting at the dining room table one day, said to me, "Dad, I think I want a car." The opportunist that I am, 90 seconds later, I was on Craigslist.
4:12 Speaker 03 Two minutes later, I had found a car. And within three minutes, I was on the phone, talking to a guy.
4:19 Speaker 03 Less than an hour later, I was standing in front of him, with my son behind me, and $1,000 in my hand, walking around a 1994 Subaru and kicking the tires like I knew what I was doing.
4:32 Speaker 03 I did not. We drove the car around the block. It was near perfect and I wondered why it was only a thousand dollars. And I asked the guy, I was like, "Hey, I'm not gonna haggle you for the price. This is a thousand dollar car. It's 250,000 miles, but still, why is it only a thousand dollars?" And he says, "You see, there's this girl." And my son, "Say no more." Totally got what was happening, so I went to hand him the thousand dollars and before I did, I shook my hand out. And I said, "A thousand dollars for the car." And he grabbed my hand. And he kinda looked me in the eyes.
5:14 Speaker 03 And there was a moment there when we were holding hands and he looked me in the eyes and we kinda had an exchange of energy. And he said, "Before I sell you the car, there's a couple of rules. Two of them, to be exact." And I said, "Okay," and he wouldn't let go of my hand. And he said, "Rule number one, my mom was the original owner. She passed it to me. We don't refer to it as the car. We don't refer to it as the Subaru. We don't call it the Sub. We don't call it his car, your car, anyone's car. His name is Buster." Still holding my hands.
5:58 Speaker 03 To which I said, "Offensive pronouns aside, we will call it Buster, no problem." And he said, "One more thing. Buster doesn't have a CD player. There's no six-CD changer. The AM/FM radio doesn't work very well. Buster only plays one tape." And I looked at my son, knowing that this could be a deal breaker for the guitar hero. If you get in the car every time and Cyndi Lauper comes on, not gonna work. And the guy said, "I hope you like Led Zeppelin IV."
6:39 Speaker 03 This was a deal. I handed him a thousand dollars and we drove away with Buster. And for four years, my son drove from southeast Portland to Lincoln High School, and it served us well. He spent a couple of nights in the back of the car. I'm going to assume drunk, plausible plausibles in our ability, you know. It took him to the coast once, it took him to the base of Mount Hood more than once. It was very reliable and it was kind of a family car for us. We lent it to some friends, we kind of got it attached to Buster. So you can see why I was bummed a couple of weeks ago. When I went to go unlock Buster and he was gone. He wasn't where I left him last.
7:23 Speaker 03 And my son, who's in New Zealand right now in school, I had to call and tell him that Buster was gone. And it kind of felt like your family pet had run away. Like your dog had gone and you couldn't find him and you didn't know where he was. All things kind of happened, we moved houses and it's been a month. And on Friday this week, the Portland police called me and said we found Buster. I was beyond excited that we had actually found Buster. And I called ransom immediately and I was like, yo Buster is back, this is so cool. And yesterday, my phone rang three times from a number I didn't recognize.
8:06 Speaker 03 And the guy on the other end of the phone said to me, "You don't know me from anyone, my name's Bob, but someone sold me your Subaru. The title and registration was in the car and I paid $750 for it." And he explained to me that he was a veteran on disability and that he worked all summer long so he wouldn't have to walk to work in the wintertime. So today, at about 6 o'clock tonight, I met Bob at the station, at the tow station. Together we paid to get the car out of the lot. And he took the car and he's 60 something years old.
8:49 Speaker 03 And he shook my hand and when he did, there was a moment between the two of us.
8:57 Speaker 03 And I looked at him and I kind of understood where he was coming from. And he looked like he had seen some hard times, blue collar, like he had seen war. And he looked me in the eyes like men of a certain age would want to do. And he said to me, "Thank you. You will not understand how much this car means to me." And I didn't let go of his hand, then I looked him right back in the eyes and I said, "We don't call it the car. His name is Buster. Thank you."
9:40 Speaker 02 Scott Bravat is a high school cross-country coach in Portland, Oregon. Scott tells us that he and his son Ransom bought another car shortly after and travelled all around New Zealand. They've made a pact to wake up in a national park every January 1st. To see photos of Scott and his son Ransom, visit themoth.org.
