RISK!

Latest Episodes:

Post Mortem Sep 09, 2025

Show notes

Chelsea Dalsey tells Kevin Allison about her journey with addiction and the process of truly coming to terms with her experience.

Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

🎙️Conversation Story: Post Mortem by Chelsea Dalsey

While working on cadavers in med school, Chelsea desperately hides her addiction to heroin and cocaine. Now, decades later, she has a realization about why she was finally able to quit the drugs.

keywords: med school, addiction, recovery

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York on 9/25

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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The Best of School Stories #1 Sep 04, 2025

Show notes

A compilation of some of the best school related stories from the podcast.

🎤Live Story: Taking A Long Time by Angie Chatman

At age 8 Angie is in 2nd grade. A policeman visits and when he asks for a volunteer he hand shoots up. He handcuffs her in front of the classroom and refuses to let her go until she says "please." The fright causes her to pee, until the teacher finally insists he let her go. Angie's mom does nothing about it, but tells her, "Change is going to come."

🎤Live Story: Found In Translation by Eli Reiter

Eli is an Orthodox Jewish Kid who becomes friends with a Muslim student at school. When the conflict in Israel heightens and his friend is there, Eli worries about his safety – discovering that friendship crosses boundaries.

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC September 25th

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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The Fingers Episode Sep 02, 2025

Show notes

Bill, Brad, and Dominic recall the strange circumstances surrounding their broken or missing digits, with guest host John LaSala.

🎤Live Story: Just the Tip by Bill Worley

Bill reveals how he lost the tip of his finger—knife fights, dive bars, a guy losing an eye—before revealing something even stranger: the truth.

keywords: funny injury story, unreliable narrator, severed finger, missing finger, story slam

🎤Live Story: The Pillowfighter by Dominic Dierkes

Dominic breaks his finger doing jiu-jitsu without health insurance, then bites through his own tongue under anesthesia and gets a personal follow-up call from the panicked anesthesiologist.

keywords: broken finger, jiu-jitsu injury, no health insurance, ER horror story, medical bill anxiety, hospital surgery gone wrong, biting tongue during surgery

🎤Radio Story: A Perfect Night by Brad Lawrence

Brad drunkenly breaks his finger during a dumb, hypothetical bar fight in a Brooklyn blizzard, but he refuses to leave, determined not to ruin a perfect night.

keywords: bar life, New York City blizzard, broken finger, drunken injury, barfight fantasy, Brooklyn nightlife, dating a bartender

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (September 25th and/or December 11th)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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Hurt Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in July of 2013, when Trevor Noah and Robin Gelfenbien shared about scars they've healed from.

🎤Live Story: Vargas by Robin Gelfenbien

In college, Robin is bullied by a whole pack of frat brothers who call her "Vargas," after a character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In the end, she gets to confront the leader of the group about it.

keywords: bullying, frat life, hazing, sexism

🎤Live Story: The Best Looking Person in the Family by Trevor Noah

Growing up in South Africa during Apartheid, Trevor watched his mother deal not only with the prejudice they were facing, but with an abusive boyfriend who shot her in the head.

keywords: celebrity storyteller, South Africa, apartheid, prejudice, abuse, violence

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NY: September 25th and December 11th

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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My Secret Career: RISK! Reacts Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

Kevin hears C. J. Guy’s “My Secret Career” story from The Secret Room for the first time and gives you his hot takes. You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

This is part of our RISK! Reacts series, where we listen to a story told on another show and give our first reactions.

🎙️ Story: My Secret Career by C.J. Guy

CJ reveals his secret career path that started with dropping out of law school without informing his family and becoming a flight attendant. He maintained the lie for eight months until his sister discovered the secret.

keywords: flight attendant, law school, german, hogans heroes, lie, secret

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (December 11th, 2025)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young Rebels Aug 21, 2025

Show notes

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in June of 2013, when Ethan Ullman, Katy Frame, Ben Lerman and Rob Lathan share stories about youthful indiscretions.

