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PODCAST

RISK!

If you like The Moth, This American Life or Snap Judgment, take a walk on the wilder side with RISK! Your colorful host Kevin Allison (of the legendary comedy group The State) helms this surprisingly uncensored show where people tell jaw-dropping true stories they never thought they"d dare to share in public. RISK! is hilarious, heart-wrenching and remarkably real. Think you"ve heard it all? Fasten your seatbelt.

arts performing arts

All Episodes

35:00

Gettin' Off Scot-Free

RISK! ·

2026/10/06

Three people do something small and stupid, then meet the full weight of the law.Kona Morris spends a four-hour Beijing layover in a customs line that will not move, with a backpack full of rocks and a Tokyo souvenir that reads as an explosive on the X-ray. Victor Ramirez was 17 in the Poconos when a shoplifting friend told him which Walmart aisle nobody watches, and he built a summer business on it, until his Hells Angel mentor set a tire iron on the table. Frank Traynor, 14 and in love,

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40:29

Giggles

RISK! ·

2026/09/15

Three stories about laughing at exactly the wrong moment, and finding out it was the right one all along. Three ways of getting through it sideways.Be Part of RISK! 🎟 See RISK! live⁠ in NYC - Tuesday, December 8, 2026 ✍️ Pitch your story⁠ ❤️ Support us on Patreon⁠ 💵 Make a one-time donation⁠⁠ via PayPal or Zelle to kevin@risk-show.com 📚 Shop merch or the RISK! book⁠ 🎓 Take storytelling classes with us⁠ 🎥 Hire Kevin as a coach or get personalized videos Learn more about your ad

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36:36

No Harm, No Foul

RISK! ·

2026/09/08

At twenty-four, Allen Fetters is blindsided by the worst gallstone attack of his life. Too stubborn to call 911 or even a friend, he decides to drive himself to the ER, floors it down an empty road of green lights, on a collision course with a man on a bicycle crossing the intersection ahead of him.Then Richard Velazquez rewinds to Christmas Eve, 1989, eighteen and riding shotgun in his mentor's prized 1964 Mercedes after a night of cocaine, rum, and reggaeton on repeat. On the snowy New Jersey

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47:27

The Best of School Stories #2

RISK! ·

2026/09/02

Two classic RISK! stories about walking into a room that codes you as wrong from the second you open your mouth.Tara Clancy commuted from working-class Queens to a Manhattan college, where a classmate mocked how she said "huge" and a writing professor slipped her a bag of third-grade grammar workbooks. Susan Kent moved to segregated Fitzgerald, Georgia at age six. By high school her closest friend Walt was Black, and when Jen played a Bobby Brown dedication for her from Walt over the local radio,

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30:32

Exposure Therapy

RISK! ·

2026/08/18

Two comedians with two very different things to stop hiding, expose themselves in turn:Calvin S. Cato is queer, twenty pounds lighter than he used to be, and willing to do almost anything to perform for more than three people and a sad disco ball. When a friend suggests the Naked Comedy Show, Calvin signs up on the strength of two words: "sells out." He does not ask a follow-up question. By the time he learns what "naked" actually means, he has already invited his entire art gallery. Uriah Wesman

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48:04

Live From Reno 2!

RISK! ·

2026/08/13

This one comes back from April of 2014, the second night of a RISK! live run in Reno, Nevada, and it swings hard between the filthy and the tender.Josie Spadoni is working an afternoon at her Los Angeles dungeon when a client walks in with a request most people would refuse on the spot. She says yes. (Content note: suicidal ideation) Emily Reese grew up dreaming of a picket-fence Christian marriage and the submissive-wife role she thought came with it. When the money starts vanishing and her

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68:52

My Old Man

RISK! ·

2026/06/18

This one originally aired in August 2013, and the fathers in it tend toward the unexpectedly generous. And heck, this episode may as well be part of our Fathers Day Stories series!Chesley Calloway grew up in Baton Rouge largely without his dad, a Gulf Coast redneck-hippie who was always in the woods. At 15, a familiar smell triggers a memory and opens an unlikely conversation that changes everything between them. The détente holds until college, ideology, and vegetarianism pull them apart

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45:50

Captives

RISK! ·

2026/06/09

Two stories from people who found themselves in situations they didn't choose and had to figure out what to do from inside them. Guest-hosted by the captivating Cyndi Freeman.(Content note: references to torture) Sofia Javed is a Pakistani-American interpreter hired to work in Uzbek and Russian at Guantanamo Bay, where she is ordered not to sympathize with detainees and then immediately put to the test. What starts as a potential crisis in a cellblock turns on a single, surprisingly mundane

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43:58

Love, Death, and Dad’s Pee

RISK! ·

2026/06/02

It's summer 2014, and Bailey Swilley has a boyfriend she's been trying to leave for months and a father who is about to make that the least of her problems. When her dad goes into cardiac arrest, the family descends on his hospital room in Memphis, and her Taiwanese grandmother, who has never previously mentioned being a healer, begins issuing instructions from a witch she met on a Carnival cruise. The spells escalate. So does everything else.Nick Hornedo has been falling for his girl best