10:16 Speaker 02 Our next story comes from Nimisha Ladva. She told this at a Philadelphia Grand Slam. Here's Nimisha, live at The Moth.
10:28 Speaker 04 It's the end of New Professor Orientation, which I have been attending because of my new job. And I'm leaving the building and it's pouring rain, which is a problem because I'm a transplant from California and I have no jacket, no umbrella, flimsy open-toe shoes, and to get home, I have to wait for a bus. And that's when I see him, a man from New Professor Orientation. He's got salt and pepper hair, really ugly glasses, and a tweed jacket, and I'm not making this up, it has bonafide elbow patches. And he looks a bit weird to me, and because of that, he's like the one person I'm trying to avoid at Orientation.
11:09 Speaker 04 Of course, he's like walking towards me and introduces me himself. "Hi, I'm David, and I couldn't help but overhear that you were going to take the bus home, and I wanted you to know I've got my Buick."
11:24 Speaker 04 Right here on campus and I'd be happy to give you a ride home. And of course I say no, because who gets into a large American sedan with a stranger? And I say no because my good Indian girl programming has taken over. Because I know that I'm not supposed to be interacting with men, really, because my parents are going to find a nice, suitable boy for me to marry. I'm supposed to have a sort of arranged marriage. In California, my parents are handing out my biodate sheet, and it has my name, my age, my height, how dark my skin is, my education level, some background about my family, and my photograph.
12:09 Speaker 04 And they're handing it out to families, hoping that someone with a medical doctor's son will show some interest. But in Philadelphia, it's still pouring rain. So I make a practical choice. I say, "Hey, actually, a ride's okay." So he gives me a ride home, whatever. I see him at some faculty functions. He invites me to go out with some friends of his from out of town. And then he actually asks me out. And then we actually start dating, and it's weird.
12:41 Speaker 04 And I kind of, I kind of like it.
12:46 Speaker 04 So I realize I have to tell my parents, so like two years later, I do.
12:54 Speaker 04 And my dad takes it kind of well, but my mom, not really so much. So her reaction comes every day, three times a day, on my voicemail, kind of like this. It's like, "Hi, this is Nimisha. Leave a message. Bye." Beep.
13:16 Speaker 04 Uh, uh, beep.
13:22 Speaker 04 And so, uh, one day, David hears one and he says, "Nimisha, you know, um, your mother is choosing to react this way." Ch- ch- choosing? What kind of stupid, post-therapy, white man thing is that to say?
13:43 Speaker 04 I'm killing my mother with this with us, are you crazy?
13:49 Speaker 04 And I sh- and I start to stress out, I mean, I'm... I actually stopped being able to sleep, my hair's starting to fall out. I'm getting really stressed out. I should have known this conversation was coming because David has sort of been into this idea of therapy and being the best person he could be. You know, we are having the kinds of conversations I never have and I do like him. I think he's like got emotional maturity, he's like a man. But I'm stressed out, right? I am not sleeping, I'm not really even eating very well. And then, in all of this drama, he asks me to marry him. And I say, "No." I give him back his ring. I move back to California. And there is a continent between us.
14:31 Speaker 04 It's really awkward, we talk on the phone from time to time. There's this one random day, he says he's gonna be back in California and would I like to... Would I like to go see a movie? I'm like, "Whatever," I say, "Yes." So we get to the movie theater and it's just like packed with people, just like totally packed with people. So he says, "Why don't you wait at this bench? And I will go over there and get the tickets." And so David walks away and I don't sit at the bench. I get up and I walk away. And I'm thinking of my mother's voicemail messages. I'm thinking of what the heck am I doing with my life? And why did I say yes to this movie? And what the heck? And I find myself on a balcony and I look down at the theater crowd below and I can see David walking by.
15:15 Speaker 04 He's got the two tickets in his hand and he looks like walking sunshine. But I don't go back, I just watch him. He sees I'm not there at the bench, he starts pacing back and forth around it. Then he starts taking slightly bigger steps and the movie starts and David doesn't leave. And I realise that he's gonna just keep looking and looking and searching and searching because the only person in that whole movie theatre he is looking for is singularly and absolutely me, I get it. But if I walk back, I will fail at being a good Indian girl. And what I want to do as I'm looking at him, I want to tell him that I've made some judgements
15:59 Speaker 04 about his appearance, about the things he can change, like his style if he wanted to,
16:05 Speaker 04 and his skin colour which he can do nothing about, and I just want to talk to him. And I realise that he makes the hard conversations easy. So I walk back. I walk back to David. And full disclosure, we are 10 years, three kids and one mortgage into our marriage. Thanks very much.
