0:01

Hey folks, this is Kevin. On

0:03

this week's episode of Risk, you'll

0:05

hear John LaSalle saying, hey folks,

0:08

this is John LaSalle. On this

0:10

week's episode of Risk, you'll hear

0:12

Joe Gentry Hamer. So

0:15

here goes. Hey

0:19

folks, this is John LaSalle.

0:21

On this week's episode of Risk, you'll hear

0:24

Joe Gentry Hamer. And

0:27

I thought, shit, shit, shit, fuck, fuck,

0:29

fuck. If the cops get

0:31

here, there's going to be a confrontation

0:33

and he's going to fucking blow us

0:35

both up. See?

0:38

This all makes perfect sense. But

0:40

listen, before we get underway, have

0:42

you been hearing these stories we've

0:45

been running on some of the

0:47

Wednesdays where I get together with

0:49

a storyteller and they just tell

0:51

me their story one on one.

0:53

We get to chat through it.

0:55

There's one with Nate Runkle. There's

0:57

one with Dawn Jewell Fraser. And

0:59

tomorrow there'll be a brand new

1:01

one with my friend Gene LeBak.

1:04

You don't want to miss that.

1:06

And after that, maybe you? Maybe

1:09

you could come on and

1:11

tell me a little story.

1:14

Just email me at kevinatrisk-show.com

1:16

and let's chat. We'll

1:18

be right back. Start

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best price. there

6:01

and maybe it will never see the light of day. But

6:03

in today's episode we'll hear two tales from

6:05

people who unwittingly encountered the

6:08

dark sides of the otherwise

6:10

pleasant people in their lives. Later

6:13

on we're going to hear from musician and

6:15

jewel smith Joe Gentry Hamer. But we'll

6:18

start with a story that David Beck told

6:20

at our live show and caveat in New

6:22

York City last November. So

6:24

let's get to it. Here's David

6:27

with The Huntsman. Well

6:38

on such a beautiful night like tonight

6:40

at the end of a gorgeous day

6:42

which was today I

6:45

thought it would be good to end this show

6:47

with a romance. And

6:49

like many great romances this

6:51

one begins

6:53

in the theater. But not just any

6:55

theater. A rec center in

6:58

suburban Kettering, Ohio in the year

7:04

1996. Doing children's theater. A

7:07

play you might have heard of Snow White and the

7:09

Seven Dwarfs. He was 15.

7:12

I was 12. He

7:15

was cast as

7:17

the pivotal role of The Huntsman. I

7:19

was cast as an extra. Doing

7:23

off stage live sound

7:25

effects. You see I was

7:27

originally cast to play the piano because

7:29

I played the piano. Originally it was

7:32

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the

7:34

musical. But a

7:36

week into rehearsals the

7:38

director realized that the actress playing Snow

7:41

White not only did she have hair

7:43

as black as ebony and lips

7:45

as red as blood and skin as white

7:47

as snow but she was also quite

7:50

tone deaf. The

7:52

bitch couldn't sing. So

7:55

the director told me, David it's not a

7:57

musical anymore. The piano is out. And

7:59

I said But can I just play

8:02

the piano like one song to make

8:04

my mom happy? You see I lived

8:06

in fear of my mother's

8:08

approval. All I wanted was to make

8:10

her happy. But

8:12

the director was like, no, the piano's out. So

8:15

she changed the whole concept of the play.

8:17

Remember this was at a rec center, children's

8:19

theater in Kettering, Ohio. I mean, the fact

8:21

that she had a concept for the play

8:24

was like a little insane.

8:26

But so now it was Snow White

8:28

set during the Renaissance. So

8:30

she said there's no piano during the Renaissance. So

8:33

anyway, the piano's out. The reason why I'm

8:36

telling you this whole backstory is had I

8:38

in fact played the piano for Snow White

8:40

and the Seven Dwarves, the musical, I would

8:42

not be standing here telling you this story

8:44

today. I might be at

8:46

Birdland like playing the piano, like making something of

8:48

my life. But anyway, that's that's neither here nor

8:51

there. So the

8:53

Huntsman, 15 years old. Now,

8:55

to be quite honest, he was not the

8:58

ideal Huntsman. He was

9:01

a little big and he

9:03

was kind of swishy around the

9:05

hips. And he spoke with an

9:07

affected British accent when he acted.

