The Best of Love Stories #3

Summary

Podcast Summary: RISK! – The Best of Love Stories #3
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Host: Kevin Allison
Episode: The Best of Love Stories #3

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Introduction

In The Best of Love Stories #3, host Kevin Allison curates a heartfelt compilation of true love stories that traverse the spectrum of romance, resilience, and personal growth. Released just before Valentine's Day 2025, this episode features poignant narratives from comedian Ben Stiller and Katie Sampson, each sharing their unique journeys through love, adversity, and self-discovery.

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Ben Stiller’s Love Story

Time Stamp: [02:38] – [18:36]

Ben Stiller opens up about his early struggles with self-identity and love. Growing up, Stiller internalized negative perceptions about his sexuality, influenced by taunting peers, which led him to view himself as "disgusting and horrible" (06:22). This self-loathing prevented him from forming meaningful relationships until he moved to New York City at 18, where he began to explore his sexuality more freely.

Key Highlights:

• Therapy with Agatha: Stiller recounts his first therapy session with Agatha, a stern therapist who challenges him to confront his fears about relationships (06:18). He shares the painful moment when he realized his pattern of self-sabotage in relationships, exemplified by his encounter with Brandon, who revealed he was already in a relationship (07:14-07:17).

• Impact of 9/11: The tragic events of September 11, 2001, had a profound effect on Stiller, instilling a newfound sense of gratitude and presence. He describes how this shift in perspective allowed him to approach life and love with a more open and compassionate mindset (12:45-13:48).

• Reuniting with Ariel: Five years after his initial heartbreak, Stiller encounters Ariel again under serendipitous circumstances. This time, his healed perspective enables him to engage with Ariel authentically, leading to a genuine and fulfilling relationship. Despite their eventual divorce, Stiller reflects on the importance of cherishing meaningful connections, regardless of their duration (15:30-16:27).

Notable Quotes:

• "I have known I was gay from the beginning of consciousness. I wanted to marry the boy next door when we were still in diapers." (06:22)

• "What I celebrate with this story is that relationships are not worthless unless they last forever. Let us be grateful for the relationship we've had." (15:49)

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Katie Sampson’s Love Story

Time Stamp: [23:12] – [42:10]

Katie Sampson delivers a gripping narrative of resilience and the quest for love in the face of adversity. At 20 years old, Sampson experiences a life-altering sledding accident that results in a spinal cord injury, thrusting her into a world of rehabilitation and personal challenges.

Key Highlights:

• Accident and Recovery: Sampson details the harrowing experience of her accident, her immediate paralysis, and the extensive rehabilitation process that followed. Her determination sees her returning to college two years later, navigating life with newfound physical limitations (23:12-34:20).

• Navigating Relationships Post-Injury: Sampson shares her struggles with intimacy and self-confidence after her injury. She humorously recounts awkward romantic encounters and moments of vulnerability, highlighting the complexities of forming connections while dealing with a disability (34:20-41:17).

• Meeting Sam: The turning point in her story occurs at a college party, where she meets Sam. Their connection is instant and profound, culminating in an unforgettable night that symbolizes her overcoming fears and embracing vulnerability. Sampson describes the emotional significance of their interaction, emphasizing the importance of being seen and loved for who she truly is (41:17-42:10).

Notable Quotes:

• "I had never felt so connected to someone and I've never felt so proud of myself for going through with it. To get my life back, to have a moment with someone who could see me for the person that I was." (41:17)

• "I knew from that day forward that I had some serious game." (41:17)

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Conclusion

The Best of Love Stories #3 masterfully weaves together narratives of love that transcend conventional boundaries. Both Ben Stiller and Katie Sampson illustrate that love is not just about romantic success but also about personal growth, overcoming internal and external obstacles, and cherishing meaningful connections. Kevin Allison’s thoughtful curation invites listeners to reflect on their own love stories, celebrating the myriad ways love shapes and defines us.

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Quote Reflections:

• Ben Stiller: His journey underscores the transformative power of self-acceptance and the importance of open communication in relationships.