16:31 Speaker 02 Nimisha Ladva says that now, instead of crying voicemails, her mother likes to send flat-rate boxes bursting with homemade goodies and things she scored on a sale. They just got a Dewali box, homemade sweets for the kids, random t-shirts, biscuits from England, and always, always a t-shirt for David. To see photos of Nimisha and her family, visit themoth.org.
17:07 Speaker 02 In a moment, legendary TV producer Norman Lear tells us about a valued childhood sweater that is remembered over 50 years later, when The Moth Radio Hour continues.
17:48 Speaker 05 The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
17:54 Speaker 06 Hectic mornings are not the time for complicated outfits, and that's why I love Quince. And I think for the holidays, Quince Staples are a gift I'd like to give to my other busy friends and family. They specialize in elevated everyday essentials, made with premium materials, including organic cotton, premium stretch denim, and Mongolian cashmere. My current favorite is their Mongolian cashmere crew neck in heather gray. It's simple perfection that keeps me warm. They are the perfect gift for yourself, or for the people in your life. Their Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at an unbelievable $50, making them, alongside 14-karat gold jewelry and cozy cashmere gloves, the easiest way to spoil someone on your list. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for
18:39 Speaker 06 app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was The Moth. It's the best way to support the show.
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19:58 Speaker 00 Today's episode is brought to you by Vinted. We've all got that designated chair or corner in the bedroom piled high with clothes we keep telling ourselves we'll definitely wear, but never actually do. My pile has reached critical mass and it's past time for decisive action. Declutter or bust? Thankfully, I just learned about Vinted, a secondhand marketplace app that makes it easy to give your pre-loved fashion a second life and earn some extra cash in the process. Snapping photos and listing my pieces on Vinted can fit right into my afternoon routine without any hassle. The whole process is simple. Once an item sells, Vinted creates the prepaid shipping label for you, taking all the headache out of shipping things out. And there are no seller fees, so every bit of profit goes straight into your bank account
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20:57 Speaker 02 This is The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jodie Powell. We're listening to stories that throw you back in time. I used to take long walks through the streets of Harlem before dinner with my godfather, Thomas Sutton. And what should take a few minutes took much longer. He would stop to watch the kids playing, admire the old brownstone that he knew since he was a boy. He would live in every moment. And if we ran into somebody from his past, our journey back home would come to a full stop. The cause? Back in the day. Stories from yesteryear, the good old times. And this is precisely where our next storyteller takes us.
21:35 Speaker 02 Norman Lear is a legend, and the fictional stories he helped bring into our consciousness are still very much with us. He told the story about a particular blue and white sweater at a Moth main stage in Los Angeles, produced in partnership with the public radio station, KCRW. Here's Norman Lear, live at the Moth.
22:07 Speaker 07 When I was a little kid, I wondered if I could get my fingers in my father's head and twist a little screw, a sixteenth of an inch, in one direction or another, he might tell right from wrong. Because he never did. I was nine years old, and there was a... I was... It was summer, I was going to summer camp for the first time. And I couldn't have been more excited. There was a little roll of tape cloth that said, "Norman and Lear, Norman and Lear,
22:49 Speaker 07 Norman and Lear," that my mother was gonna sew into the clothes I would be taking to camp. And it just couldn't have been a more exciting moment. Also, my father was going off to Oklahoma. He was flying to Oklahoma with some men that my mother said, "I don't like those men, Herman, I don't want you messing with those men." And... But Herman knew everything. He used to tell me, "I've been everywhere where the grass grows green, Norman, and I know everything." The man actually said that. And he was off. He was arrested when he came back.
23:34 Speaker 07 Turned out he'd been trying to sell, or they had... These men my mother didn't care for had caused him to try to sell some fake bonds from a Boston brokerage company. And he was arrested when he got off the plane. That night, or the next night, the morning paper had a picture of my father, holding a hat in front of his face, manacled to a detective coming out of the courthouse. And the paper was lying around that night, all over the place.
24:15 Speaker 07 And my mother had a house full of people because she had decided she couldn't live in Chelsea... This was Chelsea, Massachusetts. She couldn't live there in that kind of shame.
