Introducing Family Lore

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Preamble — "Introducing Family Lore"
Date: May 20, 2026
Host: Sharon McMahon
Featured: Preview of new podcast "Family Lore" with Lloyd Lockridge and guests

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Overview

In this episode of The Preamble, Sharon McMahon introduces listeners to an exciting new podcast: Family Lore. This new series, hosted by Lloyd Lockridge, delves into the tangled web of stories families pass down—the legends, oddities, and sometimes mysterious narratives that shape our understanding of who we are. The preview explores why family stories matter, how they evolve, and what we can discover by questioning their origins.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Nature and Importance of Family Stories

• Stories shape both personal and cultural histories, forming the basis of what we believe about ourselves and our world.
• These narratives, told at dinner tables or family gatherings, often become "authoritative" over time, yet they are fluid, shifting with retelling and re-examination.
• The series aims not to "dismantle everything," but to "clarify, to surface what's been assumed, what's been constructed, and what might be more complicated than it first appears." ([00:00])

Notable Quote

"Because understanding the stories we're told helps us understand our personal history."
— Narrator ([00:50])

2. The Drive to Uncover Family Lore

• Lloyd Lockridge and guests discuss the draw of discovering where we come from, often motivated by curiosity or a need for answers about family character and circumstance.
• For some, the interest in ancestry starts in childhood and isn't about DNA percentages, but about context and the lived stories of ancestors.
  • "I've not done [the DNA test]. I wasn't all that interested in the statistical breakdown... I'm more interested in the stories."
    — Guest ([01:20])

3. Examples of Family Lore: The Wild Stories

• The podcast teases a line-up of unusual family legends:
  • A great uncle supposedly murdered someone.
  • Someone's relative claimed to invent the margarita.
  • A patent granted just before the Wright brothers' famous flight.
• Many of these tales, whether "hard to believe" or "hard to imagine," illustrate how stories morph across generations and become a special kind of family mythos.
  • "Some of these stories are hard to believe. Others are hard to imagine. And as these tall tales get passed down... they become something more than a family story. They become family lore."
    — Lloyd Lockridge ([02:05])

4. Investigating the Story: Seeking Truth

• Family Lore takes on the challenge of not just sharing family stories, but also researching and verifying the facts behind them, often with the help of archivists and researchers.
  • "To go into the archive and find what you think is, like, not just the secret of your family's life, but the explanatory secret of your family's life."
    — Archivist/Researcher ([02:29])

5. The Value in All Family Histories

• The idea surfaces that no one truly has a "boring" family; it's about knowing where to look and what questions to ask.
  • "I love when I hear somebody says I have a boring family history... It's because you don't know anything about your history."
    — Family Member 3 ([02:58])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On family story evolution:

  "But look a little closer and you start to see those stories aren't fixed. They shift. They evolve. And we begin to ask better questions of them."
  — Narrator ([00:25])

• On seeking origins:

  "What made you so interested in all these ancestral lines and influences?"
  — Interviewer ([01:03])

• On facts vs. lore:

  "And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true."
  — Lloyd Lockridge ([02:27])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00] — Introduction: The power and mutability of inherited stories
• [01:01] — Interview with a guest about personal interest in ancestry and family stories
• [01:36] — Host Lloyd Lockridge introduces Family Lore and examples of unusual family tales
• [02:29] — Research techniques: Confirming or debunking family lore through archives
• [02:52] — Reflections on family history value—no one's story is really boring
• [03:07] — Closing teaser: Invitation to follow and listen to Family Lore

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Tone & Takeaway

The preview maintains an inviting, inquisitive, and slightly whimsical tone, encouraging listeners to reconsider family stories not just as entertainment, but as meaningful clues to their personal and collective histories. Lloyd and his guests blend curiosity with respect for the past, demonstrating that every family has mysteries and marvels waiting to be uncovered.

Family Lore promises to be a journey of discovery—part family therapy, part detective work—with an honesty and warmth that matches The Preamble’s commitment to clarity.

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Transcript

[Narrator]

We all inherit stories. Some of them are big cultural narratives, like the ones that shape what ends up in history books. And then there are the personal ones, the stories passed across the dinner table, retold at holiday gatherings, refined over time into something that feels authoritative. But look a little closer and you start to see those stories aren't fixed. They shift. They evolve. And we begin to ask better questions of them. Not to dismantle everything, but to understand what we've inherited and how it continues to shape us. That's what the new podcast Family Lore, is doing. It revisits the stories families tell about themselves and examines them with fresh curiosity, not to provoke, but to clarify, to surface what's been assumed, what's been constructed, and what might be more complicated than it first appears. Because understanding the stories we're told helps us understand our personal history. Here's a preview of Family Lore. You can find full episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

[Interviewer]

So here is what I want to understand.

[Guest]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

What made you so interested in all these ancestral lines and ancestral influences?

[Guest]

So I've been interested in it for so long that I can't remember when it started.

[Interviewer]

But all I can tell you, like, in childhood.

[Guest]

Childhood.

[Interviewer]

Did you do the DNA test?

[Guest]

I've not done that. I wasn't all that interested in the statistical breakdown of my DNA. I'm more interested in the stories.

[Interviewer]

The stories of your ancestors?

[Guest]

Of my ancestors and the circumstances that. That moved them around the planet.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Every family has its stories. Your grandparents met on a blind date, or your great grandmother passed through Ellis Island. But every once in a while, you'll hear something a little more unusual.

[Family Member 1]

I have a really vague memory of somebody saying, did you know your great uncle killed somebody?

[Family Member 2]

I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita.

[Family Member 3]

He gets a patent one month before the Wright brothers. Oh, my God.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Some of these stories are hard to believe. Others are hard to imagine. And as these tall tales get passed down through the generations, they become something more than a family story. They become family lore. My name is Lloyd Lockridge, and in this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell stories about their families. And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true.

[Archivist/Researcher]

To go into the archive and find what you think is, like, not just the secret of your family's life, but the explanatory secret of your family's life.

[Family Member 1]

Wow. You know, maybe this old family story that I overheard in my grandmother's kitchen is true.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

This is Family Lore, a new series from Odyssey podcasts.

[Archivist/Researcher]

You're always wondering why your dad is a certain way. Well, here's one answer I love when

[Family Member 3]

I hear somebody says I have a boring family history. They didn't do anything. I said it's because you don't know anything about your history.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Please follow and listen to family lore on any of your podcast apps.