What do you hope listeners take away from your story:
I hope listeners will laugh at the inside information I speak about when it comes to being a performer and realize how live performances can shape our lives in the best of ways.

Who or what inspired you to tell this story:
My son Wrigley inspired me to tell this story as I watched his amazement the first time he saw the Nutcracker from the audience.

What do you hope listeners take away from your story:
I hope the listeners will plan some deliciously devious way to surprise their kids this holiday season. And I hope they can conjure a memory of some small thing a parent did to turn an ordinary moment into an extraordinary one.

Who or what inspired you to tell this story:
When Megan Finnerty asked me to tell a Hanukkah story, I thought, I’m the last Jew you should be hitting up for a Hanukkah story. We weren’t exactly a family of Talmudic scholars. But when I thought about it, I realized there were facets of Judaism and Jewish customs hardwired into my parents, and that my mom had provided for our own little family a mini miracle, and that’s one way to look at Hanukkah. It’s a time to see miracles in small things.

What do you hope listeners take away from your story:
I hope people will learn to believe again.  Believe in our neighbors, believe in unity, believe in compassion and grace.

Who or what inspired you to tell this story:
The confusion of not being accepted and the belief in a spirit of giving inspired me to tell this story.

What do you hope listeners take away from your story:
I hope listeners will understand the humanity of active servicemen and women during combat.

Who or what inspired you to tell this story:
I consider myself a writer and so I took this holiday sample from an unpublished memoir chronicling my time at war, inspired by the often surreal experience of executing a war.

What do you hope listeners take away from your story:
I hope listeners revel in their vulnerabilities and love what makes them different while celebrating each other.

Who or what inspired you to tell this story:
Dave Chappelle. He is a master storyteller and, through humor, he is trying to connect to us and help us connect to each other.