24:29 Speaker 07 So she was leaving, as it turned out, I didn't know that she was gonna take my sister, I had one, three years younger sister. She was gonna take my sister and kinda disappear. And I was gonna go to one uncle, and another uncle, and another uncle, and wind up with, eventually, with my grandparents in New Haven, Connecticut. And, uh, it was a, an awful scene. The place was, the house was crowded, my mother was selling the furniture. And especially, when she started to sell, uh, my father's red leather chair, my father
25:08 Speaker 07 had a red leather chair, that he used to control the Atwater Kent radio. It was why we needed a floor model radio, I'll never know. (laughter) But we had a floor model radio. And he used to sit in his red leather chair, control that dial when we listened to Jack Benny and Fred Allen and all the radio shows at the time. This, of course, was before television. And, uh, as my mother was selling this red leather chair, the guy who seemed to be purchasing it, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Well, you're the man of the house now."
25:53 Speaker 07 And I think that was the moment that I learned the foolishness of the human condition. This asshole (laughter) is looking at a nine-year-old kid, puts, under these circumstances, puts his hand on his shoulder and says, "Well, you're the man of the house now." I know that that was the moment I began to absorb the foolishness of the human condition. It never left me. I saw it when I went to this uncle and that uncle, and they had no understanding at all of what I was going through.
26:34 Speaker 07 And what I was going through was a piece of what I've used all my life in my work, that aloneness. I believe we are all alone in this world. Whatever our situations are, whatever our families are, we are still, each of us, alone in the world. And that served me well in the writing of everything I did from that point on. Along the way, before All in the Family, I made a film in Greenfield, Iowa, called Cold Turkey.
27:12 Speaker 07 It was about a city that was committed where the minister got the city to agree, all of the smokers, to stop smoking for 30 days. So they all took a pledge to stop smoking for 30 days. And the film was about what the media around the country made of a town that said they were going to give up smoking. It was, I couldn't be more proud of anything I've ever done in that film, which had a lot to say about media and America. In the course of the film, I had a little girl in a montage where she was perhaps on the screen for three seconds.
27:57 Speaker 07 She was crossing the street and a mother, traffic monitor was screaming at her. And it was an illustration of bad behavior in the city of all the smokers who had given up smoking the morning following their pledge. And the little girl's name was Amy. And she was on the screen for two and a half, three seconds. Twenty-five years later, the town of Greenfield, Iowa invited me to come back with as many of the players as I could bring. They wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cold Turkey in Greenfield, Iowa.
28:40 Speaker 07 Dick Van Dyke starred in the film He Came Back With Me. Pippa Scott came back with me. Tom Poston, for those who remember Tom Poston. Bob Newhart was in the film. And Edith Bunker, Jean Stapleton was in the film. As I said before, All in the Family. They all came back and we had the most incredible weekend in Greenfield, Iowa. I knew that those people would be telling time by the year that the summer the film was made there. Oh, Gerda, she got married in... No, no, that was two years before Greenfield. No, no, that was before Cold Turkey.
29:23 Speaker 07 When Cold Turkey, she had already... And indeed, that's the way it was in that community. And we had a whale of a time.
29:34 Speaker 07 And in the course of that, the little girl that was on the screen, her name was Amy, for about three seconds, got a hold of me and threw her arms around me and told me that that... My decision to use her in that little role was just the most important thing in her life. And she spent a couple of minutes talking to me about how important that was to her. And I appreciated it as much as I could and hugged her and we kissed.
30:09 Speaker 07 And now, take a long dissolve. I've done All in the Family and All the Shows, The Jeffersons, Good Times, all the shows that followed from there. And it's a great many years later. And I've written a book. This was just last year. Even this, I get to experience, which is true of this moment for me. Even this, with all of you, I get to experience. Took me 93 years to get here to this moment.
30:47 Speaker 07 But in the course of running around the country, talking about the book, I get a call, "Greenfield, Iowa would like me to come back. They want to celebrate." And I agreed to go back there because I'm selling the book. I'm thrilled to be going back to Iowa. Nobody else was available to go back with me. Most, a lot of them had passed on. And I went back alone. And it was a great evening. And the governor introduced me. And there must have been 300 people at dinner in this big ballroom. And they had named the theater, the marquee.