• Katie Sampson: Her story highlights resilience and the profound impact of being authentically seen and supported by others.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of RISK! serves as a powerful reminder that love often emerges from our deepest vulnerabilities and challenges. Through heartfelt storytelling, Stiller and Sampson embody the essence of authentic relationships, encouraging listeners to embrace their own journeys with courage and openness.

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If you have a love story to share, you can pitch it to RISK! at risk-show.com submissions.

Transcript

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[Ben Stiller]

Hey, I'm Ben Stiller. I'm Adam Scott and we make a.

[Adam Scott]

TV show called Severance.

[Ben Stiller]

Severance is back for season two on Apple tv. Before the premiere, Ben and I are going to be binging season one and putting out daily recaps. And after that we're going to keep going as we recap every episode of season two.

[Adam Scott]

The Severance podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is presented by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

[Ben Stiller]

Listen and follow now on Apple Podcasts.

[Adam Scott]

The Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Kevin Allison]

Hey, folks, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison, and every Thursday we release these special episodes where we look back at content from the earlier years of the podcast. This week, it's the Best of love stories number three. We're releasing this right before Valentine's Day 2025. In a little bit, we're gonna hear from Katie Sampson. But first, a story from yours truly. Here I am now with a story we call when youn're SM.

[Ben Stiller]

It was a beautiful, sunshiny day in 1996. I was standing on Fifth Avenue with a gaggle of my friends watching the Gay Pride parade. At one point, I tore my eyes away from some waggling butts on a passing float, and I looked to my.

[Kevin Allison]

Right, and then I looked about 12ft.

[Ben Stiller]

In the air, and there in the sky was the most dazzling smile, a beautiful smile on a beautiful guy.

[Kevin Allison]

He looked maybe Filipino and maybe a.

[Ben Stiller]

Dancer or an athlete because he'd climbed up a telephone pole to watch the parade from a perch. Now, fortunately, I didn't have time to think. I was just so struck by that charming smile in the sky, I couldn't help but smile right back. But then I had time to think. I thought, oh, my God, what do I do? He can't really be smiling at me, right? I thought, kevin, no. It's too awkward to say hello to someone when they're 12ft in the air. Right then, my friend Tim grabbed me and he said, kev, let's go. We gotta get to that house party we were invited to before the ecstasy kicks in. And before I knew it, I was floating away in the crowd with my friends, looking back at that smile getting further away until, like the smile on the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, it disappeared. Five years later, I was sitting on a couch looking at my very first therapist. Her name was Agatha. She was a dark and gloomy and smoky kind of woman. I don't mean smoky like she smoked cigarettes or something. I mean, like, smoky like I kind of imagined. Every time I exited the room, she would just, like Count Dracula, transform into a mist. Agatha was so goth that behind her in her office was a painting from, like, the 1800s, I guess, of a desolate rural road in the wintertime strewn with dead children.

[Kevin Allison]

And when you looked her up on Google, the Only result was that she.

[Ben Stiller]

Once had a role in the Nastasia Kinski movie Cat People, playing Gypsy Witch Number three. But I digress. That first day of therapy, Agatha said, kevin, why are you here? I said, well, Agatha, because I'm 31 years old and I've never had a boyfriend. I said, you don't understand, Agatha. I have known I was gay from the beginning of consciousness. I wanted to marry the boy next.

[Kevin Allison]

Door when we were still in diapers.

[Ben Stiller]

But when I was five years old, another kid in the neighborhood named Rick said to me, hey, Kevin, you know how people use those words, gay and fag? What those words really mean is a.

[Kevin Allison]

Boy who likes boys the way boys.