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46:53

Into the Mystic

RISK! ·

2026/05/28

This one goes deep. "Into the Mystic" first aired in February 2014, and it brings together three accounts of the uncanny from three storytellers who had no map for what they were experiencing. Christine Lee, an Episcopal priest, has spent years navigating the gap between the faith she teaches and the faith she actually feels. When a parishioner with a seriously injured knee agrees to be prayed over, Christine finds herself in the stairwell of her church, watching something she cannot

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49:21

Bad Medicine

RISK! ·

2026/04/15

Bad Medicine brings together three storytellers whose bodies, doctors, and circumstances all conspire against them in very different ways.Pam Stepansky throws out her back on a spin bike, ends up bedridden at her father's apartment, and asks him to do something she never imagined asking any parent to do. What follows is a five-day hospital stay where she's dosed with narcotics she explicitly refused, and a long recovery that forces her to finally reckon with who she wants to be. Brad Lawrence

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39:19

Backfire

RISK! ·

2026/04/14

Two RISK! veterans deliver stories about plans that—you guessed it—backfired. As a teenager Nate Runkel built a satirical website that sexualized cartoon characters as a parody of how guys talk online. It got a million views, landed in Complex Magazine and a Maureen Dowd book, and earned him more attention than he ever wanted. The people he respected weren't laughing. (Content note: conversion therapy) And Kelli Dunham’s story is set in the sweaty, armadillo-haunted wilds of an evangelical

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146:17

The Best of RISK! #12

RISK! ·

2026/04/09

For the first time, we’re putting a Best of RISK! episode back on the feed. Originally released in July 2017, #12 remains one of the most epic compilations of RISK! stories ever: it’s funny, filthy, tender, and at times almost unbearably real, sometimes all at once.Richard Cardillo spent 14 years in a Catholic monastery before leaving his vows and landing in Lima, Peru, newly out and profoundly inexperienced, with a very steep learning curve ahead of him, while Michelle Buteau takes on a brain

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75:48

Into the Moving Dark

RISK! ·

2026/04/07

(Content note: sexual assault, justifiable homicide)Annie Carnrike spent years close to her cousin Michael, a man of fierce loyalty and an equally fierce temper. When he showed up at her home one Thanksgiving night, drunk and out of control, what began as a familiar crisis turned into a fight for her life. What Annie faced that night was devastating enough. What came after was its own ordeal: arrested, charged with first-degree murder, and placed in a men's maximum-security prison as a

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101:01

The Best of RISK! #34

RISK! ·

2026/03/31

Three stories so worth your time, from darkly funny to devastating. Our 34th compilation of some of our favorite recent stories shared on the podcast.(Content note: sexual assault) Fixxy starts a summer in Pittsburgh doing sex work for quick cash before a move to New York City. One night a client seems different, with an unusually easy request and a ride out to the suburbs. Things escalate in ways Fixxy never anticipated, leading to one of the more genuinely terrifying stories we’ve ever aired. In

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44:02

Live From Philly 4!

RISK! ·

2026/03/19

First released in December 2013, this live RISK! episode from Philadelphia's First Person Arts pairs two storytellers with a lot to say about losing control and getting it back.Dawn Jewel Fraser's "Brasilado" follows a young American woman deep into an immersive year in Rio de Janeiro, learning Portuguese street by street from her chain-smoking instructor Marcy, until a late-night taxi ride home unravels spectacularly when Brazilian police find weed in her bag and mistake her for a drug

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53:04

Quid Pro Quo, Revisited

RISK! ·

2026/03/17

(Content note: child sexual abuse)In 2016, Ed G. got on stage at RISK! and told a story he'd never told anyone. Now, ten years later, Ophira Eisenberg sits down with him to go places that story couldn't: the FBI, the Pope, the survivors who found each other decades later, and the hard-won question of where shame really belongs. Ed's story begins in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where a boy abandoned by his violent father and drowning in poverty finds an unlikely lifeline in the local Catholic church. What

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36:02

Where It Hurts

RISK! ·

2026/03/13

In this crossover episode with The Story Collider, Karen McCaffrey and Mary Cyn share stories that illustrate the importance of compassion in healthcare.🎤Live Story: More than Survival by Karen McCaffrey (Content note: sexual assault, rape) After surviving rape and a traumatic hospital experience afterward, Karen transformed her pain into purpose. Decades later, she directed a sexual assault forensic examiner program, advocating for victims' rights and ensuring survivors receive trauma-informed

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39:55

Metamorphosis

RISK! ·

2026/03/10

Michael McFadden and Adrianne Frost share stories about evolving feelings about their bodies over time. 🎙️Radio Story: Growth by Michael McFadden Michael is a child swimming prodigy trapped in a grown man’s body who fails a humiliating puberty test, loses his athletic destiny, and ultimately redefines masculinity and self-worth beyond the pool and beyond his penis size. 🎤Live Story: Smoochin' and Fiddlin' by Adrianne Frost (Content note: child sexual abuse, self-harm) After surviving

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38:56

Private Parts

RISK! ·

2026/03/03

Ria Spencer, Mindy Myers and Josh Connors share stories about learning to feel at home in your body.🎤Live Story: The Only Girl by Ria Spencer Six-year-old Ria is diagnosed with severe cradle cap and must enter an all-male Arkansas barbershop to have her beloved locks shaved. It might have been traumatic, but the men were supportive and encouraging. 🎙️Radio Story: Ample Package by Mindy Myers Mindy orders therapeutic vaginal stretching dildos. When the package goes missing, she discovers

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