31:32 Speaker 07 Next door to the ballroom was a Norman Lear Theater. And the moment of moments was Amy, who was now 51,
31:49 Speaker 07 threw her arms around me and said, "You know, Mr. Lear, I was 31, 20 years ago when you came back to Greenfield. And I told you what that meant to me. And you were very nice about it. You, we hugged and you kissed me." And she said, "But you didn't get it. And you're going to get it now."
32:15 Speaker 07 I couldn't imagine where the hell she was going with this. She said, "I read your book. She said, "When you were in your 10th summer, you were in Woodstock, Connecticut. Your father was in prison. Your mother and your sister had disappeared. And you were in the only cottage the whole family, all the relatives could afford. And it was crowded with families and kids. But you were altogether alone and nobody understood the pain you were in. And you couldn't describe the pain in your book. It was so strong." She said, "But you had a gray and a blue sweatshirt.
33:00 Speaker 07 And you used to put that on in the late afternoon. And in that sweatshirt, you felt stronger and taller and tougher and wiser, smarter."
33:12 Speaker 07 And you used to walk down Savern Rock to a place called Sloppy Joe's. And you, among strangers, had Sloppy Joe's in your gray and blue sweatshirt. You were, you know, more comfortable, more at home, more yourself. You felt better than you did with your family back in, in the cottage. She said, well, you were my blue and gray sweatshirt. And I wept. And she wept.
33:49 Speaker 07 And when I walked away from Amy now, as I said, 51, I walked away feeling like I was still wearing my blue and gray sweatshirt. Thank you.
34:11 Speaker 02 Norman Lear was a celebrated American television writer and producer of sitcoms, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, and Good Times. As a political activist, he founded the advocacy organization People for the American Way. In 1999, President Clinton bestowed him with the National Medal of Arts, noting, Norman Lear has held up a mirror to the American society and changed the way we look at it. He also received the Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, and his memoir, Even This I Get to Experience, is available now. Sadly, Norman passed away in 2023.
34:55 Speaker 02 At the time when we reached out for this episode, Norman said, I am grateful to say that the stars of my life have aligned every day of my 99 years. Our next story comes to us from an Atlanta Grand Slam, where we partner with Georgia Public Radio. Here's Dylan Killian, live at the Moth.
35:24 Speaker 07 Cola, it's now or never, is what I thought. As I sat near the exit door of the Marter train that had just pulled into Arts Center Station. Either switchcabs now are continuing to listen to this asinine debate all the way to Fort McPherson. Now, when I first, when I first walked into this dispute 10 minutes prior at Lindbergh Station, I wasn't surprised. Those of us who frequent the Marter know, after 10pm is when the more extroverted members of the Atlanta community ride the train. It's when you can hear the ladies' street news from young drug dealers heading to their traps, loud indecipherable soliloquies from the mentally disturbed, baby mamas giving
36:09 Speaker 07 relationship advice ass-backwards, and random one-man rap karaoke performances from marijuana-inspired individuals. So I wasn't surprised when I got on the southbound train to run smack dead into a passionate debate. Nor was I shocked when I was immediately called upon by one of the participants to help strengthen his argument. He said, "Yo, God, you an 80's baby." I said, "Yeah." He said, "Yo, tell this cat that the late 80's, the golden age of hip-hop, was the greatest era to be alive." I had walked into a three-sided debate on the greatest era to exist within. Before I could respond and tell him that it was all relative to the individual, the second debater spoke.
36:53 Speaker 07 He said, "Yo, dawg, don't listen to him, man. His whole argument is weak. It's biased because he's stuck in the 80's." Now, when the second debater said this, I turned back to Lance to corroborate what was put forth. I knew that his name was Lance because that's what the Big 80's 14-carat gold nameplate spelled across his chest.
37:15 Speaker 07 Complementing the nameplate was a Kango Bucket hat, gazelle glasses, a terracotta Adidas sweatsuit, and a vintage pair of 1986 Run DMC Adidas.
37:28 Speaker 07 Hence, one of the standard uniforms of somebody stuck in the 80s. Then Lance corrected the second debater, saying that he wasn't stuck in the 80s, he just liked Pan homage, because that was his era. That's when the third debater spoke. She said, "And as I said before, your era ain't got nothing on the 70s." Then Lance, being the chronologist that he was, asked which era in the 70s? There was three: the black exploitation era, the disco age, and the post disco age. She had to be more specific. She said, "Whenever the movie Cleopatra Jones came out, people said I looked just like her." Then she stood at her feet, put her hands on her hips, and arched up her chin as if she was about to sashay across the stage. I thought, "Oh my god."
