Podcast
6-minute Stories
Hosted by Randell Jones · EN
True, personal stories from new voices and experienced writers resonating with the themes of the Personal Essay/Story Publishing Projects: "Bearing Up" (2018) and "Exploring" (2019).
28episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
"A Visit with Uncle Gilbert" by Ginny Foard
2w ago00:08:46Tap to summarize –He could not send others into dangers that he was not willing to face himself.The locals know that date. They honor it. They value it because it gave them freedoms that they live to this day.Words and their friends fill Ginny’s days. Sometimes they come in a well-organized dignified gathering so that Ginny can enquire about the spellings and meanings of the ones she hasn’t met before. Other times, however, they spill out and fly by quickly as if they flew out the window of a speeding car. Ginny likes to imagine what those words might have been, try out using them and guessing their derivations.A fascinating thing is that you can rearrange words over and over. And Ginny keeps doing that. Every time out comes a different story. Real stories. Ginny shares her little post office box on Sullivans Island, South Carolina with many words and hopes to keep on doing so.
Transcribe →"The Green Roach" by A. A. Krombach
3w ago00:07:34Tap to summarize – “If you turn around now, I’ll get you home.”A 1955 Chevy Nomad station wagon, her faded, chalky green body panels and acid-etched roof and hood left no doubt as to her ancestry.
Transcribe →"A Light in the Tunnel" by Emily Rosen
4w ago00:08:37Tap to summarize– There are all kinds of marriages.Freedom is not cheap. And it is never “pure.” Emily Rosen lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where for over 20 years and until her 95th birthday, she instructed classes in memoir writing, publishing two anthologies of stories from her classes, and the book, Who Am I? (Emily celebrates her 99th birthday in April 2026.) For two decades and until the local weekly newspaper folded in 2021, she wrote the column “Everything's Coming Up Rosen.” Her travel and feature articles have appeared nationwide while her poetry has mostly languished in the pages of a fat notebook. Some of her poetry was rescued in 2024 from its “languishing” and turned into a short chapbook, Lingering over a L-o-ong Life: Selected Poems from My Journey (Available on Amazon.) Emily has worked as a copy writer, travel writer, columnist, elementary and community college teacher, mental health counselor, and owner of the now defunct “singing telegram” company, Witty Ditty. Her long-lived history puts her at an old Philco Radio listening to FDR’s “Fireside Chats.” (www.emilyrosen424.com)
Transcribe →"Free of the Feds" by Phoenicia Miracle
Apr 1500:07:37Tap to summarize– The cows? The cows were a problem?I walked each check to the bursar's office, fully aware that the cost of my education was far greater than the value of the check.Phoenicia Miracle is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky, one of Appalachia's most recognizable communities. Through non-fiction short stories, Phoenicia features the region's people and place in authentic, narrowly focused plots. "Free from the Feds" centers on her Dad and his independent, self-reliant spirit. This piece benefited from recommendations made by her local writing group in Charleston, S.C. For several decades, Phoenicia worked in education and non-profit fundraising. Recently, she launched Shuck Beans, a podcast celebrating positive aspects of Southern Appalachian culture.
Transcribe →"Free Range" by Vicki Easterly
Apr 800:07:18Tap to summarize – I am certain we had more fun.There was nothing like the feel of the wind slapping hair in our faces as we leaned out the window and yelled fervent taunts at the opposing cars.Vicki Easterly is a retired disability advocate living in Frankfort, Kentucky. Several of her stories have appeared in prior PSPP anthologies. Her book, Miracles in the Mundane, was selected for the annual Kentucky Book Festival. She was a finalist in the Poetry Unites Kentucky competition. Her nonfiction memoir was a winner in the 2025 Kentucky Monthly writing contest. She continues to write memoir, poetry, and children’s stories. She enjoys playing with her granddaughters, baking, and acting.
Transcribe →"Standing By" by Jo McElroy Senecal
Apr 100:08:22Tap to summarize – Not so fast, my slowly dying friend!Out there my heart easily held you with the thrum of ancestral music, song, and dance, as consistent as air.A native fish-taco-loving San Diegan, Jo McElroy Senecal spent decades on the East Coast, blending professional stage and clown credits with various roles at magical powerhouses like The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and The Big Apple Circus Clown Care (now Healthy Humor). Her NYTimes article hints at her passion for pediatric palliative care, which Jo continues to do along with adult hospice care in Charleston, South Carolina. Jo has been a member of the Lunas, six actors-turned-writers, for two decades. .Jo is a member of Sullivan’s Island’s Poe Library Memoir Group.
Transcribe →"Saints Surprise and How I Learn the Freedom of Speaking Up" by Mary Alice Dixon
Mar 2500:07:45Tap to summarize“Sister, that sounds like fortune telling. Isn’t that a sin?”What would happen to the rest of us who die swallowing pennies and buttons? But not wanting to be the rooster, I stay silent.Mary Alice Dixon treasures a tattered old index card on which her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Elvira Friend, wrote the recipe for her Happiness Cake. Mary Alice, a multiple Pushcart nominee, won the North Carolina Writers’ Network Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition and is a past finalist for the NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award. Her chapbook, Snakeberry Mamas: Words from the Wild (Charlotte Lit Press, 2025), offers poems of Appalachian women and folkways. She lives in Charlotte, NC where she grows sunflowers in cow manure. Find her at www.maryalicedixon.com.
Transcribe →Introduction to "Free" - Vol. 13, Personal Story Publishing Prioject
Mar 1800:08:45Tap to summarizeFreedom and scot-free or freeloader and free-for-allWe acknowledge those blessings and those curses in the stories we tell.
Transcribe →"Run On" by Alison Rice Bruster
Mar 1100:07:09Tap to summarize – I have always told myself I’m not a runner.Race day in November dawned bright and crisp.After a career spent finding the voices of senior business executives, Alison Rice Bruster is writing a new chapter. She holds a BA in English Literature from Queens University of Charlotte. Her work has been published in three previous Personal Story Publishing Project collections, and she won recognition in the Charlotte Writers Club Nonfiction Contest. She is a member of Charlotte Lit, the Charlotte Writers Club, the North Carolina Writers Network, and the South Carolina Writers Association. She lives in Fort Mill, S.C., and travels widely, often bringing home stories worth telling.
Transcribe →"Five Minutes More" by Diana Neunkirchner (reprise from Sept 2023)
Mar 400:07:48Tap to summarizeDiana Neunkirchner is a retired teacher living in Rougemont, North Carolina. An avid reader and writer, she is a member of the Durham Writers Group, the Writers’ Inspirational Network, and the Writers’ Critique Group. When she’s not writing short stories, personal essays, or memoir, she is hiking along the Eno River or playing the flute at Your Saving Grace, the family farm.
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