[Ben Stiller]

Are supposed to like girls. That's why those words also mean disgusting and horrible. So I grew up thinking I was disgusting and horrible. If anyone ever found out that I was a boy who liked boys, everyone would hate me. So I would see stories like Beauty and the Beast or Phantom of the Opera, and I'd always identify with the monster. Every boy I developed a crush on, I thought he was a beauty and I was a beast. So when I finally escaped Ohio When I was 18 years old, I went to NYU, and I was finally in a town where it was okay to be gay. But those old feelings that I'm too monstrous to talk to beautiful guys, well, they were just completely hardwired in me now. And Agatha said, but you've been an adult in New York for well over a decade now. Surely you've had at least one instance of getting to know a guy in a way that might have started to become a relationship. I said, well, there was Brandon. See, one night when I was about 28 years old, I was at a gay bar in the East Village, and I met a guy with pretty brown eyes named Brandon. I was very drunk, and he was very drunk. So we had that in common. Well, we slept together that first night. And in the morning, he said, we should do that again. So every three or four days, I'd come over and we'd do that again. I kept trying to plan things like trips to museums or visits to Coney island, but Brandon seemed like a really introverted guy. So one morning about a month in, we woke up and we were laying in bed, and I said, you know, Brandon, I'd like to get a feeling for where you think this might be going. Going like, do you think you're more of a monogamy kind of a guy or more of an open relationship kind of a guy. He looked at me like he'd just bitten into a lemon. He said, we don't have to talk about that. You talk too much. So I went right on being nervous about how to talk to guys. And then after sleeping with Brandon for like, another three months, one day we were walking on the Christopher street piers, and I just couldn't help it. I had to ask him that monogamous or not question again. And he said, ugh, look, Kevin, I have a boyfriend. You've been my back burner boy this whole time. So in his defense, I. I should be fair. That is technically not monogamous, nor an open relationship. So Agatha said, oh, Kevin, how did you react? And that's the worst part. I reacted like a guy who thinks he's a monster talking to a beauty. I said to Brandon, oh, I'm so sorry. I mean, I'm sorry if this is awkward for you to be telling me. And Brandon winced. He said, I just told you I've been cheating on you and you're apologizing. And he walked away. I said to Agatha, so at the age of 31, that is the closest I've come to having a relationship. Agatha said, well, Kevin, there is so much for us to unpack from that story, but we're out of time. In the meantime, just relax and trust.

[Kevin Allison]

That when you're ready and when someone.

[Ben Stiller]

Who is compatible with you is ready, something will click. I mean, that sounded almost meaningless. But a few weeks later, something happened that put everything in perspective. I was 12 blocks away the morning that the two planes flew into the World Trade center towers. I've yet to ever tell the full story of what I lived through that day. It was a traumatic day.

[Kevin Allison]

But in the weeks that followed, when.

[Ben Stiller]

I would wake up in the morning, I was surprised every morning by this sense of gratitude I would feel for simply being alive. There was a graffiti artist who was going all around Manhattan in the couple of days after 9 11, and he was spray painting on buildings the message, you're alive.

[Kevin Allison]

I began to feel that on some.

[Ben Stiller]

Level, in some deeper dimension, perhaps everything is somehow still okay. And a lot of New Yorkers seem to be feeling something like that. People seem to be speaking to each other more presently, more honestly, more compassionately.

[Kevin Allison]

Everyone had seemed to have let go of at least a little bit of.

[Ben Stiller]

The standard pointless, worrying. You know, it was like in the midst of that destruction, we remembered the importance of creation.

[Kevin Allison]

So I was meditating on that one.

[Ben Stiller]

Day about a month later, month after 9, 11, when I was walking down Park Avenue. And I remember I was listening to big band music from the 40s on my headphones as I was crossing the street, when I glanced up and I saw this beautiful smile passing by me, I didn't really have time to think, so I just smiled right back. We passed each other. Then I looked behind me and saw that he was looking back, too. And we were both smiling still. And somehow, in my state of calm, it didn't even occur to me to start fretting. I just turned and walked right up to him. He said, I'm Ariel. We've never met each other, but, you know, we have smiled at each other before. It was five years ago on Gay Pride Day. I'd climbed up on a telephone pole. I said, oh, my gosh. That was you? He said, it sure was. And this time, I'm gonna get your phone number. Will we exchange phone numbers? And as I walked away, that's when something I'll never forget happened.