9:10

But to be honest, we all child

9:13

thespians in Kettering, Ohio in 1997, we

9:15

all spoke with an affected British accent.

9:18

That was that was how you acted.

9:20

Right. So I have to give him credit

9:22

for that. But he did

9:24

possess one characteristic that was

9:27

quite appropriate for the Huntsman

9:29

in Snow White. He had

9:31

brazen rebellion. Yes,

9:33

this Huntsman was a rebel rouser.

9:36

And for some reason, I was

9:40

often the subject of his

9:42

rousing. So

9:45

during the rehearsal process, always

9:48

in front of a group of girls, he

9:51

would tease me and he'd

9:53

be like, David, just admit

9:55

that you're bisexual. Come

9:57

on, just admit you're bisexual.

16:00

summer came, we were

16:02

free, and I decided

16:04

I'm going to be an actor.

16:07

I knew that this thing, this

16:09

realization, you know, this

16:11

awakening, there was no going back

16:13

from it, but I had to sort of put it in a

16:16

box. And I decided that

16:18

summer that I was going to just

16:20

lose myself in acting and

16:22

lose myself in music and lose myself

16:24

in theater. And that was the first

16:27

time where I consciously realized and decided

16:29

that art was going to save my

16:31

life. You know, I can escape through

16:33

art in order to not worry about

16:35

my own life. And

16:38

I still do that to this day.

16:40

That's why I'm here. Yes, yes. But

16:44

I did not forget the Huntsman completely. And

16:47

I would practice with my tongue because I

16:49

didn't have his tongue. My finger would be

16:51

his tongue and I would sort of like

16:53

make out and practice, you know, secretly. Eighth

16:57

grade rolls around, fall comes,

16:59

and I'm excited because the

17:02

rec center, children's theater in

17:04

Kettering is doing The Hobbit.

17:06

And I love The Hobbit.

17:09

And I was like, this is my

17:11

chance. Now, the Huntsman, unfortunately, is

17:13

16 years old and he's a sophomore in

17:16

high school, so he's no longer eligible for

17:18

the children's theater rec center plays. So he

17:20

wasn't even involved at all. But

17:23

I auditioned and I got the

17:25

role of Gandalf, the pivotal role,

17:27

the lead. Yes, I mean, yes,

17:29

thank you so much. It was

17:31

stupendous. Yes. So I was so

17:35

excited because I had an amazing costume

17:38

and I had this crazy like blue

17:40

hat and I had this like gray

17:42

beard and I had all this crazy

17:44

old stage makeup and

17:47

I had this silk blue cape,

17:49

the same silk blue cape

17:51

that the Huntsman wore. So

17:56

occasionally I would feel the

17:58

cape and

18:00

that would immediately bring me back to

18:02

those salacious, snow-white make-out sessions. But I

18:04

didn't let myself indulge too much because

18:06

I had a job to do. I

18:08

was Gandalf for Christ's sake. So

18:12

I lost myself in the theater. On

18:14

opening night, lo and behold, who

18:17

shows up in the audience? Yes.

18:21

The Huntsman. Shocked.

18:25

I was even more shocked when

18:27

the Huntsman decided to come to

18:30

our opening night party at the

18:32

family-friendly Pizza Joint Marion's. So

18:38

I kind of

18:40

said my awkward hello and

18:42

then kind of like went off to a

18:44

table in the corner with a group of

18:46

girlfriends and we sort of gossiped and, you

18:48

know, talked about our dreams and our goals

18:50

for life and you know how you usually

18:52

do. But I kept one eye

18:54

on that Huntsman. And

18:56

he was off playing

18:59

with a group of boys, probably

19:02

in the fourth and fifth grade,

19:04

young boys. And he was 16

19:06

at this moment. And

19:09

I saw him and I watched him kind of

19:11

like touch them playfully

19:14

but somehow quite

19:16

sinisterly. And I couldn't

19:18

help ask myself, am I jealous?