38:14 Speaker 07 Because what I perceived was a red church turban was an authentic Indian turban, complemented with some leather wrist bangles and a low-cut chiffon blouse with the balloon sleeves. Thus, one of the preferred outfits of a shero in a black exploitation movie. As I sat there observing her posturing in silence, the second debater, Malik, blurted out what I was thinking: "This chick's stuck in the 70s."
38:42 Speaker 07 I knew that Malik's name was Malik because Malik started talking in the third person to help strengthen his argument
38:50 Speaker 07 while negating the other two.
38:53 Speaker 07 He said, "You see, Malik don't look bike man. Malik always in the present." Because tomorrow never comes, while she's stuck in a damn movie and he's somewhere between 86 and 88. Now scrutinizing Malik, I realized that Malik was more of a tragic comedy than the other two, because Malik had to be in his upper 50s, but his clothes were not. Malik had some Kanye West Yeezys on his feet, some tight skinny jeans that hung down below his Gucci boxer cup of rum, a tight muscle shirt that magnified his tatted arms and middle-aged gut, and some red dyed dreadlocks with the blurring tips that were topped with an extremely receded hairline.
39:38 Speaker 07 While Lance and Cleopatra were stuck in arrows, Malik was trapped in a time capsule that was more brutal. The forever-changing merry-go-round of trendy hip culture, where tomorrow never comes. So there I sat at Arts Center Station, ten minutes removed from my entrance, thinking, "Cola, it's now or never. Either switch cabs now or continue to be entertained by three-time relics who are scared to face tomorrow." Which, to me, was dumbfounding. Coming of age in the ghettos of the gory eighties, amid daily drug wars and crack monsters, all I ever had to look forward to was the concept of tomorrow. But then I thought, facing tomorrow is probably the event
40:23 Speaker 07 that compelled them to lock themselves away in an era of their greatest comfort. Because the face of tomorrow was too harsh. Or even worse, the tomorrow that they were looking for never came. Weighing that notion, as Lance began to explain to the entire cab why Run DMC was a more influential music group than the Shilites, I chose now. Not the now as the next cab over, but the now of Lance, Cleopatra, and Malik, an eclectic time capsule of the absurd, where tomorrow never comes.
41:14 Speaker 02 That was Dylan Killian, also known as Cola Ram. He's a poet, spoken-word artist, storyteller, and novelist from Jacksonville, Florida. He's also the author of two Gothic comedy novels. He's lived in Atlanta, Georgia for the last 25 years. Cola Ram still rides the train every opportunity he gets. He says it keeps him grounded and humble, and it constantly reminds him of the frailties and the uncertainties of life itself.
41:46 Speaker 02 To see photos of Kohlner Rum in his style, visit themoth.org.
41:54 Speaker 02 Next up, a young scientist races against time in an attempt to save an island from climate change. That's when The Moth Radio Hour continues.
42:06 Speaker 05 The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
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44:46 Speaker 02 You're listening to The Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jodi Powell. In this hour, we've been listening to stories about things and moments we preserve. Our final storyteller Hannah Morris told this at The Moth Main Stage in New York City, where we partnered with the World Science Festival. Here's Hannah, live at The Moth.
45:11 Speaker 00 Now, I am the daughter of a geologist. And what this means is that I grew up on bedtime stories of peak oil and environmental catastrophe. Now, we also did some fun stuff when I was a kid, like collecting fossils. But a running theme throughout my childhood was sitting outside with my dad and talking about big oil and pollution and global warming. Yes, I was that kid. Really, I can't remember a time when I didn't know what these things were. Now, as I got older, I found that I wasn't scared of the dark anymore. But I had this knowledge about climate change, just a little bit of knowledge. And it became this big monster that lived underneath my bed. And I had a very particular response
45:54 Speaker 00 to it. I call it worrying out of the corner of your eye. And it's this mixture of fear and anxiety that is so strong that you're compelled to worry about this thing. But at the same time, it's so scary that you can barely stand to really look at it. Now, one night when I was about sixteen, I was outside on my parents' porch and I'd just finished a paper about global warming for a science class. I'd wanted to learn more about this topic and just kind of peek underneath the covers. So I'd read about chlorofluorocarbons and the greenhouse effect. And I'm sitting outside and there's this warm breeze coming down off the mountain. And I can hear frogs and crickets and the creek rushing by.