🎤Live Story: The Amazing Adventures of Ethan and the Lunch Monkey by Ethan Ullman

In school, Ethan and a friend call a lunch lady who was mean to them "the Lunch Monkey." Called to the principal's office, they invent a comic book series they claim they were referencing, about a superhero by that name.

keywords: sophomoric humor, boys will be boys, in trouble

🎤Live Story: Good Vibrations by Katy Frame

As a kid, Katy plays with things that vibrate around her private parts. She devises a machine of her own out of a mechanical toy set. Her parents shame her for it and it’s not till years later that she learns vibrators are common.

keywords: sexual exploration, vibrators, bird and bees

🎤Live Story: Intense Friendships in the Bus Depot by Ben Lerman

In his teen years, Ben forgets he left a gay porn video in the VHS at home while he’s off at a music festival. He calls his mom to make a convoluted excuse, but it doesn’t fly.

keywords: gay kids, in the closet, secrets and lies

🎤Live Story: Where the World Is by Rob Lathan

In college, Rob is bullied by frat brothers, but finds acceptance when he drinks huge amounts as they dare him to do. One night he drinks himself into a coma, with a blood alcohol level normally considered certain death.

keywords: near death, alcohol poisoning, peer pressure, hazing

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York (9/25)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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The Rebound Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

John F. O'Donnell tells Kevin about that time he got kicked out of his favorite comedy club. You can also watch this episode on YouTube.

Check out all of our Conversation Stories!

🎙️Conversation Story: The Rebound by John F. O'Donnell

John starts out in the New York comedy scene, dealing with his bi-polar disorder, plus memorable encounters during his early days as a comedian.

keywords: Bipolar I Disorder, lithium, mental illness, comedy, comedian

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC (September 25) or (December 11)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Best of Self-Help Stories #3 Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

Tommy Galan and Marc Amigone share stories about helping others by helping themselves.

A part of our series called Self-Help Stories.

🎤Live Story: Just Commit by Tommy Galan

Tommy drinks and drinks. His final days of drinking almost destroy his family life. When a mentor tells him to "just commit" to whatever he feels will work best for him, he gives up the bottle.

🎤Radio Story: Life is a Gift by Marc Amigone

Marc takes a trip to Thailand to study rock climbing, despite his parent's objections. He nearly paralyses himself in a climbing accident. His parents help him heal, but he still feels risks are worth taking.

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NY (9/25) or (12/11)

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

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Sink or Swim Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

Valerie Ward and David Patteson share stories about calling for help when the world gets dangerous.

🎤Live Story: Treading Water by Valerie Ward

In her younger days, Valerie got stuck under a dock while swimming in a lake. It brought about mixed feelings about calling for help and how much people might or might not care about her.

keywords: lake, swimming, dock, childhood

🎙️Radio Story: Rescuer by David Patteson

As a kid, David is in danger of drowning till he's rescued by his big brother Mike, who goes on to fill in as surrogate mother to his brothers and sisters once their real mother abandons them.

keywords: swimming, drowning, childhood, family

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC September 25 or December 11

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live From Charleston 2! Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

A Classic RISK! episode from our early years that first ran in June of 2013 - Stories from our 2nd visit to Charleston’s Theatre 99!

🎤Live Story: The Storm by Camille Lowman

Camille attends a bachelorette party full of proper Southern suburbanites and watches them descend into drunken shenanigans when the male stripper arrives.

keywords: women behaving badly, strippers, bad behavior, oral sex

🎤Live Story: The Wrapper by Nathaniel Bates

Nathaniel is confounded when, as a child, he sees his dad’s penis and realizes that it is much different from his own, causing him lots of secret shame and worry about having a foreskin.

keywords: circumcision, penises, parents, childhood, puberty, school

🎤Live Story: Roadside Assistance by Shon Kennedy

Shon, a Black woman, is in a car accident in the deep South. A white trash redneck comes to her aid (with lots of marijuana to offer as well) and the two of them end up revealing their deepest insecurities to one another.

keywords: Stereotypes, defied expectations, strange friendships, cars, pot

🌈 Support RISK! & Get Involved

• 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in New York September 25th

• ✍️ Pitch your story⁠

• ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ or ⁠make a one-time PayPal donation⁠

• 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠

• 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠

• 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices