The Moth Podcast - “New Year, New Leaf”

Release Date: January 2, 2026
Host: Kate Tillers
Theme: Turning Over a New Leaf—stories of taking chances, trying new things, and finding courage at life's crossroads

Episode Overview

This episode of The Moth Podcast, “New Year, New Leaf,” celebrates the spirit of new beginnings and the question that lingers both at New Year’s and in daily life: How do you turn over a new leaf? Host Kate Tillers introduces two true stories from people at crossroads—one grappling with “faking it till you make it” in a new career, and another quite literally taking a leap out of his comfort zone (and an airplane!). Each storyteller confronts the anxieties of new challenges, self-doubt, and unexpected epiphanies.

Story 1: “Fake It Till You Make It”

Teller: Laura Gilbert ([02:26] – [07:49])
Theme: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome in a New Career

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Childhood & Early Lessons:

  • Laura was “unconfident in new situations,” and her parents’ mantra “Fake it till you make it” became ingrained in her.
  • The phrase “is stamped onto me like a birthmark.”

• Career Pivot:

  • Before the pandemic, Laura was a freelance dancer and improviser.
  • When COVID-19 upended everything, she turned to software engineering, enrolling in a free online JavaScript course and eventually a coding bootcamp:

    “Every piece of code I wrote was riddled with errors. But that’s when I discovered what I think is the best kept secret of software engineering... if you sit there long enough and you read each error... you can fix everything.” (Laura, 03:15)

• Impostor Syndrome:

  • Landed a job in tech, but constantly felt like a fraud:

    “I very much feel like someone who has snuck into a movie theater without paying and is just waiting for someone to figure out that I don’t belong there.” (Laura, 04:10)

  • Intimidated by colleagues with advanced degrees.

• The On-Call Rotation:

  • The moment of truth: being put “on call” to keep her team’s systems running for a full week.
  • Vividly describes the stress—sleeping with the phone at max volume, ready for emergencies.

• First On-Call Crisis:

  • Gets paged at 4 a.m.; anxiety takes over but, as she troubleshoots, she finds herself gripped not by fear, but curiosity:

    “The antidote to anxiety is not calmness, it’s curiosity. Something really bad is happening and I wonder if I can fix it.” (Laura, 05:53)

  • She helps to fix the issue, feeling genuine accomplishment.

• Reframing the Narrative:

  • Realizes maybe she isn’t faking it after all—maybe this is what “making it” looks like.
  • On-call work becomes less about anxiety and more about the privilege of “maybe I can help fix it.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Every meeting I attend is full of people with multiple advanced computer science degrees. And I am also there.” (Laura, 04:24)
• “I’m basically summoning objects to me. My glasses are whizzing onto my face, my Crocs are zooming onto my feet so I can more quickly run to my laptop.” (Laura, 05:07)
• “I want you all to be able to picture the monitoring dashboards... picture, you know, the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin, but it’s just graphs in there.” (Laura, 05:17)
• “Maybe being on call is like this high-stakes, nerve-wracking opportunity to kind of get back in touch with the beautiful privilege of software engineering, which is when something is really broken, like maybe I can help fix it.” (Laura, 07:37)

Interlude: Host Reflection

Host: Kate Tillers ([07:49] – [08:38])

• Kate shares a light-hearted anecdote about trying to reinvent herself with a nickname (“Cat”) while studying abroad, only to realize authenticity wins out (“I kept not responding. Kate, it is.”).

Story 2: “Leaping Leprechauns”

Teller: Elliot Higgins ([09:21] – [15:31])
Theme: Overcoming Fear and Surviving a Literal Leap

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Setting:

  • 1975, University of Oregon. Elliot, self-described as a “pre-med hippie,” needs an easy A to pad his GPA.
  • Signs up for “Skydiving 101”—the university’s first-ever offering of the course.

• Training & Characterization:

  • Jump master is a gruff, no-nonsense man dubbed “the leaping leprechaun”:

    "He looked like Gimblee from Lord of the Rings. He did not like hippies." (Elliot, 10:00)

  • Practice consists of jumping off bleachers, landing on gym mats; detailed, humorous description of training and class culture.

• First Jump Jitters:

  • Reality hits while observing older students jump:

    "Holy shit man, I want to go back to the gym and just jump off of the bleachers again." (Elliot, 11:32)

  • Calls his father in a panic. Dad’s advice:

    “Son, you get your ass on that plane and out of that plane. No excuses.” (Elliot, 12:07)

• Out of the Plane:

  • Elliot tries to protest, but is literally pushed (“stiff-armed”) out of the plane by the jump master:

    "I turn to the leprechaun and I say, sir, I'm having—BOOM. He stiff arms me out of the plane." (Elliot, 13:13)

• Skydiving Mishaps:

  • Parachute deploys, but he realizes:

    “Oh, no. I had it wrapped wrongly around my testicles. And it’s like I’m floating to earth on my testicles.” (Elliot, 13:26)

  • Comical struggle ensues: Trying to relieve the pain while piloting his chute, unintentionally shouting obscenities to his instructor mid-air.

• Landing and Aftermath:

  • Botched landing, disoriented and bruised:

    “Instead of a five-point landing, tuck and roll, I did feet, knees, helmet. I had my bell rung so badly, I was seeing stars.” (Elliot, 14:44)

  • Accidentally deploys his reserve chute on the ground, gets chewed out by jump master.
  • Forced to jump two more times to qualify for the grade, but ultimately barely gets into dental school.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Our class met every Tuesday and Thursday night and we’d meet at the wrestling gym and jump off bleachers… I’d pull off some really nice landings, tuck and roll and come up pumping my hand and go, ‘Airborne all the way, sir!’” (Elliot, 10:26)
• “What’s a hippie to do? I pull up on those risers and I’m doing a pull up and I’m flying that chute everywhere.” (Elliot, 13:38)
• “The leprechaun comes roaring up and goes, ‘Well, captain airborne, it looks like you don’t get an A. You’re gonna have to jump two more times to get that A!’” (Elliot, 15:16)

Epilogue & Reflections ([15:31] – [16:06])

• Elliot barely makes it into dental school, but his unexpected path opens new opportunities abroad—reminding listeners that facing fears can change the course of a life.
• Kate expresses gratitude to the storytellers and listeners, wishing all a joyful leap into 2026.

Standout Moments (with Timestamps)

• [03:15] Laura: “If you sit there long enough and you read each error… you can fix everything.”
• [05:53] Laura: “The antidote to anxiety is not calmness, it’s curiosity.”
• [12:07] Elliot’s dad: “Son, you get your ass on that plane and out of that plane. No excuses.”
• [13:26] Elliot: “I had it wrapped wrongly around my testicles. And it’s like I’m floating to earth on my testicles.”
• [14:44] Elliot: “Instead of a five-point landing, tuck and roll, I did feet, knees, helmet…”

Episode Tone & Takeaways

• Tone: Warm, candid, humorous—encouraging authenticity and resilience.
• Takeaways:
  • The fear and chaos of new experiences are often gateways to growth.
  • “Fake it till you make it” is really about being brave enough to try, again and again.
  • Sometimes, the leap is literal—but all leaps, big or small, define our personal journey.

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