46:37 Speaker 00 And I suddenly have this intense moment of fear that one day there will be no more beautiful nights like this. Now, at this time, I had no idea how to handle that type of emotion and the only thing I could think to do was to ignore it and try and distract myself from it. Now, at sixteen, this was not incredibly difficult. And a few months later, I was tagging along on my dad's geology class to Wyoming. We got to spend a day out on a dinosaur dig. And we were out in the middle of nowhere. We were on the side of this hill and we were picking away at these little pieces of bone and squirting them with the solution to harden them. And I just get lost in this. I'm loving every single second of it. Now, as the day is ending, the students are tired and hungry and they're making their
47:21 Speaker 00 way back to the vans and they're gonna leave me. And I decide that I'm just gonna keep working. And I took my dad coming over to me and physically placing his hands on me to drag me away from the site. Now, a little while later, I was in college and I took an anthropology course. And one day, the professor starts talking about archaeology. And as he's describing what archaeologists actually do, which is nothing like Indiana Jones for the record, I have to say that, I realize that it's pretty much just what I was doing in Wyoming, except instead of dinosaurs, I would get to dig up people. And it's very apparent to me that people are much more interesting than dinosaurs.
48:02 Speaker 00 So in the span of about five or ten minutes, I just decide that I'm gonna become an archaeologist and spend the rest of my life playing in the dirt. Now, one of my first jobs was actually working for the American Museum of Natural History on St. Catherine's Island, Georgia, which is a barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Now, I never knew that you can fall in love with a place the exact The exact same way that you can fall in love with a person. The first time that I arrived on the island, it was late summer, the time of year when the gnats are trying to eat you alive and it's been way too hot for way too long. When I stepped off that boat onto the island, it felt like I was stepping into the world as I always hoped it would be.
48:46 Speaker 00 There were these huge live oak trees with these long graceful limbs that were covered in Spanish moss and resurrection ferns. By that time of year, this plant called dogfennel is blooming and it has this nice light green earthy scent. And then, of course, there's the sunsets and the marsh and this beautiful language that they have to describe the different kinds of tides. A neap tide, ebb tide, my favorite, a sparrow tide.
49:14 Speaker 00 So before I knew it in this kind of quick and breathless lay, I was just in love with this place. Now, St. Catherine's is not just a beautiful island, but it's a place where amazing research happens. There are people who work on everything from sea turtles to birds to geology and, of course, archaeology. The island has been occupied by people for about 4,000 years and one of the most interesting sites is the 16th century Spanish mission. Now, over the course of the history of this mission, there was a rebellion and it was destroyed and then rebuilt, and eventually 432 people would be buried in the floor of this church.
49:54 Speaker 00 Now, I worked on archaeological sites on St. Catherine's for a couple of years and then I took a break to do my masters. When I came back to the island in 2012, it was something different. Suddenly, it seemed like the words "climate change" and "global warming" were coming out of everyone's mouth. Everywhere you went on the island, you could see evidence of these forces and every year you could see more and more. One day, I went down to the very southern tip of the island to a place called Jungle Beach. And as I came around the last corner, I had to stop my truck because I was literally about to drive into the ocean. And I got out to watch the waves wash up into To what had been the road. And I felt that same sense of fear that I'd felt at sixteen out on my parents' porch.
50:39 Speaker 00 Except this time it was very real. I could see this one spot where I'd camped underneath these two palm trees. And that was now underwater and those palm trees were gone. So the island as a whole is experiencing these somewhat traumatic effects. And this is impacting the archaeological sites as well. When I came back, we had a new protocol in place. We call it archaeological triage. Basically, that means we work on the most vulnerable and important sites before they're destroyed. And in fact, the 16th century Spanish mission, the Mission Santa Catalina de Valle, is exactly this type of site. It's located on the western edge of the island, and there's this tidal creek that runs along
51:24 Speaker 00 the bluff. And every single day, with every tide, this creek inches closer and closer to this church where 432 people are buried. So a few times a year, we go down to excavate and document this area. Now, we've learned that because you can't stop the tides, you have to work harder and work longer to try and outrun them. One night last September, I found myself knee-deep in water, covered in sand, holding a floodlight. And we were working into the night because we didn't know what would be left of this site in the morning when the tide went out. Like any research project, we only have so much time and money.
