Braden Storytelling Grant

Aru Nair goes on a journey to India to understand how oral tradition preserves cultures. But when a surprise trip to her father's home town shows her a side if him she's never seen, she emerges with a new understanding of how the stories we tell shape the people we become.

After months apart, a mother and daughter pick an unlikely reunion activity: a pilgrimage. Follow them as they take a journey up coastal Scotland and deepen their understanding of themselves and their relationship.

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/ .

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 glo...

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...

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 t...

What’s the point of all of this? It’s a question we've all asked ourselves. For child-refugees who’ve come to America (and their descendants), attempting to answer this question is inevitably tied with wondering why fate, God, or whatever higher power they believe in has given them opportunities that those who came before them did not have. If you’ve ever asked yourself what it is that you need to...

In her late thirties, Lanie, Sophie’s mom, became a born again Christian. Christianity gave her life meaning and happiness. When Lanie found God, “All the heaviness was just lifted.” Sophie, an atheist, struggles to find purpose in her own life. In this story, Sophie sets out to determine if what saved her mother could save her, too. Producer: Sophie McNulty Music: The Healing (Sergey Cheremisinov...

In the summer of 2019, I fly to Israel with a single goal in mind. I want to play a song. But not just any song. I want to play a Klezmer song. This podcast follows my journey meeting Jewish musicians and dealing with family tragedy to compose a personal song. “Music doesn’t lie.” You'll agree when you hear how beautiful, haunting, and inspiring Klezmer music can be. Producer: Daniel Helena Alexan...

What does it mean to (be queer) and come of age on the internet? In the past ten years, the queer games movement has exploded. Around the world, more and more people feel like they can make free and simple and strange games - ones that speak to queer stories and experiences. But it wasn’t always this easy. Some queer gamers used the earliest, clunkiest internet to find each other in crisis, to fin...

While working in Entebbe, Uganda for two months, Dylan befriends a group of musicians and creates a music video for a rapper named Ben. Join Dylan as his personal identity and perceptions about Entebbe are challenged, nuanced, and shaped through the creation of the music video. Producer: ​Dylan Junkin Special thanks to Rahul Benno Music: HIlls and Valleys by Buju Banton, The Road is Rough by Jimmy...

Description: In Hue, Vietnam, bullet holes and bunkers are constant reminders of the stories no one mentions. In New York, a daughter tries to understand how the war in Vietnam has shaped her father’s life and hers. In both worlds, however, “History is politics” and silence is the rule. But what happens when we start asking about memory, not History? Producer: Axelle Marcantetti  

I would have been born here, had my parents never left this town for the U.S. In my journey, I retrace my steps back to Malinaltenango, Mexico, the land my parents have always called home and a land I have never really known on my own. During my time here, I struggle with ideas of identity, belonging, family, and trauma. I re-open wounds that have long been sealed to make sense of my life in relat...

Besher grew up in Syria till the war forced him, and his family, to flee. This non-narrated portrait follows his journey from Aleppo to California and finally to Stanford Medical School. Produced as part of MED 232 Global Health course (2018) Producer: Besher Ashouri (and Jake warga) Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/seier/1477997213

Hurricane Maria revealed a dependency on the government but there was one community that used it as an opportunity to claim their independence. “There was no government here. And we couldn't wait for the government. We couldn't wait for anyone.” In this story I visit of the community of Mariana that has tried to separate themselves from the government. Producer: Gabriela Nagle Alverio Music: Puert...

What does a war taste like? Tracing the history of U.S. military combat ration in Korea, the podcast tells the Koreans’ bittersweet encounters with America. Producer: Won-Gi Jung Music: “Submerging Blue-Black” by Podington Bear, in Fathomless-Ambient “Memory Wind” by Podington Bear, in Fathomless-Ambient

If sound matters, why? I am not alone in fearing blindness, because we live in a world of visuals. Whether I am reading a book, following street signs, or hopping on a train, I can’t imagine navigating a world without my eyes. I tune out the cacophony of cars, squeaks, barks, and pedestrian crossings on a daily basis. In privileging sight, what am I missing in sound? “When you close your eyes you...

You’re six years old. Child protective services removed you from the only life you’ve ever known and placed you in state custody, into the foster care system. Producer: ​​Rachel Vaughan Music:​​ Junior85 - You can calmly put this thing together Lee Rosevere - And So Then Podington Bear - Daydreamer

Some people pray to gods, but other people pray to ghosts. In this story, Katie Lan explores the temples and folk religion in Taiwan, where her parents and the rest of her family is from. Here, she explores ghost temples and even learns to pray to a dog? Producer: Katie Lan Music: 晶晶 1969 鄧麗君 www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI0lHGnKtSI