19:22

On the car ride home, my dad had a few

19:24

things to say about the Huntsman. Oh,

19:27

man, David, that Huntsman,

19:29

he's creepy. What is he doing hanging out

19:31

with those little kids for? Oh,

19:33

he's creepy. And that

19:35

word creepy, that

19:37

really, I didn't like that word creepy

19:40

at all. Was he creepy?

19:43

And was I creepy for

19:46

liking him? And

19:48

again, I had this struggle with

19:51

being raised Catholic and thinking homosexuality

19:53

is a sin and is it

19:56

creepy? Anyway.

20:00

So, high school comes around, college

20:03

comes, I go to drama school in New

20:05

York City, I flee

20:07

Kettering, Ohio, years

20:09

later, takes me years, I... Free

20:15

like a bird! I

20:18

come out of the closet to my friends

20:20

and then a few years later to my

20:22

family and it's very difficult but, you know,

20:25

we're getting through it. At this point, I'm

20:27

in my mid-twenties, I'm

20:29

in a loving, committed relationship with a

20:31

man, very exciting,

20:33

very exciting, and

20:36

I'm drunk one day in my twenties

20:38

and I am going down

20:40

a Facebook rabbit hole, you know, maybe it

20:42

was my space, I don't know, but I

20:44

look for

20:47

the huntsman, I Google huntsman, and

20:50

I can't find him and I search and I

20:52

search and probably an

20:55

hour later I find him,

20:57

oh my god, there he is, those

20:59

sly brown eyes staring right back at

21:01

me in the

21:03

saddest mugshot I've ever seen.

21:08

There he is, my huntsman, a

21:11

registered sex offender. Yeah.

21:14

The questions that just popped into

21:17

my brain, I mean... And

21:21

then I remembered, I conveniently

21:23

left out, when we made out,

21:26

when I was twelve, he would

21:28

always put my hand in

21:31

his pants and

21:33

he was never aroused and that always made me

21:36

a little quizzical, I was like, is he not

21:39

enjoying this, like I'm enjoying it, like is this

21:41

some sort of power play? And then I was

21:43

like, was I his first victim?

21:45

And I was like, oh my god, and then

21:47

I was like, was I? No. Was

21:50

I molested? No. And I

21:52

was just so confused and then I dreamt that

21:54

I visited him in prison, I don't even know

21:56

if he's in prison, and I

21:58

interrogated him and I... I questioned him

22:01

and I wanted answers. And

22:04

then we made out. And

22:07

then he showed me his

22:10

rain stick. And

22:14

then after the initial shock wore off, I

22:17

realized, why do

22:19

I know this? I think

22:22

it's crazy how we can just Google anyone

22:24

from our past now and just

22:26

find out these details about them

22:28

and these truths. And do

22:31

I really need to know this little

22:33

piece? I mean,

22:35

is it making my life better somehow? No,

22:39

not at all. I

22:41

never again fantasized about the Huntsman. I

22:44

still do have questions to this day, but

22:48

some questions are just

22:51

better left unanswered. Thank

22:53

you so much. Woo! When

23:12

the Huntsman came home,

23:16

it was nearly spring. I

23:21

opened my door, gave

23:24

him the last of

23:26

our bread, but

23:29

the meat I'd made I

23:31

hid from him. I

23:39

didn't love him. And if you'll

23:41

be the wolf, with

23:47

the wolf skin on your back, who

23:51

who howls for the

23:54

night, so

23:56

I'd be the wolf. Stairs

24:00

with red eyes

24:04

Will I be the bird

24:07

with the broken wings? And

24:15

will I sing? This

24:19

is The Huntsman by Alison Callery.

