With Season 2 of Worth Repeating fast approaching, Texas Public Radio asked its storyboard to select some of its favorite stories and tell us why. These are Todd Wright's Top 3.
First comes a story on our November 2015 show themed "On the Street Where I Live" from self-described "Chicano Non-Believer," Alex Rubio
Alex's story is everything you want from a scary story. It is full of humor and horror. I have heard the story of the witch owl, the lechuza, many times growing up here in San Antonio, but Alex's story is the best version. Like all great monster stories it begins by questioning the validity of the countless accounts of the creature, and ends by putting us right up front - toe to toe - with a beast we were SURE wasn't real. Our greatest fear has come true, and there is no escape!
Mark's story confronts the difficult journey of watching helplessly as a loved one dies of cancer, but it also confronts another difficult journey. He channels Ralph Waldo Emerson and speaks of the choice man has in life, to search for truth or to live in quiet repose. What Mark does well though, is not use the Emerson to justify a bleak Existential dread. Mark instead uses it to celebrate a difficult, but rewarding profession he is proud to have undertaken.
Finally, we hear from another storyboarder, Elena Souris, in this story from our December 2015 show "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics."
Part of what is so great about Elena's story is that she was not slated to speak that night. Elena volunteered to speak when the evening's final speaker was unable to show. She tells a mischievous millennial teenage tale of lies and of being lost, all while having us use "real maps." She filled the room with unexpected laughter many times that night.
Todd Wright is the storycoach and a storyboard member for Worth Repeating. He a writing instructor at the University of Texas San Antonio and published author.