Rashomon

Friends. I am sharing with you the first episode of my brand new podcast, Five Word Life Story. From this point on, please make sure to follow the show on its separate podcast feed. You can type the show title into the search bar of your podcast player of choice and it should pop up. Or you can access the show here: https://shows.acast.com/five-word-life-story Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

Hello Rashomon listeners! It's been a long time. Hillary now has a brand new podcast called Five Word Life Story.  Listen to the trailer here.    Once you listen to the trailer, put "Five Word Life Story" into your favorite podcast player and subscribe, follow, etc. We'd also love your help spreading the word. Share the show with a friend, on your socials, or out into the ether.    We can't wait f...

After deep diving into David Whyte and spending more time learning about astrology, Hillary adds a whole new layer to her definition of identity and the role it plays with storytelling. Listen to Hillary's conversation with astrologer and poet Heidi Rose Robbins and explore the idea of asking more beautiful questions of yourself and others and how storytelling can do just that! Additional reading/...

SPOILER ALERT: Please watch In & Of Itself on Hulu before listening to this episode.  After watching Derek Delgaudio's In & Of Itself on Hulu, Hillary begins to question whether or not storytelling an illusion of identity. Plus she regrets not having the foresight to see In & Of Itself when it was Off-Broadway in New York City.  In hopes of making up for the lost experience, Hillary interviews Pri...

Hillary takes every personality test on the market and digs in to Clifton Strengths with Surabhi Lal. At the beginning of the pandemic, Hillary took many personality tests to see if it changed anything about her identity.  Her findings were increased frustration, doubt and skepticism. In January of 2021 Hillary was forced to take yet another personality test called Clifton Strengths. This led to e...

What's the difference between personality and identity? Hillary meets with Dr. Jasara Hogan to explore this question and learn more about her relationship with Millicent Wimbleberry, epigenetics and the problem with personality.   Dear Listener, Make sure you listen to all of the previous Season 3 episodes for listening to this one. This is a serialized story.  Thanks, Hillary   Rashomon is produc...

Hillary and Millicent share a love of Disneyland and dream of a future where it's possible to live there. Hillary reads the final chapter of Millicent Wimbleberry: The Early Years and imagines what it would be like in the after life if her family could come back together and ride a log flume in the happiest place on earth (and beyond).   Dear Listener, Make sure you listen to all of the previous S...

Hillary explores how being an only child and being alone are two completely different ways of being. You can't choose to be an only child but you can choose whether or not you are alone and whether or not there are family stories worth telling. Plus, Chapter Five of Millicent Wimbleberry: The Early Years is a dramatic, fictional story about Hillary's real life cousin. (All of the names have been c...

Chapter Four of Millicent Wimbleberry: The Early Years takes a dark turn with the sudden death of a pet bird and a French teacher.  Murder aside, this story feels the most like a true Hillary story than all of the previous chapters of her childhood memoir.  Hillary explores school stories related to science experiments involving pancakes, lizards, and urine. It is in these science stories that Hil...

With a little bit of help from Philip Pullman, Millicent Wimbleberry Chapter Three, and her more recent pet stories, Hillary explores the question: Do we project our inner-self onto our animals?   Dear Listener, Make sure you listen to all of the previous Season 3 episodes for listening to this one. This is a serialized story.  Thanks, Hillary   Rashomon is produced and hosted by Hillary Rea Addit...

As long as she can remember, Hillary has always declared (to anyone who will listen) that she hates tomatoes.  But that's not the full story.  In this episode Hillary explores old photographs, looking for the true stories contained within. You'll also hear Millicent Wimbleberry: Chapter Two and the perspectives of Hillary's parents, Connie and Steven.  If you haven't yet listened to the first two...

Hillary confesses that she had a codependent relationship with Jessica Simpson's autobiography Open Book towards the beginning of quarantine. And thanks to Jessica, Hillary was inspired to turn her own childhood memoir into an audio book.  Millicent Wimbleberry: The Early Years begins with "The Avocado Accident" a story that pre-dates Hillary's memory. Hillary searches for deeper meaning to this s...