24:22

And that was David Duck with a story by

24:24

that same name, edited by

24:26

Taj Easton. And what

24:29

timing on having his story on the podcast this

24:31

week? Because David has a

24:33

feature film premiering at Dances with Films

24:35

in LA at 7pm on June 27th.

24:39

It's called Regarding Us, and the

24:41

trailer looks amazing, like totally something

24:43

risk listeners would appreciate too. So

24:47

this Thursday, if you're anywhere near

24:49

the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los

24:51

Angeles, you know the place where

24:53

Star Wars premiered 1977, well

24:57

then go see it! More

24:59

at danceswithfilms.com or check

25:01

out David on Instagram and TikTok at Davidbecknyc

25:26

We'll be right back. Express

25:56

for order. Excludes restaurants. Additional terms and fees

25:58

apply. Relationships are

26:00

hard, and that's why I'm here. Hey

26:03

friend, it's Cami Crawford. You may know

26:05

me from my work on MTV's Catfish,

26:07

and I hope you'll join me on

26:09

my show, Relationship. The advice podcast that

26:11

covers all relationship topics. It's a judgment-free

26:14

zone, and nothing is off-limits. Think of

26:16

me as your big sister slash audible

26:18

BFF that you can always trust to

26:20

give you the realty. Listen and follow

26:23

Relationship with Cami Crawford, available now on

26:25

the free Odyssey app, or wherever you

26:27

get your podcasts. TuneIn

26:30

is the audio platform with

26:32

something for everyone. News. In

26:35

order to secure convictions in a court of law, it

26:38

is essential that we conclusively. Sports.

26:40

I clock at four, donch it. The

26:43

step back, three, you bitch.

26:46

Music. You set my

26:48

world on fire. And

26:51

even podcasts. Whatever you love,

26:53

hear it right here on TuneIn.

26:55

Go to tunein.com, or download the

26:57

TuneIn app to start listening. You

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27:54

We're back. technique

28:00

Hey, it's me, John. It's

28:29

Genesis from 1976. I

28:38

was only two at the time. It's

28:40

kind of darkly beautiful, isn't it? Anyway,

28:46

one of our patrons, Jada Selma,

28:49

recently included this little note along

28:51

with her pledge. For

28:53

Risk, the podcast that showed me my

28:55

story matters by providing stories that matter

28:58

to me, love Jada, and

29:01

aspiring storyteller. Jada,

29:03

thank you so much. I

29:05

hope to hear a story from you on Risk someday too. And

29:09

thanks to you and all the Jadas

29:11

out there for supporting what you love

29:13

through Patreon or through other means. But

29:16

for Patreon supporters, we have a new

29:18

bonus story out right now from Kate

29:21

Willett, and it sounds precisely like this.

29:24

And I say to him, I was like,

29:26

look, some of the things that you have

29:28

said on the internet are a little sexist,

29:30

and I'm worried about that. And he confides

29:32

in me. He's like, I'm actually not sexist.

29:35

I'm a sub. I

29:38

just take it at face value, right?

29:40

I'm like, at least he fantasizes about

29:42

respecting women, so... Except

29:46

longer. Get the rest

29:48

of it and gazillions of other stories at

29:51

patreon.com/Risk. Next

29:55

we're going to hear from Joe Gentry Hamer. Joe

29:58

is one hell of a coolie. and

30:00

she told me this story back in October of 2023 from

30:04

what looked like a workbench in a jeweler's shop.

30:07

More about that later. For now, let's

30:10

hear that story I'm calling This

30:13

Side of the Dirt. I

30:20

was 18 years old, and

30:23

I was living in a small apartment in

30:26

a working-class neighborhood in

30:28

North Hollywood, California. I

30:32

was living with my soon-to-be ex-husband

30:34

and my, and our newborn son.

30:37

My husband's family lived across the street from

30:39

us. Next to them

30:42

were their neighbors, Jane and Bob.