[Kevin Allison]

For the very first time in my.

[Ben Stiller]

Life, I was not worrying. I was not thinking, oh, my God, am I going to call him first, or is he going to call me first?

[Kevin Allison]

And how many days is the right.

[Ben Stiller]

Amount of days to wait before calling?

[Kevin Allison]

And am I going to be too.

[Ben Stiller]

Scared to talk when we do talk?

[Kevin Allison]

And what's the right thing to talk.

[Ben Stiller]

About when we talk? Somehow, I wasn't in that headspace anymore. I was just comfortable. I just trusted we were gonna feel it out, and everything was okay. Well, sure enough, our first date was lovely. Our second date was, too. And on our third date, I remember we were standing in the subway station at West 4th street, and Ariel said.

[Kevin Allison]

To me, kev, I should let you.

[Ben Stiller]

Know I'm feeling like an open relationship kind of a guy at this point in my life, so I want to know how you feel about that. He said, I would love it if the two of us could, you know, be proactive about checking in on a regular basis and communicating with each other about the evolving boundaries we could create for a relationship. I thought to myself, holy shit, I found a man with a gorgeous smile who isn't afraid to talk. I'm learning how to really talk to someone I'm attracted to, and that's why I made that man my husband. Now, I have to be honest with you and tell you that he is now my ex husband, but we are still very dear friends. In fact, the night I'm recording this, we're supposed to be having a zoom meeting with each other in a little bit. But I did say to him several months ago, I said, ariel, I don't want to stop telling that story about how we met. And he said, why should you? I mean, both of us look back on our relationship with a lot of mixed feelings, but lots of good ones. Let other people think that relationships are worthless unless they last forever, but let us be grateful for the relationship we've had. That is what I celebrate with this story. We'll be right back, folks.

[Kevin Allison]

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, we often hear about red flags we should avoid, but what if we focused more on looking for green flags in friends and partners? Therapy can help you identify green flags, practice them in your relationships, and embody green flag energy yourself. I have certainly benefited from therapy. I would say I've learned to be a little bit more green flaggy toward myself because I can be roughest to myself. And it's just profoundly helpful in ways tiny little nuanced ways to be able to share with someone who is, you know, an objective professional about how you're coping and processing. I mean, we have all got a lot to be dealing with in our lives. So very many of the people you've heard sharing stories on this show have.

[Ben Stiller]

Also benefited from therapy and talk about.

[Kevin Allison]

It in their stories. So many Risk fans have written in to say that listening to the show encouraged them to seek out therapy. So BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient. Serving over 5 million people worldwide, you access a diverse network of more than 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties. Easily switch therapists anytime at no extra cost. Discover your relationship green flags with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com risk today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com risk folks, incredible worlds, daring adventures, and lots of hilarious bits await you on Join the Party, an actual play podcast. Every Tuesday, game master Eric Silver and a cast of characters journey through genre bending, storytelling and worlds of their own creation. Marathon their four completed campaigns, including a pirate story set in a world of plant and bug folk, a Monster of the Week game set in a weird summer camp, and a modern superhero quest. And stay tuned for their next adventure, starting soon and every month. Get your questions answered in their talk back after party episode. Whether you're a longtime TTRPG player or you've never touched a D20 before, you're invited to join the party. Listen now in your podcast app [e-mail].