Hillary discovers her old My Book About Me and begins to question the book's significance. Did she really march to the beat of her own drum as a kid, like she remembers? Or did she choose the status quo by filling out the pages of this store bought book like everybody else?   My Book About Me is a book written by Dr. Seuss and RoyMckee. Learn more about Dr. Suess' Anti-Black and Anti-Asian Publish...

A very special bonus episode presenting one of our favorite shows: Material Feels. Material Feels is a podcast exploring the intimate relationship between artists and their materials. In this episode of Rashomon you will hear  an interview between Rashomon producer + host Hillary Rea and Material Feels producer + host Catherine Monahon, followed by the full episode Paper (Sculpture) – repetition,...

We're back! Welcome to Rashomon Season 3. This is a bit more than a trailer, it's a prologue for the story and season to come. New episodes begin Tuesday, March 30th. See you then!   Rashomon is produced and hosted by Hillary Rea   Music in this episode is by Liz Delise Check out Liz: https://www.elizabethdelise.com  Check our Liz's band, Lizdelise: https://www.lizdelise.com   Rashomon is no longe...

"Here we are sitting in the basement, characters in our own story. Making something beautiful together." This special bonus episode of Rashomon Season 2 is a story written and produced by Nicki Stein. Nicki sits down with her dad, Victor, to comb through old memories and to use each of their sides of the same story as a path for understanding each other in a new way. I'm Not Sure What I'm Chasing...

For a few years, Emily and her moms, Sammy and her family, Cara and her moms, most of the Gold-Doyle household, and Gerald and his wife would get together for Summer gatherings and Christmas get togethers. And then the reunions started to fade. Throughout the course of this experience definitions of family evolve and change. What is family? You'll hear thirteen answers to this question! Plus Hilla...

When Gerald travelled to India to study yoga, he discovered the books of George Gurdjieff and they changed his life. Gerald takes us through many other life changing moments, including the discovery of his biological children that came about after a few years of donating sperm to a women's clinic in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is the seventh chapter of a big story that takes up most of Rashomon...

Sammy and Emily both hear back from their sperm donor, Gerald, at the same time. And after meeting each other, they decide to meet Gerald together. And the chain of donor siblings meeting each other, each other's moms and Gerald, begins. Plus a rumination on the film The Kids Are All Right This is the sixth chapter of a big story that takes up most of Rashomon Season 2. You will hear multiple fami...

In the beginning of their nearly 40 year relationship, it was a struggle for Colette to come to terms with being in a relationship with Laura -- because she was a woman. And then after being together for a couple years, the relationship got easier and Colette told Laura that she really wanted to have children. But the the idea of having kids also made Colette aware that her relationship would be e...

Sammy and Emily never imagined that having a donor dad also meant a possibility of having donor siblings. When they finally get in touch with their sperm donor they learn about each other. And six months after that... they find out about Cara. This is the fourth chapter of a big story that takes up most of Rashomon Season 2. You will hear multiple families telling every side of multiple stories, a...

Susan Swan never thought that she wanted children, until a plane ride with a friend who was in the middle of an alternative insemination process. This was just at the beginning of the "Gayby Boom" -- a term coined by a 1990 article in Time Magazine about a new generation of gay parents. Susan used the same clinic as her friend and planned for a home birth with her partner Carol Ann by he...

Ever since she was little, Emily daydreamed about meeting her donor dad. He was a prince living in a far away land, a celebrity who had sent her a necklace, and possibly even George Bush. (The latter being more of a nightmare than a daydream.) When Emily was thirteen, she found other kids who had family structures like hers. They also wondered and dreamed about the day when they might be able to m...

Growing up Sammy, her moms, and her siblings always referred to her sperm donor dad as "The Mystery Gene." There was always an air of mystery about who he was and if she would ever get to know him. This is the first chapter of a big story that takes up most of Rashomon Season 2. You will hear multiple families telling every side of multiple stories, all having to do with the early days o...

The Leonard's have a famous family story involving electrocution and a giant Christmas tree. What started as a tragedy for all slowly grew to become a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation style comedy for everyone in the family, except for one. It's Thanksgiving in 2011. Half of the Leonard children (now adults) are home for the holiday weekend and get to work decorating the massive pine tree in...