30:45

Jane and Bob were salt-of-the-earth

30:48

working-class people. Very

30:51

friendly, very kind, you know,

30:53

just, we'd visit with

30:56

them all the time and so

31:00

Jane worked in an

31:02

office to support the family across town

31:05

and Bob, well,

31:08

Bob was a Korean war vet who'd

31:11

seen some combat and not

31:13

surprisingly, he had a bit of a drinking

31:16

problem. But he

31:18

supplemented their income by breeding

31:20

Great Dane puppies and

31:22

he was good at it. So, one

31:25

lovely, typical sunny

31:28

Southern California day, my

31:32

husband and I were across the street at

31:34

his family's house and we were just hanging

31:36

out and the family

31:38

members were passing the baby around and

31:40

cooing over him and everything. And all

31:43

in all, it was a pretty terrific day. But

31:46

then their telephone rang. And

31:49

my sister-in-law, my young teenage

31:51

sister-in-law picked up the phone and

31:53

my husband and I were close enough that we

31:56

could hear Jane's voice on the

31:58

line and she... She sounded

32:02

frantic. And we

32:04

could hear her say, Bob

32:07

and I had a fight yesterday and

32:10

he just called me at work and he says

32:13

he's gonna kill himself. Could somebody please go next

32:15

door and check in on him? So

32:17

my husband and I took

32:20

off like a shot and we could

32:22

see as soon as we exited the

32:24

family home that we could see that

32:26

his beautiful, big, gorgeous, sweet, great Dane

32:28

bitch was tied up outside in

32:31

a bright sun. And we thought,

32:33

oh, fuck, this is bad. This

32:35

is really bad. Bob loved that girl.

32:37

He would never do that to her. So

32:40

we run up to the front door, knock

32:42

on the door. There's no answer. We

32:45

try the door, it's locked, which was

32:47

uncharacteristic of them. And so

32:49

we started to go around the side of the house

32:51

and head for the back door and

32:54

it was locked too. And we

32:56

noticed as we were walking around the house that all

32:59

the curtains were drawn. Yeah,

33:01

and so we're thinking, oh God, this is

33:04

not good. And so we wandered

33:06

around to the far end of the house

33:08

and looked up and we could see a

33:11

smallish, horizontal

33:13

rectangular sliding

33:16

glass window way up high over the

33:19

bathroom. It was one of those tiny

33:21

little bathroom windows up way high. And

33:24

we could see that it was cracked

33:27

ever so slightly. So my

33:29

husband boosted me up. I

33:32

grabbed onto the window sill and

33:34

I started to wiggle with

33:36

one hand and get it to move a

33:38

little bit. And my husband said,

33:40

oh, listen, see if you can get

33:42

that open far enough so you can crawl

33:45

in and unlock the front door

33:48

and I'll see what I can do. And so

33:51

I wiggled the window some

33:53

more and it was a tough fit, but I

33:55

managed to squeeze through. And

33:57

I dropped to the

33:59

bathroom. floor and the

34:02

house was pitch black. The

34:05

only light that was coming into the house

34:07

was that tiny little beam of light coming

34:09

from way up high. So

34:11

I took a second

34:14

and then I started

34:16

to tiptoe up the hallway from that

34:18

end of the house to the front

34:21

and it was so pitch black I had

34:23

to feel my way with my left hand

34:25

on the

34:27

hallway wall. About

34:30

halfway up the hall I could

34:32

smell gas and

34:34

I thought oh shit

34:37

Bob really means this he's really oh

34:40

my god this is some serious ass shit and

34:42

so I continued

34:44

to tiptoe as quietly as I could

34:46

up the hallway and holding

34:48

the wall and just

34:50

as I was about to round the corner and

34:53

reach the front door Bob

34:55

lunged out of the dark and

34:58

grabbed my right arm and drug me into

35:00

the kitchen and

35:04

I can still taste that

35:07

horrible metallic taste of adrenaline

35:09

shooting up the back of my throat. My

35:12

heart was pounding so hard I thought it

35:14

was going to pound out of my chest.