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[Katie Sampson]

We're back. So I'm 20 years old. I'm at a park with some friends. It's evening time. I'm on winter break from college my sophomore year, and I'm home with some friends and we go to this park and we decide to go sledding. I jump in a sled at the top of the hill. I hit my first jump. There's two guys sitting behind me, and we lose control of the sled. I let go and I fly through the air and I land right on my neck. Snapped. It snapped and I instantly knew that I had broken my neck. And the paralysis was instant, to the point where I had been freezing my ass off on top of the hill. And this warmth flows through me and the paralysis was instant to the fact that I fell at the top of the hill and I slowly felt my body floating all the way down to the bottom because I couldn't feel feel my body hit the ground repeatedly. Time after time after time, I landed on top of a friend and I said, I can't move. You need to go and get someone. And I sat with another friend, holding my hand. The ambulance came, I was driven to a nearby helicopter, and I was flown to Jefferson University Hospital here in Philadelphia, where they performed a spinal subluxation. They fused the bone from my hip to my neck. Three inches of titanium. I spent the next six months in a rehab hospital here in Philadelphia, One of the best rehab hospitals in the country. McGee. Two years later, I'm actually back at college. But it was one of those situations where I had slowly made these milestones. I had been through learning about having the disability, figuring out the wheelchair, learning how to transfer myself, bathing myself, all these things. And I was back at college in my last semester without my mother. Because you see, my mom had come back to college with me. And it's not the type of dream that you envision for yourself as a young college student, especially when it comes to sex, drugs and rock and roll. And all those things had happened for me prior to my time having my sledding accident. And it was one of those situations where I really wanted to experience my senior year without my mom. I was a selfish 22 year old kid. And so we decided to hire a friend to come and live with me as my roommate as well as she was a nurse and she was a little bit younger and she knew that she had to sort of stay out of my way a little bit. So things were starting to fall into place as far as all of these little milestones. My senior year, I had gotten back involved with sports. I had been a lacrosse player. My freshman year, my team had won the national championship. The team had brought me back as a student coach. We won the national championship again. I decided to take a modern dance class in a wheelchair with 30 freshman football players, which was terrifying and awesome. I had made new friends, friends that didn't know me before. I had my spinal cord injury, which was so fantastic. But the romance really wasn't falling into place. And, you know, I had had a successful career romantically. When I was 12, I had my first kiss with my summer sweetheart on the beach in Westport Harbor, Massachusetts. You know, we swapped some saliva. I think there was a boob grab over the bathing suit. I shouldn't really say boob, it was more like mosquito bite or like a tablespoon of mashed potatoes that he was feeling there. I don't know, you know, Cut to like late teenage years. My losing of my virginity happened on summer vacation with my family and my grandparents with a week long stay at a, at a resort in Florida. To which, at the end of the week, I had been having sex with our waiter, and my grandmother asked my grandfather how much we should tip the waiter. And he says, I think Katie already took care of that. Yeah. So that happened my freshman year of college. I had had an altercation in a dorm room with a young man in which I was performing a sexual act. And the fire alarm went off. And I was just so embarrassed because I couldn't do the act on the rhythm with the fire alarm. And then I started doing it on the rhythm against the fire alarm, and it just wasn't working with the fire alarm, if you know what I'm saying. So that just didn't go as well as I had hoped. But, you know, when I was in rehab, I remember all of these times where people were. I had a friend that had sent me a book called Enabling Romance. You know, for those times when you are in a wheelchair and you want to, you know, get your groove back. I remember my physical therapist