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Marshall York
I sold my car in Carvana last night.
Kevin Allison
Well, that's cool.
Winter Tashlin
No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.
Kevin Allison
So what's the problem?
Winter Tashlin
That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes as smoothly. I'm waiting for the catch.
Kevin Allison
Maybe there's no catch.
Winter Tashlin
That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.
Kevin Allison
Wow. You need to relax.
Winter Tashlin
I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood?
Advertisement Voice
Is this table wood?
Kevin Allison
I think it's laminate.
Winter Tashlin
Okay.
Advertisement Voice
Yeah, that's good.
Winter Tashlin
That's close enough.
Kevin Allison
Car selling without a catch. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply.
Gustavo Sorola
Hi, I'm Gustavo Sorola and love D and D style adventures full of humor and heart. You should check out Tales from the Stinky Dragon. Tales from the Stinky Dragon is a cinematic listening experience complete with guest performances from professional voice actors and comedians, immersive sound design and its own musical score. Go on a thrilling journey with four friends and me, Gus, their very patient dungeon master. As we stumble through disastrous dice rolls, questionable roleplay decisions, and even a few wholesome feel good moments along the way. You can binge our first two campaigns or join us every other week for our latest third campaign. No matter where you decide to start listening, you're guaranteed to have a side splitting journey that's fun for all ages and perfect for both D and D veterans and newcomer alike. Just search for Tales from the Stinky Dragon wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe today.
Kevin Allison
Hello folks, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison and every Thursday we release these special, special episodes where we look back at content from our earlier years. This week it's the best of Adventure Stories Number three. Some pretty suspenseful adventures in this one. Some rather nerve wracking stuff. In a little bit we're gonna hear from Marshall York. But first, a story from Winter. Tashlin. Here's Winter now with a story we call Miserable.
Winter Tashlin
This is the story of the worst day of my life. In 1996, I was a camper at a upstate New York summer camp for Jewish teenagers. I was also a flamboyant gay kid with severe Tourette syndrome. Tourette is really bizarre at its heart.
Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition that causes involuntary movements and sounds. I experience Tourette every waking moment of every day. At the moment, probably the most audible thing anyone would be aware of is this stupid accent of mine. I was raised in Central Massachusetts and haven't actually spent any time out to the United states.
But every two years for about 14
months I sound like this. And then I'll sound like an American boy who was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts for a little while and then I'll go back to sounding like this. Most people with Tourette can suppress some or all their symptoms for some period of time. For me today I can go hours
without a vocal tic, although for some
reason I can't suppress the stupid accent. When I was just about 13, I had an eye blink and I went to the ophthalmologist and then the eye blink became paired with a quick sniff. So I blink my eyes and real quick. Very shortly after that, I was blinking my eyes, sniffing and jerking my head to the left all at once. And at this point, we had clearly passed beyond the realm of what could be considered an allergy. One night when I was in the shower, I made a sound. It was sort of a weird popping sound, sort of a pop. I was doing that repeatedly while jerking my head to the left and blinking my eyes. And my mother came in and said, are you doing that on purpose? And I said no, and then she burst into tears. The popping sound is actually quite difficult to make and it turned relatively quickly into a bark, which sounded like the terrier I had growing up. I still bark today, although now I sound more like the shiba inu that I have today. And from there, barking was joined by significant physical tics. I snapped my arm out to the right, I jerked my head violently. I ended up with, for a period of time, these sort of full body tics that were reminiscent almost of grandma seizures. And spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital. Back then, the idea was that you were supposed to just medicate until the tics stopped.
I weighed over 300 pounds because I was on massive dose of medication that just didn't do shit.
I had six months where I screamed obscenities about poultry, fuck a chicken, and that sort of thing.
Marshall York
I.
Winter Tashlin
The thing people most remember was I had a tick about flying penis man where I would shout, look in the sky, it's flying penis man. Because my brain is very strange. Apparently my doctor thought it was fucking hysterical.
Obviously this was a bit of a
rough ride for my whole family at this point, which on the plus side made coming out as gay totally a non issue compared to having a son who's screaming about fucking poultry and barking like a dog.
Kevin Allison
The fact that he really liked to
Winter Tashlin
be sucking cock isn't actually that big a deal. My family decided early on that you
sort of had a choice.
You could laugh or cry. And we made a real effort as a family to err on the side of laughing whenever we could. When my tics were really bad, there
were days when I could go a
little while without barking, without yelling, obscenity, without. I've never been very good at suppressing physical symptoms. It sucks to do. It's a lot like trying to keep from sneezing.