35:17

I was fucking freaked out and

35:19

and and when he drug me

35:21

into the kitchen in the dim

35:23

very dim light I

35:26

could see that the stove had been pulled away

35:28

from the wall and it

35:30

had been disconnected from the gas main and

35:34

there was gas pouring out of the wall and

35:37

I flinched a little and tried to pull away and

35:39

he just grabbed me tighter and pulled me

35:41

closer to the stove and I'm

35:44

and and I look up

35:46

at him and he's he's sobbing and

35:48

crying he's got tears streaming

35:50

down his face he's got snot pouring

35:52

out of his nose I can

35:54

smell the booze on him you know

35:56

and barely over their gas and then

35:59

and I I look up and he's

36:02

got a Zippo lighter in his left hand

36:05

and he's waving it around. And

36:08

I'm thinking, shit, shit, shit, fuck,

36:11

fuck, fuck. I'm gonna die here

36:13

today. I'm gonna do, oh

36:15

my god, if he hits that lighter, this

36:17

house is gonna go up in a ball of

36:20

fire. There's gonna be nothing left of this place

36:22

but a crater in the ground and

36:25

our body parts are gonna be

36:27

scattered all over the yard. And

36:30

then of course my brain went to,

36:32

oh my god, my son. I'm

36:35

never gonna see him again. I

36:40

was pretty tense and starting to freak out a

36:42

little bit and then he was

36:44

just sobbing and then he was ranting

36:47

and saying, oh, I'm a horrible man.

36:49

I'm a bad man. I hit Jane.

36:51

I'm no good. I'm no fucking good.

36:54

I hit my wife. I hurt

36:56

my wife and I'm

36:59

just no good. I'm god, I'm

37:01

a horrible person. I'm a bad

37:03

man. Oh my

37:05

god, I can't live

37:07

like this anymore. I know

37:10

my wife hates me now and my son

37:12

hates me and I'm just no good to

37:14

anybody. I can't keep a job. This is

37:16

so I'm so fucked up. And I thought,

37:24

and I had

37:27

took a second and I realized

37:30

that the only way I was going to get out of this

37:32

alive was if I could talk

37:34

him down. And

37:37

so I did my

37:39

best to kind of relax my

37:41

body a little bit and I'll

37:44

lean into him a little bit.

37:46

And then I

37:48

pitched my voice a little bit lower as

37:51

best I could in this frantic moment. And

37:54

I looked up and I said, Bob, Bob,

37:58

it's me, Joe. Bob,

38:01

I'm your neighbor. I'm your

38:04

friend. You know me, Bob.

38:06

Bob, look. Bob, I'm

38:09

sure you didn't mean to hit Jane. I'm

38:12

sure it was an accident. I said, look, man.

38:15

I said, please, let's

38:18

just talk things over a

38:20

little bit here and calm down some.

38:23

And well, he continued to sob

38:26

and rant. And

38:28

so I just kept at it. I

38:30

said things like, Bob, Bob, I

38:32

know you're not a bad guy. I

38:34

know you're not a horrible person. I

38:37

said, look, Jane loves you. And

38:40

I know you love Jane. I

38:42

said, I'm sure she'll forgive

38:45

you. Come on, man. Come

38:47

on, please. Don't

38:50

do this. Please don't do this. And

38:53

I kept at it for a while.

38:55

God only knows how long because things

38:58

slow down in situations like that. And

39:01

slow motion. And he

39:04

started to calm a little bit as I

39:06

kept talking to him and going, Bob, everything's

39:08

going to be OK. Listen, Bob, everything's going

39:11

to be all right. You

39:13

can get through this. You and Jane can

39:15

work this out. And

39:17

he'd start to calm. And then he would tense

39:20

up and start ranting again. And

39:23

this went on a couple of two, three times.