slipping a VHS in my room at one point and having to sit through these painful, painful videos, black and white videos of men in wheelchairs having sex with their wives or caregivers, who knows? But there was no women doing those things. There was no women in wheelchairs. And so that was really confusing to me. But I don't know, I just thought, you know, like, it wasn't going to happen. Or worst case scenario, like, if it happened, something really awkward would happen along with it. I'd, like, fall out of my chair or the guy would wimp out or something. So homecoming weekend, I'm with some of my best friends that are back visiting on campus, and we decide to go to a kind of keg party of sorts. And I have to mention this because I think it's really significant to this story. I have a friend who has his doctoral in disability, and he has this theory about people who've suffered a spinal cord injury and their recovery in social life and cultural life. And he says that for every year post spinal cord injury, you increase your age by four years. So the first year you have a spinal cord injury, you're four years old, you're brought down to almost an infant level. The second year, you're 12. The third, or, I'm sorry, math, you're eight. I was told there'd be no math tonight. Yeah, eight, right, 12. So I'm going into my third year. 12 years. Right. Okay, we're back. And so, you know, I'm in my early adolescence. I'm like, sent mom home. I'm with my roommate slash nurse. That's pretty cool. I'm out with friends. I'm going to do something dangerous. So we go to this party and I'm reconnecting with people, and I see this guy from across the room that I recognize, and his name is Sam, and he had graduated a few years before. And we just. We start talking and he's very funny, and yet I can tell that he's kind of the goofball of his friends. And they're coming up and hugging him and saying like, hey, how's it going? And he's asking me questions about lacrosse and about coming back to college. And then at some point, I realized that I have to get out of this dormitory and be carried out because the more the night progresses, the less sober people in the party are. And public safety on campus did not want me in houses late at night in case there was a fire. So I was not only a fire hazard, but I was kind of like the, you know, the party downer at times. He's like, oh, we gotta carry the girl in a wheelchair out. No one get too drunk tonight. So he volunteers to actually pick me up and lift me back up out of the house. And then he asks if he can walk me home. And I remember my best friend was there, and she's like giving me the stink eye, like, I don't know about this. And he says something just so incredibly charming. He's like, I can take care of her. You know, I got this. And so he walks me back and I'm. I'm blabbering, nervous wreck because I. I still don't have it in my mind that anything's actually going to happen. Like, we're going to have this sort of like hug goodbye, this awkward hug where he's going to come down with like one arm and give me a little pat pat and send me. Send me into my apartment. And then we get back and I live like three houses down practically from where this party's happening. So it was a short walk, and I'm sort of just figuring out how I'm going to say goodbye. And he's like asking me if he can see my apartment. And I'm like, did I just fucking Jedi mind trick this guy? Like, what is happening? What is happening? So I welcome in him, give him a little tour, like, here's my bedroom. Here's living room, kitchen. Can I get you a beer? He's like, do you think I could sleep over? And I'm like, on the couch. He's like, no, I'd like to spend the night with you. And I'm like, yeah, that sounds great. I have a roommate. She's going to help me into bed because I don't think I want you to deal with all that stir stuff. And why don't you sit here? Here's a magazine. Here's a beer. Well, I'll just, like, ring a bell when I'm ready. So I go and knock on my roommate's door, and she comes out not knowing that anyone's there. She's just woken up and she's like, how was a party? And I'm like, shh, There's a boy in the living room. And we both. She looks over and sees his legs crossed, like, sticking out of the living room. And she looks at me and I look at her and we start jumping up and down. There's a boy in the living room. There's a boy in the living room. There's a boy in the living room.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, my God.