Kevin Allison
By the time I got to summer
Winter Tashlin
camp, conforming and fitting in was no longer so much on the table.
The Reform Jewish community had always been incredibly good to me. There are a lot of issues I have with my milk. Religion I could go into, and I'm not going to, but acceptance sure as fuck wasn't one of them. There aren't that many environments where a 300 pound, barking, flaming faggot could fit in. But I did.
There. I managed. At this point, camp is a pretty special place. My public high school was utterly uninterested in dealing with the trio. So I went to a very small
therapeutic day school about two hours from my house.
Well, two hours in traffic. So I mean, I'm 16 years old. This is sort of the one place in the world where I can just sort of be.
Because this was a Jewish teenager summer camp in New York. There was a trip to New York City. I really wanted to go because you would pick what you wanted to do and you would go to some New York landmark of some sort and do touristy shit. And then you'd go to a Broadway show in the evening.
And one of the shows on offer
was Les Mis, which I cannot state clearly enough. I was fucking obsessed with. I really wanted to see Les Mis. Even though it was going to be in shitty seats and all that. I really wanted to go and I want. I didn't want to be left at camp while everyone went off and did something fun. Because camp was really about trying not
to feel like a freak.
So the trip I end up choosing is to go to the Empire State Building. A group of us get into an elevator, so it's probably four or five, six campers and a counselor of some sort who at the time seemed like a grown up to me, but in retrospect was probably like 18. I am in this enclosed space trying not to do the thing that my brain naturally wants to do.
Kevin Allison
All that I have going in my
Winter Tashlin
head at this point is don't bark,
don't bark, don't bark, don't bark, don't Bark.
Kevin Allison
And then I bark. Next thing I know, something hard hits the back of my head and I freeze up.
Winter Tashlin
I try to figure out what the fuck just happened.
Kevin Allison
And I look and my fellow campers
Winter Tashlin
just have this horrified look on their face. They're all just staring wide eyed at their jaws open like oh my God, did that just happen? And I realized they're not staring at me.
They're staring at one of the tourists
who's in the elevator with us.
Kevin Allison
A little middle aged man.
Winter Tashlin
I don't recall him that clearly.
Kevin Allison
I think in my head his face
Winter Tashlin
is that of everyone who's ever given
Kevin Allison
me shit about the truth.
Winter Tashlin
Treb.
Kevin Allison
He is yelling at me in French, quite irritated. I can understand why he's so upset. My bark is really loud and elevator is small and cramped and hot and miserable. I'm taking up more than my share
Winter Tashlin
of the elevator as well.
Kevin Allison
He's just yelling at me. I just freeze. I didn't know what to do with that. I did not grow up in a corporal punishment kind of family. Having an adult hitting me was incredibly alien. And I am just filled with terror. I am now so far outside of the safe, comfortable, accepting world of camp. All I want to do is burst into tears. But that urge to just start crying and tell the world to fuck off, that is immediately followed by a deep feeling of shame. I know that I have a neurological
Winter Tashlin
condition that causes involuntary movements and sounds.
Kevin Allison
And I know that's nothing to be ashamed of, that's nothing to be embarrassed about. I know that's just how my fucked up wiring is. When I feel embarrassed and upset about the Tourette, I always then feel ashamed about not being stronger and being more able to cope. So I just sort of sit there red faced, trying to simultaneously hold back the box which I cannot stop and the tears that I desperately want to stop. I get one of the two and
Winter Tashlin
that feels like a victory
Kevin Allison
immediate thing.
Winter Tashlin
After coming down the elevator that I needed to do was go use the bathroom. And the bathrooms were in the basement or on a lower level. We were sort of on the lobby and I had to go down an escalator.
Kevin Allison
So I'm on the escalator and I'm
Winter Tashlin
going down and I'm barking because I've been desperately trying not to bark all
day and I'm just failing worse and worse.
Kevin Allison
And of course the whole freaking lobby area, it's all marble. So I'm barking and it's echoing quite a lot. I'm just trying not to look at anyone. I don't want to engage.
Winter Tashlin
I don't want to explain the Tourette.
Kevin Allison
I just want to go empty my bladder. And as I'm going down, a police
Winter Tashlin
officer or security guard of some sort
Kevin Allison
is coming up the escalator.
Winter Tashlin
I hear you.
