Inaugural Story Shuffle: Beginnings

At the end of last month, on Saturday, May 29, we held the first Story Shuffle.

The theme was beginnings.

Listen to pieces here.

Lessons learned:

• Have everyone pick a card. Its numerical value will dictate order — nothing funkier — and track order that way.
• Give an earlier arrival time and push the shuffle back later
• Get that audio recorder nearer, with less unrelated feedback — cell phones distant, fans pointed elsewhere — but encourage the laughs, audience response and natural noise.

Protected: Holly Otterbein talks about beginning her train-hopping career

Neal Santos talks telling his mother he’s gay

Listen to Neal Santos, photographer and assistant web editor at Philadelphia CityPaper, talk about coming to terms with his sexuality and the much harder obstacle of letting his mother know.

Download here

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Rey Osma talks about losing his first car

Listen to Rey Osma, who works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, talk about losing his first car and what that meant for starting over.

here

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Alex Irwin talks about starting quality management with the wrong story

Listen to Alex Irwin, Progressive Business Publications editor, tell the story of choosing the wrong story at the wrong time at the beginning of a new job.

here

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Andrew Thompson talks about pooping in foreign lands

Listen to freelance journalist Andrew Thompson tell the story about how a third world amenity stood between him and helping others get a new start.

here

Brian James Kirk speaks about being a fat kid

Listen to Brian James Kirk, web editor of PlanPhilly and co-founder of Technically Philly, talk about growing as a fat kid and making a decision to find a new path.

here

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Erica Goldberg tells the story of property lost and beginning again

Listen to Erica Goldberg talk about foreign travel, lost possessions and having to face a beginning after an unexpected surprise.

here

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Listen to Sean Blanda tell the story of kicking ass and getting his kicked

Listen to Sean Blanda, editor with eMedia Vitals and Technically Philly co-founder, talk about whooping some ass as a child, before moving to a new town and beginning all over again.

here

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Christopher Wink on starting anew with an old table

Listen to the beginning of Story Shuffle, in which Christopher Wink, the media director of nonprofit Back on My Feet, Technically Philly co-founder and NEast Philly web editor, tells the story of a table that made its way through his family to his own home.

here

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