[Katie Sampson]

And I'm like, I'm happy. I'm elated. I'm excited. I start to get this, like, Public Enemy song in my head. Like, I got game. She's got game. Who's got game? We're having this, like, mad tribal dance party silently in my living room. And I'm, like, flapping my wings like I don't know what's happening. And I have to calm down because I have to make this magic moment happen. So she helps me get into bed with. I use a transfer board. And, like, you know, like, do I get undressed? Like, no, I don't want to assume that that's going to happen. Like. And I wasn't, to be honest, ready, because keep in mind, I'm still 12 years old. It's kind of a weird scenario, but, yeah, stick with me on. Just got really weird, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, I put on some Pete Yorn first album. Forgot that I had left the CD player on repeat. We'll come back to that. So I'm in bed. I'm sort of like half dressed, like, kind of half undressed. I'm not really sure. And I think my roommate sort of goes to her room and she's like, okay, have a good night. As, like, signaling, you know, like, we're ready for you. So he kind of gives a little knock and, you know, comes walks in and he's like 6 foot 5 and tall. He's really tall, and he's got red hair and, like, kind of scraggly beard and I'm, like, really seeing him for the first time, like, in my fucking bedroom. And, you know, I'm so awkward. I'm like, come on in. The water is warm here. So this has not happened to me before. And I'm just like. I'm just gonna talk through how nervous I am, and I sort of just say, like, can we just be together and maybe not, like, be together tonight? Cause I just don't know if I'm ready for that. But I'm so glad you're here. And he kind of just calms me down. He holds my hand. He sort of pats it a little bit, and. And we start talking, and he asked me, like, where I can feel, where I can't feel. And surprisingly enough, with spinal cord injury, you can lose your motor function and still have your sensory function. Yeah. So we talk about that a little bit. And then he grabs. He grabs. He caresses my face and. And we kiss. And he's like, there's this Old Spice makes natural light going on in his mouth a little bit, and it's lovely, and it's, like, warm and sweet and compassionate. And then he falls asleep. And I'm sitting there with my wide eyes, looking at this man in my bed and really believing it for the first time that I had made this magic moment happen. And then Pete Yorn goes back to the first song, and then I realized I had left the CD player on repeat and I could not fall asleep. And I'm like, there's a man in my bed. I brought him here. I made this happen. This is so exciting. I could not find. Fall asleep. I was. I was awake the entire night, like, pinching him, like, is he real? Is he gonna be there when I. When I. I couldn't fall asleep because I didn't think he was gonna be there when I woke up. That's what it was all about. So, you know, dawn approaches, birds are chirping, and he stirs and. And I sort of fake stir. Oh, yeah. Wow. What a. What a night's sleep. How are you doing? Yeah. Want to get breakfast? How is this going to end? And he has to catch a ride back to New York, and we have this really sweet, gentle conversation. He kind of helps me get out of bed, and I walk him outside. And, you know, I'm sort of thinking, you know, I'm probably never going to see him again. Who knows? But we just had this great night, and he was just such a sweet and charming person. The rest of the day, I couldn't do anything. I Couldn't get all the fucking song lyrics of Pete Yorn songs out of my head, first of all. And second of all, I was exhausted, but I was so emotional because I was just walking down the sidewalk, I'd go into a store and everyone I'd meet, I'd be like, you wanna know what I did last night? Like, I wanted to call my physical therapist. I wanted to call my best friend. I wanted to call ESPN and get a play by play, you know, like, how did that go? Where was that hand? Oh, right. Yeah. Nice. I wanted to call my mom. Oh. I wanted to call my mom and tell her, like, I brought a boy home. Oh, that's weird. A couple hours later, I turn on the computer and he has already emailed me. And the email is in the inbox like it exists. And he's actually has feelings and wants to connect with me virtually, not physically. And I'm actually not going to tell you what the email said because it was really. It was private. It was between the two of us. I've never gotten anything like it in my life. I've never felt so connected to someone and I've never felt so proud of myself for going through with it. To getting my life back, to having a moment with someone who could see me for the person that I was and not for my disability or not for my difference. And it was. It was the best type of connection I could have ever had. And I knew from that day forward that I had some serious game. Thank.

[Shalimar]

I know you come a long way, baby? But you don't need that heart of stone? No, you prove that you can do it do it baby? You can make it on your own? But you can't keep running away from love? Cause the first one lets you down no, no, no? And though others try to satisfy you baby, with me true love can still be found? Love can still be found the second time around. The second time around I so much.

[Ben Stiller]

Better.

[Shalimar]

Than the first time.

[Kevin Allison]

This is risk. This is Shalimar behind me now. And we just heard from Katie Sampson with her story the first time again. And that is all for the best of luck. Love stories number three. If you have a love story, I.

[Ben Stiller]

Mean, it can be happy, sad, can.

[Kevin Allison]

Be a strange interpretation of the word love. Whatever. Pitch it to us at risk-show.com submissions. Folks, today's the day.

[Ben Stiller]

Take a risk.

[Shalimar]

Not like the first time. Not like the first time? Not like the first time? You can't keep running away from now? Cause the first one let you down. And the other side to satisfy you Baby, we need you Love can still be fine the second time around Gonna keep your mind the second time baby the second time around I'll know what to do Just as long as I'm with you the second time Time around.