52:06 Speaker 00 And we had been counting down, not the days we had left on this dig, but the tides. We have three tides left. We have two tides left. And this night, we had no tides left. This was it. The monster was in the water with me that night. It was coming in with this tide and swimming around my feet. And it was telling me exactly what the consequences of climate change would be. Now, I rode home that night on a cooler in the back of the truck. And I was tired, and I was scared, and I was very sad. And I knew that- That I had done things in my life that had directly contributed to what was happening to this island and what was happening around the world.
52:47 Speaker 00 I mean, I was riding home from site in the back of a gasoline-powered pickup truck, and that irony is not lost on me.
52:56 Speaker 00 We came through this one area where the dog finnel grows really high on either side of the road, and I could see this mist rising up from the ground, and there was moonlight and starlight coming down through the trees. And I felt all of those emotions kind of settle within me, just looking at the beauty of this place. And I realized that I could survive all of that, that I could survive this fear. Ignoring it had once felt like the only way that I could be in the world and love the world, but I'm no longer a child, and that's no longer possible.
53:32 Speaker 00 Now, the erosion on the island will continue, and it will probably get worse. Today, the erosion is threatening the 16th-century Spanish mission, but in the future, it could threaten the houses that we live in when we go down to work on the island. For me personally, this means that I'll continue to go down every chance I get to try and save this site and to try and really understand this monster that we've created. It means that I'll probably be going back to graduate school, which is something that I never thought I would say, talk about monsters.
54:10 Speaker 00 And it means I'll be getting to know this monster very intimately and probably wrestling with it for the rest of my life. Thank you.
54:23 Speaker 02 Hannah Morris is an archaeologist and a singer in storms from north Georgia. Hannah intends to move down to one of those islands, where she won't be able to turn away or separate herself from the effects of climate change and sea level rise. Hannah says she's sure it will be the most difficult thing she's ever done. In the same way you'd want to spend time with a loved one who is dying, that's how she feels about these forests and islands.
54:54 Speaker 02 Do you have a story to tell us? You can pitch us your story by recording it right on our site, or call 877-799-MOTH. That's 877-799-6684. The best pitches are developed for Moth shows all around the world. And that's it for this episode of The Moth Radio Hour. Thank you for joining in stories of people, places, and things cherished. How are you passing time? Is life making stories for you? What's your "back in the day" tale? Until again, we hope you'll join us next time.
55:44 Speaker 05 This episode of The Moth Radio Hour was produced by me, Jay Allison, Catherine Burns, and Jodi Powell, who also hosted and directed stories in this hour, along with Sarah, Austin, Jenness, and Meg Bowles. Co-producer is Vicky Merrick, associate producer Emily Couch. Additional grand slam coaching by Chloe Salmon. The rest of The Moth's leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Kluch, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Inga Glodowski, Sarah Jane Johnson, and Aldi Kaza. Special thanks to Leanna Schwartz on Norman Lear's team. Moth stories are true as remembered and affirmed by the storytellers.
56:28 Speaker 05 Our theme music is by The Drift. Other music in this hour from Stellwagen Symphonette, Ratatat, Bill Frisell, Dee Dee Horns, and Philip Glass and Third Coast Percussion. We receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Special thanks to our friends at Odyssey, including executive producer Leah Reese Dennis. You can find us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, @TheMoth. For more about our podcast, for information on pitching us your own story, and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.
57:13 Speaker 00 With over 600 live events each year, plus the production of our storytelling workshops and the Moth Radio Hour and podcast, it takes a lot to keep the moth moving. And the other day, I was browsing the Vistaprint site, and I thought, Vistaprint can be an incredible resource for us. We can use Vistaprint to customize banners for our stage backdrop. Walking into an event where your signage matches your merch instantly gives you that polished, established look that we love. Vistaprint gives you so much more than what you paid for, offering top-tier quality that makes your business look like a million bucks without blowing your budget. Plus, with real people and intuitive tools ready to help you nail every design detail, you get complete assurance from start to finish.
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