Kevin Allison
Hey, you. Why don't you shut up, or I'm gonna put you in a cage where you belong.
Winter Tashlin
This was, I think, the first time a figure of authority had threatened to imprison me for Tourette, although certainly not the last.
Kevin Allison
And I think the only thing that
Winter Tashlin
kept that from being a bigger confrontation than it was is the fact that I was on the episode and he was on the down. So he had this very short window.
So he just sort of yelled at
me and shook his fist, and then we sort of slid our separate ways. I was pretty shaken up by that. Which the counselors and the other campers could see. In a span of an hour. I've had two really unpleasant incidents happen pretty quickly. So then we're standing in the lobby waiting for all the other campers to gather who were, you know, in the gift shop or, you know, had taken
other elevators up to the observation deck.
And I'm just sort of standing nervously with some counselors and barking, when some figure of authority, rent a cop, security, whatever the Empire State Building had, starts running towards us shouting, you shut that kid up.
Kevin Allison
Blah, blah, blah.
Winter Tashlin
At this point, one of the counselors had had enough. This guy was fucking hot. I had a huge crush on him. He. He was in his early 20s, had just gotten out of the Israeli military, and at this moment, he became my hero. Although, damn, it's a good thing this was 1996 and not 2006. Because what he did was stepped out and just clotheslined. The security guard didn't drop him, just pivoted, caught him in the chest with his forearm and just popped him up against the wall. Got right in his face and said,
the kid can't help it.
We're waiting for other campers to gather, and then we're leaving, and you need to leave him alone. And at that moment, my masturbation fantasies for the next six months were fixed in my mind. Cause that was the hottest thing I'd ever encountered. This gorgeous man standing up for me. So that sort of redeemed the moment a little bit. Also, have I mentioned that I was gonna be seeing Les Mis? That even, I am sure in the back of my mind, the fact that I was gonna be seeing Les Mis that evening, which had become sort of my touchstone, was already starting to seem a little like the worst plan in the history of civilization. Because I had been trying really hard not to tic this whole time, and I'd been ticking a lot. I'm on massive doses of medication and I'm already fucking exhausted.
Kevin Allison
I.
Winter Tashlin
So we did something for dinner. Then we get to the theater and I'm excited and relieved because I didn't think I was gonna make it through the day. And we sit down in the nosebleed section, if there can be said to be such a thing at a Broadway theatre. The moment the opening bars of the overture hit, I knew I was fucked. Because Les Mis is not a short show. I have not been making it more than 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, without a tick. This is a show that I worship and I don't want to fuck it up. And I'm pretty sure screaming about Flying Penis man during Les Mis would count as fucking it up for everyone else. So I'm desperately trying not to tick. I'm all but biting through my lips and a small bark gets out. I panic. I leave my seat as if I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I go down to the lobby and I'm barking. One of the counsellors comes out because they can hear me in the theater, asks if I'm alright, say yes, I don't want to talk about it. They go back to their seat and I don't know what to do at all. The thing that kept me going the whole fucking day was the idea I was gonna get to see Les Mis. And no, I wasn't. There was a payphone in the lobby by the bathroom. I made a click call and my mom picked up the phone and I couldn't say anything. I just started sobbing. It wasn't about the French guy and the cop and the security guard and Les Mis. It was about the realization that this is my life, that my life isn't and wasn't gonna be about the world of the summer camp. It wasn't gonna be about acceptance and being seen first, as a person and as a guy with Tourette. Second. It wasn't gonna be a life of people just tuning the tics out. It was gonna be this. This is what I had to look forward to. And it just. It crushed me. I had been trying to shove all that aside by focusing on the idea I was gonna get to see this stupid Broadway show. And I just felt so stupid in that moment. Of course I wasn't gonna get to see the show. I had spent the whole day setting myself up to fail. And on some level, I knew it. My life wasn't normal and it wasn't gonna be. So that's the worst day of my life. And as worst days go, it doesn't. I mean, this is risk. People have talked about truly horrific, horrific moments in their lives and I feel stupid and privileged saying that this was my worst. But the reason it was the worst day of my life is that it just never ended. I've been barking for more than two thirds of my life now. I mean, even as Tourette related things go, there have been incidents that seem worse. I was thrown out of a restaurant on my very first real date of
my life with a guy.
I've been denied access to airplanes. I've been talked to as if I was actually a dog. I don't want to say it's not as bad as that day in New York because in my mind it it's all the same day. I've never told anyone that. I still feel like that 16 year old boy realizing he's not going to see Les Mis. And in the 20 years since, I've just had to learn to be okay with that.
