Hoot & Holler Radio

Two storytellers take the Grandin stage: Anastasia Giffin hilariously traces her Greek roots and Joe Mylan Jr. recounts his leap to become a writer in Seoul. Host Lee Hunsaker sits down with the tellers for candid post-show interviews about identity, craft, and the messy, beautiful work of telling your story.

Host Lee Hunsaker presents two intimate stories of grief, signs, and unexpected grace. Lindsay McKinnon recounts losing her two sons, a psychic prophecy that brought healing and serendipity.
Writer Matthew Vollmer explores his mother’s decline into dementia and the mysterious lights that appeared near the family home. Through strange phenomena, a shaman’s reading, and his father’s changing life, Matthew finds new ways to see his mother and move forward.
Both storytellers join Lee for follow-up conversations about life after their performances and how storytelling helped them heal.

Description
Two powerful true stories from Hoot and Holler Radio: Curtis Alderson donates part of his liver to save a childhood friend and reflects on faith, service, and a renewed purpose, while Erika Johnson travels to Mexico for intense shamanic healing with 5‑MeO‑DMT and peyote, confronting deep fears and the challenge of integration.
This episode explores courage, healing, and the unexpected ways love and how psychedelic medicine can change lives.

In this episode of Hoot and Holler Radio, Stacey Porter pulls back the curtain on life as a realtor—sharing funny, heartbreaking, and empowering stories about showing up for clients, supporting fair housing, and the emotional labor of the job. Later, Jan Dillon offers a tender love letter to the Waffle House, describing how the diner became a place of comfort and community during grief. Both storytellers join the host for post-stage conversations about their performances and lives beyond the microphone.

Host Lee Hunsaker presents two intimate onstage stories from the Grandin Theatre. Bebe Demure recounts the physical and emotional costs of a life in professional ballet, an injury that forced her to stop, and how she reclaimed her body and voice through burlesque.
Mary Beth Wooten shares a medical crisis that cost her career and home, the friends who found her in her darkest moments, and a road to self-love and renewal that led her back to creativity and purpose.

Host Lee Hunsaker welcomes storytellers Cindy Pasternak and Marj Easterling to Hoot and Holler Radio for two unforgettable tales: Cindy’s true story of rescuing Darla the pig and staging a joyful, community-filled wedding with her boar Perry on their little rescue farm, and Marge’s wild, comic adventure that shows us just how far a person will go for true friendship. 

This episode of Hoot and Holler Radio features 16-year-old Mason Bibby sharing how the pandemic pushed him inward and ultimately helped him find his voice as a writer, leader, and orator while transforming self-doubt into public confidence and a deep sense of patriotism.
Then we hear Tyler Crouch’s moving account of family, duty, and the Marine Corps, followed by studio interviews that reflect on hope, service, and personal growth.

Host Lee Hunsaker presents onstage stories and studio interviews exploring long friendships at a turning point and the search for belonging. Ruth Cassell-Huynh reflects on grief, sobriety, and the silence that can grow between friends over 25 years, while Nalliene Chavez recounts moving from Puerto Rico and how hair and clothing shaped her identity in America.
Through intimate storytelling and candid conversation, the episode examines culture, family, and the courage it takes to keep showing up for one another.