Braden Storytelling Grant

Soles Returning Home by Autumn Parrott

This is the story of a mother fighting grief after the loss of her daughter, and navigating what it means to be Indigenous within a criminal justice system that tries to take away her voice. These are her words. To learn more about Skye, visit: justiceforskyejim.com/ and for resources on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women visit: theskyewomanproject.com/ .

Home is Little Tokyo by Leah Chase

Little Tokyo is a small neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. Since 1905, it has been home to generations of Japanese Americans. Today, gentrification is threatening to destroy everything these families have built. This episode tells the story of one community's struggle for survival and the ways in which historical development has both fractured and solidified its people. For some, home is a bed one sleeps in. For us, home is Little Tokyo.

Home of the Hodag by Isabella Saracco & Sam Waddoups

The town of Rhinelander Wisconsin has a curious obsession: the Hodag, a fearsome green beast that a lumberjack allegedly discovered there in 1893. Entranced by the legend, Isabella and Sam travel to Rhinelander to uncover what’s behind the Hodag— and to decide if they should believe, too.

Missed Connections by Neeharika Bandlapalli

A story about people experiencing homelessness and their path to reconnection with their loved ones. Listen to learn why no matter where you are and what your journey in life has been, you will always be someone’s somebody.

Radical Puppets: Revisiting the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests by Emily Zhang

What does it mean to protest and are there ways to do so that bring creativity to the forefront along with the issues? Listen to how those who were on the front lines of the WTO protests in Seattle used puppetry to get their ideas and demands across to those in power.

Wonder Under Water by Gracie Newman

Come on a journey to understand our fascination with sea monsters and what they inspire in humans. In particular, hear about the Icelandic Lagarfljótsormur, the water monster that sparked a 13 person commission of the Icelandic government to investigate its existence.

She Was There by Paloma Moreno

Every year, a small group of Stanford Students are awarded grants to complete audio stories under the teaching, training, and mentorship of the Stanford Storytelling Project. These are the stories that came out of that process from 2020 to 2021.

Weird F***ed Up Amazing by Hannah Scott

I grew up in the sprawl of Los Angeles. I grew up on garage shows, Whiskey-A-Go-Go on Sunset Boulevard, classmates rapping on SoundCloud, my mom driving me an hour and a half to a venue in Orange County. My experiences with DIY music communities have been among the most important aspects of my life; yet, the deeper I get into this world, the more I hear people tell me that I missed out on “the glory days.” In this story, I travel to Asheville, North Carolina to prove that DIY is, in fact, not dead, but that young people today are making the subculture more accessible and creative.
Producer: Hannah Scott
Featuring:Mark HoslerEmma HutchensDavaion “Spaceman Jones” Bristol
Music:Scott Shoemaker, the Well Drinkers (live at the Grey Eagle)alright lover: “II”, “divorced father son all stars”, “furukawa”Ulises Lima: “Mark 1”Richard Jonas: “hhhaaarrrdddcccooorrreee”Pudge: “Sweetheart”Negativland: “Destroying Anything”Spaceman Jones and the Motherships: “My City Has Lights”“Around the Cliffs”Slugly: “Poison” (live at the Mothlight)Dude Babe (live at Fleetwoods)
Special Thanks:David McConvilleAlice SebrellAndrea Burns DebevoiseTeresa ClarkFred Turner

To The Beat Of The Drum by Mylan Gray

When you feel at home thousands of miles away from your birthplace, what choice do you have but to return? I take a return trip to the Festival of the Rosary—an African syncretic festival in the southeast of Brazil. In returning, I learned African diasporic peoples might be connected by more than just African ancestry. Marked by cultural loss from the middle passage, this festival births a culture of its own. Its songs and rituals speak to the suffering of slavery and embrace a remembrance of forgotten homelands. As a black person from the United States, being in the presence of this grieving made room for something else to take root.
Producer: Mylan Gray
Featuring: Ana Luzia Da Silva, Padre Jailson, Rainha Cleusa, Dayonna Tucker, Ramona Greene, Cameron Woods

The Reality Teacher by Elena Press

In the summer of 2019, I took off on a cross-country road trip to discover my father’s mysterious hippie past. Though I grew up with a dad who worked as an accounting professor, all throughout my childhood I heard stories of my dad building log cabins in Washington Woodlands, running a granola coop and my half-sister born on the kitchen table. Join me as I travel across time and space to uncover the truth of it all and learn from “the reality teacher.”
Producer: Elena Press
Music: UnthunkMonplaisirAn Eagle in Your MindLes HaydenLobo LocoKathleen MartinMutherpluckinSilicon TransmitterLatch Swing