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Kevin Allison
This is risk and we just heard from Winter Tashlin, who I first met at the event, that the story Kevin Goes to Kink Camp is about. Winter teaches and does presentations about kink, spirituality and disability and you can find him@wintertashlin.com Folks, my next online storytelling workshop starts on May 31st. It is an amazing way to think back on some of your most memorable experiences in life while being in a supportive, encouraging and very educational, very informative workshop full of smart, caring people. And you can email me about it at kevinrisk-show.com to learn more. And if you'd like to help us out here at Risk and shout down the haters, please write us a good review and give us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or podchaser. Those really do help bring more listeners and that really helps keep the show going Now a story by Marshall York. This is a rapid, spooky one, and it's called Whisper to a Scream.
Marshall York
In the summer of 95, I went on a grand solo tour of the western United States. I drove my Mazda pickup truck from Texas to California, up to Oregon, Washington and into Montana. And then I crossed over the border into Wyoming to spend the night in the Grand Teton National Park. Now, all along the way, I camped in parks by myself. And you know, it was nice, but there were meadows and sunsets that I wanted to share with someone. Late that afternoon, I hiked four miles to a place that had a great view of the Tetons. I pitched a tent, I made a fire. I ate some ramen and watched the moon rise. And then around 9pm I went to bed. I don't know when it started, but I heard a voice, a man's voice. It was almost as if this man were lying next to me, whispering in my ear. Clearly and articulately. The voice said, kill the camper.
Kill the camper.
Now this is what I knew. I knew that I was wide awake. This was not a dream. I knew I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. And I knew that I was hearing a voice, a voice that stated an intention to kill me or some other camper. Maybe it was confused, or maybe it
wasn't Kill the camper. Kill the camper.
Zip. I unzip my tent and pop my head outside. Hello? Hello? The wind picked up. The leaves of the aspens shimmered in the moonlight. I lay staring at the ceiling of my tent.
Kill the camper. Kill the camper.
Now this is a story that I've told many, many times because it is, without a doubt, the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. I didn't believe in the supernatural. I'd heard the stories. We've all heard the stories. But I never thought, gee, I hope I'm haunted one day. In the same way that one thinks, gee, I hope I win the lottery one day.
Kill the camper. Kill the camper.
Zip. I walked around with my flashlight like you do in a horror film. And I am terrified. I am freaked out. I've never been this scared in my life because I couldn't explain why this was happening to me. Maybe if there were, say, a weirdo in the bushes trying to, in a sick, twisted way, scare me, I can say, haha, you scared me, weirdo, and show him off, and then slap my hands together like you do when you say, well, that explains that. But there's no one. I go back to my tent and I'm afraid to lie down because I know I'm going to hear.
Kill the camper. Kill the camper.
I am now so scared. I am pinned to the ground as though gravity is going to fail at any moment and I am going to fall into the sky. Then I heard footsteps outside. Like a mob of people is gathering outside to murder me. Zip, no one is there. My heart is racing. My palms are sweating. I am so close to hyperventilating.
Kill the camper. Kill the camper.
I heard more footsteps this time. Animal footsteps. Deer and buffalo have gathered outside my tent to trample me. Zip, no animals are there. Clearly. Suddenly I was losing my mind. My obituary is going to read Marshall York, 24, died in the Grand Tetons. After being scared to death with no recourse, I began talking to the Voice. I tried to reason with it, but it's impossible to reason with any entity that says the same thing over and over.
Kill the camper.
So I brought myself to its level and played the game it was playing.
Kill the camper.
Kill the ghost.
Kill the camper.
Kill the ghost.
Kill the camper.
Kill the ghost. And then it was gone. Had I killed the ghost, Scared it away? All I had to do was behave like a five year old. I braced myself for its return. Its absence was as terrifying as its presence. I didn't sleep for a long, long time that night. And I never camped by myself.
Kevin Allison
It's. This is Risk. This is Simo behind me now. And we just heard from Marshall York, a voiceover artist that I met when I was the artistic director of the People's Improv Theater in New York City in a different lifetime. You can find marshall@mfyclick on Instagram. Folks, if just 10% of the folks who listen to Risk fairly regularly joined our Patreon, we wouldn't be so worried about making it to the next month. Every month you can join@patreon.com risk or make a one time donation at PayPal me RiskShow. That's it for the best of adventure stories 3. You can find other things themed compilations of Risk stories like the Best of Sex Stories, Funny Stuff, Best of Drug Stories, Best of Coming of Age Stories, and so much more at risk-show.com specialseries. Folks, today's the day. Take a Risk.
