How did losing everything change your life for the better?

On this episode of the Storyworth podcast, a French-Algerian-New Yorker travels to India and has a chance encounter on a rooftop that changes the course of his life and helps him reconnect to home.

Jamie Kalven’s father spent years of his life working on a book he never got to complete. When his dad died, Jamie was forced to make a decision: leave the manuscript to be forgotten to time, or pick up where his father left off. In today’s episode, Jamie describes the ten year journey of completing his father’s book, and how it helped him connect with his father beyond the grave.

When he was a kid, Don’s neighborhood grocery store had a promotion: Win all the money you can carry out on your back. The only glitch? The prize money was all in coins. In today’s episode, Don tells his daughter about what it was like to watching his own father compete in the contest, and how those winnings changed their life.

On today’s show, Alicia and Chelsea Daniel, mother and daughter, talk about a moment in their lives when everything changed. Chelsea asks her mother about a house fire that sparked her mom to forge a new, more creative path in life. 

Norman Weiss loved the process of writing his Storyworth memoir so much, his family held a book launch party for him once it was complete. We tagged along. 

Carol Paige tells the story of finding love later in life, after both she and her new husband Larry had long, loving marriages prior. 

One day out of the blue, Curtis was told he had weeks to live. That diagnosis sent Curtis, and his family, down a whirlwind path that they never expected. Curtis had to settle all the business of dying, attend his own funeral, and say goodbye to his family with the fleeting time they had left together. In today’s episode, Curtis and his wife Nettie describe that journey, and what it looks like to be on the other side of it.

Skyler chased her dreams of being an elite athlete all the way to the 2024 Paris Games. In today’s episode, she discusses her final race as a professional cyclist, why she’s decided to retire early, and what it means to pivot into the unknown.

Mark Jobson came of age in a changing Jamaica. In the 1970s, his home country of Jamaica was rife with political polarization. In today’s episode, Mark’s son Ryan asks him about a plane trip from Jamaica to the States, with an album in tow, that changed the course of both of their lives forever.

On this episode of the Storyworth podcast, Krista talks to Pedro and Ana, a father and daughter duo from Kansas City and Peru. Ana asks Pedro to tell the story of his wedding day, in Peru, almost 50 years ago. The mayor of the town officiated and, humorously, it didn’t go according to plan.