39:25

And because he calmed down

39:27

about the third time, I said,

39:29

look, Bob, you know, really

39:31

and truly, you can't leave

39:34

these guys like this. I

39:36

said, look, Jane needs you.

39:38

Your son needs you. Really

39:41

and truly, Bob, you're not a bad

39:44

man. You're really not a bad man.

39:46

Come on, man. Let's just calm down

39:48

and sort this thing out.

39:51

And I kept repeating that. And

39:53

then about the second or third go

39:56

around after the first three go arounds,

39:58

I said, Bob, cheer. need you,

40:00

your son needs you, and

40:02

I said, and if you're gone,

40:04

who's gonna take care of your

40:06

dog? Who's gonna take

40:09

care of that beautiful girl? I said, come

40:12

on man, don't do this, really. And

40:15

somehow I guess the talk flipped

40:18

the switch. Anyway,

40:21

so he started to calm down

40:23

and I kind of relaxed

40:26

my body some more and I really

40:28

literally just sort of leaned on him and leaned

40:30

into him and I said,

40:32

Bob, you know, let's get

40:34

out of here. This gas is

40:36

really getting to me. We're really having

40:39

a hard time because the room was

40:41

so filled with gas and

40:43

just as I thought I had things under

40:45

control, we both

40:48

heard sirens in the distance and

40:51

I thought shit, shit, shit, fuck, fuck,

40:54

fuck. If the cops get

40:56

here, there's gonna be a confrontation

40:58

and he's gonna fucking blow us

41:00

both up. I think, God almighty,

41:02

you know, and I looked

41:04

at him, I said, Bob, the

41:07

cops are coming. I

41:10

said, look, you don't want

41:12

to be here when they show up, really and truly,

41:14

you just don't want to be here when they come and

41:16

I said, and look, Bob, I don't want to be

41:18

here either. I don't want to have to talk to

41:20

the cops. I said, you know what, let's

41:23

just step outside. The kitchen

41:26

door is right there. Let's

41:28

just step outside and get

41:30

some air and calm

41:33

things down and catch our breath a little bit

41:35

and I took a sort

41:37

of a half a shuffling step towards the door

41:39

and he took sort of

41:41

a half a shuffling step towards the door

41:43

and he knows how long it

41:45

took but we finally got to

41:48

the door and he unlocked it and

41:50

we stepped outside and

41:52

the bright sun just blinded us

41:55

both. It was like getting slapped in the

41:57

face because we've been in the dark for

41:59

so long. so long. And

42:01

we caught our breath a little bit and I said, okay,

42:03

Bob, here's the deal. I said,

42:05

look, the cops don't know what you look like.

42:08

They don't know what I look like. I

42:11

said, here's what we're gonna do. We're

42:13

gonna walk through the backyard and

42:16

through those bushes into the alley.

42:19

And we're gonna walk slow and easy.

42:22

Like we're just having a little

42:24

afternoon stroll. And I said, listen, man, if

42:26

you run, the cops are gonna come after

42:28

you for sure. But they have no idea

42:31

what we look like. Let's just stroll

42:34

down this alleyway like we

42:36

don't have a care in the world. Like we're best

42:38

buddies out for a walk. And so

42:40

we started

42:42

down the alley and we're walking and

42:45

things were starting to calm down a little bit. And

42:48

then when we got to the end

42:50

of the alley, I said, Bob,

42:53

I said, listen, I gotta go back. I said, my

42:55

son's back there. And I said, and

42:57

dude, I want

42:59

you to cross that street and keep walking

43:02

slowly. I said, I'm going to go

43:04

back. And I'm going to stall the

43:06

cops for as long as I possibly can. So

43:08

you can just disappear for a

43:11

little while. And I said, whatever you do, don't

43:14

come back to the house until all

43:16

the police officers are gone. And he

43:19

said, okay. And we parted

43:21

company. And I turned around

43:23

and went back up the alley. And

43:26

as I rounded the house, oh

43:29

my God, there were police

43:32

cars everywhere and lights flashing

43:34

and fire trucks with their

43:36

lights flashing and and the

43:38

gas company and paramedics and

43:41

half a block was cordoned off. And they

43:43

were trying to keep people away from the

43:45

house. And when I

43:47

rounded the corner, my, my husband spotted

43:49

me and he and he yelled, there

43:52

she is. And he and a couple

43:54

of cops and a fireman, they came running

43:56

towards me and they grabbed me hard and

43:58

fast, which I'm really didn't need at

44:00

that point in time and drug me to safety

44:03

and and then started peppering

44:05

me with questions. He said, are you okay?