Marshall York
Sam. Sa.
Host: Kevin Allison
Guests/Storytellers: Winter Tashlin, Marshall York
Episode Date: April 23, 2026
This "Best of Adventure Stories #3" episode from RISK! delivers two vivid, intense true-life tales where the stakes are high—one recounting a traumatic, formative day confronted by stigma and misunderstanding, and the other venturing into the territory of the uncanny and terrifying. Host Kevin Allison introduces the stories and provides occasional commentary, maintaining the podcast’s signature unfiltered, emotional style.
[02:26 – 19:28]
Winter Tashlin shares a raw recounting of the worst day of his life as a Jewish teenager with severe Tourette Syndrome at a New York summer camp in 1996. The adventure trip to New York City—dreamed of for the chance to see Les Misérables—turns into an escalating ordeal of public humiliation, physical abuse, and heartbreak, ultimately becoming a profound realization about the challenges of living with a misunderstood condition.
Living with Tourette Syndrome
"Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition that causes involuntary movements and sounds. I experience Tourette every waking moment of every day."
(Winter, 02:52)
"My family decided early on that you sort of had a choice. You could laugh or cry. And we made a real effort...to err on the side of laughing whenever we could."
(Winter, 06:22)
The Rare Sanctuary of Summer Camp
"There aren't that many environments where a 300 pound, barking, flaming faggot could fit in. But I did."
(Winter, 07:13)
The Day Unravels (A Series of Humiliations)
"Next thing I know, something hard hits the back of my head and I freeze up."
(Winter, 09:06)
> "Hey, you. Why don't you shut up, or I'm gonna put you in a cage where you belong."
**(Security guard via Winter, 12:27)**
> "...stepped out and just clotheslined the security guard...and said, 'The kid can't help it. We're waiting for other campers to gather, and then we're leaving, and you need to leave him alone.'"
**(Winter, 14:17)**
> "At that moment, my masturbation fantasies for the next six months were fixed in my mind. Cause that was the hottest thing I'd ever encountered. This gorgeous man standing up for me. So that sort of redeemed the moment a little bit."
**(Winter, 14:18)**
The Crushing Realization
> "It was about the realization that this is my life, that my life isn't and wasn't gonna be about the world of the summer camp...it was gonna be this."
**(Winter, 16:15)**
> "I've never told anyone that. I still feel like that 16 year old boy realizing he's not going to see Les Mis. And in the 20 years since, I've just had to learn to be okay with that."
**(Winter, 19:11)**
[21:50 – 26:44]
Marshall York recounts a solo camping adventure in Grand Teton National Park that turns chilling when he begins to hear a relentless, disembodied voice: “Kill the camper. Kill the camper.” The suspense ratchets up as he struggles to determine if the threat is supernatural, psychological, or real—and ultimately how fear can become its own haunting presence.
Atmosphere of Solitude and Unease
The Sudden Threat
> "I knew that I was wide awake. This was not a dream. I knew I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. And I knew that I was hearing a voice, a voice that stated an intention to kill me or some other camper."
**(Marshall, 22:56)**
Escalation and Surreal Terror
"I am freaked out. I've never been this scared in my life because I couldn't explain why this was happening to me."
(Marshall, 24:08)
Combatting the Voice
> “Kill the camper.”
> “Kill the ghost.”
*(Marshall, 25:47–26:01)*
> “Had I killed the ghost, scared it away? All I had to do was behave like a five year old.”
**(Marshall, 26:01)**
"It was about the realization that this is my life, that my life isn't and wasn't gonna be about the world of the summer camp...it was gonna be this."
(16:15)
"The thing people most remember was I had a tic about flying penis man where I would shout, 'look in the sky, it's flying penis man.' Because my brain is very strange. Apparently my doctor thought it was fucking hysterical."
(05:42)
"At that moment, my masturbation fantasies for the next six months were fixed in my mind. Cause that was the hottest thing I'd ever encountered. This gorgeous man standing up for me. So that sort of redeemed the moment a little bit."
(14:18)
"I am freaked out. I've never been this scared in my life because I couldn't explain why this was happening to me."
(24:08)
"Had I killed the ghost, scared it away? All I had to do was behave like a five year old. I braced myself for its return. Its absence was as terrifying as its presence."
(26:01)
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