Today's storyteller is Heleana Blackwell sharing her story of growing up as a black nerd in a conservative, mostly-white small British town. Heleana is an stand-up comedian who also works as a strategist and this story shows us why she excells at both. After the story, we delve deeper into the challenges she faced, and the strategies she used to overcome them.

Find Heleana on Instagram here: @h_a_blackwell

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Find out more about True Story London on our website: truestorylondon.com

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Content notice: this episode contains reference to rape.

Today's storyteller is Tihane, sharing her story of how a bizarre neurological experience unlocked unsettling, once-buried memories. As a musician and artist, Tihane's distinctive creative style really shines through in this intimate yet bold telling. Afterwards, I talk with Tihane more about the context of her story, the nature of unexplained and mystical phenomenons, and the experience of living beyond trauma.

Find more about Tihane, her online courses and creative coaching here: https://linktr.ee/tihane.

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truestorylondon.com

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Happy New Year! To mark the end of a year of firsts and experiments for True Story London, we're sharing something special with you. In 2023 we debuted some unique live shows in which songwriters wrote and performed original songs inspired by another person's true story. We'd like you to have a taste of these magical shows as we close out the year - this is True Story Soundtrack.

Stories:

Bonnie's full story: https://www.truestory.london/10-make-me-one-with-everything-wbonnie-oddie/

Lili's full story: https://www.truestory.london/04-my-refugee-story-wlili-sulejmanovic/

Songwriters:

Tihane - Instagram: @tihane___

Hari - Instagram: @harimusiq

John Chisholm - Sea Noise (Instagram): @sea_noise, Lost Moons (Bandcamp): lostmoons.bandcamp.com

Amarra - Instagram: @iamamarra

Ellis Ballard - Instagram: @ellis.ballard, Bandcamp: ellisballard.bandcamp.com

Lauren Lucille - Instagram: @iamlaurenlucille

Wandering Lex - Instagram: @wandering_lex

Segnon - Instagram: @segnontv

Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

CREDITS:

Hosted by Michelle Toth

Produced by Ellis Ballard

Theme Music by Sea Noise

Sound effects recordings by 'magedu' via Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/magedu/sounds/273437

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Today's storyteller is Donna Freed, telling us the wild and fascinating story of finding out she was adopted - and the shocking revelation of just who her birth parents were. Donna has written an entire excellent memoir on this topic, so we have plenty to talk about in our discussion after the story.

Donna's memoir 'Duplicity: My Mother's Secrets' is available now, published by Muswell Press: https://muswell-press.co.uk/product/duplicity-9781739638290-paperback

Donna can be found on Instagram at @donnafreed

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Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's storyteller is Maria Shehata, talking about the time she fell in love with someone across the Atlantic, then quickly fell out of love when they met in person. Maria is a brilliantly funny stand-up comedian and her story follows suit. Though, in our talk afterward, you'll also hear about how this story has more serious meaning in her life, and how both Maria's approach to her craft and understanding of herself are evolving.

Maria can be found online at mariashehata.com

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Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

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Today's storyteller is Jess Carrivick, sharing her story of being diagnosed with the chronic pain disorder vulvodynia. Jess delights in shocking the audience into laughter while talking candidly about this rarely-discussed and really important health issue. After her story, we discuss the use of humor to broach serious topics, the nature of chronic illness, and how people with vaginas could be better served by the medical world.

Jess can be found online at jesscarrivick.com

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Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

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Today's storyteller is Michael Noel, sharing his story of how an optimistic road trip turned very dark. Since Michael is based in California, this is our first interview conducted entirely online - but we just had to give him a call to hear his developing insights into how he makes sense of this dramatic and transformative episode in his life.

Follow Michael on Instagram here: @itsreallymichaelnoel

Michael's sidecar tours of San Francisco can be found at ridesbyme.com

This episode contains references to suicide.

For suicide prevention support in the UK, Samaritans can be reached on 116-123 or by email at jo@samaritans.org. For help elsewhere, befrienders.org lists local services.

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Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's storyteller is Dee Gibson, sharing how she realised her charmed life wasn't actually going in the direction she wanted - and what she did about it. Despite the difficult and unique circumstances, Dee manages to make this story highly relatable with insights into breaking with tradition, listening to intuition, and pursuing an unexpected path. Stick around after the story to hear Dee go into more depth about all of these topics and more.

More information about Dee's hotel in Sri Lanka, Kalukanda House, can be found here.

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Find out about our live shows, workshops and past podcast episodes on our website: truestorylondon.com

Follow us on Instagram at @truestoryldn

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.