44:07

Are you all right? Where where's Bob? Where's

44:09

Bob? Is he alive? Where is he? Where's

44:11

Bob? Is he in the house? Is he

44:13

still alive? Is he still alive? And and

44:16

I looked the two cops and straight in

44:18

the eye, I light

44:21

through my teeth and I pointed in the

44:23

opposite direction and I said he

44:26

went that way and

44:28

they took off running in the wrong direction.

44:32

So I kept my word. I was

44:35

stuck there for a while because the

44:37

paramedics had to check me out. The

44:40

cops were asking me shit tons of

44:42

questions and and the fire

44:44

department was asking me questions. The

44:47

gas company was asking me questions

44:49

and and I gave

44:51

them the best information I

44:53

could except for a part where

44:55

Bob went and then I

44:57

looked up towards the edge of the crowd and and

45:00

my young teenage sister-in-law was there with

45:02

my son in her arms

45:04

and and Jane was standing next to her

45:07

and they were terrified looking.

45:09

They were just really

45:12

scared and I I walked up to him and I

45:14

said as quietly as

45:16

I could I said look Bob

45:18

is okay. He's still

45:20

alive. He just went for

45:22

a little walk and he'll be

45:25

back later and

45:27

then my my sister-in-law handed me my son

45:29

and oh my god I

45:31

held that baby like it was my last

45:34

day on earth. I

45:38

don't know if Bob is dead or alive.

45:40

I'm guessing he's gone by now because he's

45:42

really old but but I I

45:45

have something to say to Bob and

45:47

that is Bob wherever

45:49

you are out there somewhere listen

45:54

you son of a bitch

45:56

you almost killed me you

45:58

fucking terrified Oh my

46:02

god, asshole! And

46:06

then, you know Bob, thank

46:10

you. You

46:12

did me a huge favor. You

46:15

really did. I said, look, you

46:18

didn't kill me. And I

46:20

want to thank you for that. I

46:23

learned a really important lesson from you. To

46:27

this day, some fifty odd years

46:29

later, I never ever

46:31

take for granted that every day that

46:34

I am on this side of the

46:36

dirt is a good

46:38

day. This

47:27

is Risk, and this is

47:29

still John, not Kevin, and this,

47:31

again, is Genesis back there with

47:34

In That Quiet Earth. And

47:36

that story we just heard was from

47:38

Jo Gentry Hamer, which I

47:40

edited and sound designed. Now, since

47:43

that terrifying day back in 1971,

47:46

Jo has gone on to some pretty wondrous things.

47:49

I mean, clearly she spent some time

47:52

studying under some Noldering craftsman because you

47:54

should check out the jewelry that she

47:56

and her new husband make.

47:59

Really stunning work. Have a look at

48:02

findjewelrycraftsmen.com. We'll

48:05

be right back. We're

48:08

back. ["We're

48:11

Back!" theme music plays in the background.] Well,

48:17

that'll just about do it for Dark

48:19

Sides. Thanks for putting up

48:21

with me and my nerdy

48:23

references and music. But

48:26

listen, Kevin will be back with you tomorrow

48:28

with that Gina and the Back story, and

48:31

then on Thursday with the Best of

48:33

Queer Lives number two. There

48:35

is just a ridiculous amount of risk coming your

48:37

way this week. Please take a

48:39

moment to appreciate that. And

48:42

my God, the amount of work that goes into

48:44

bringing these episodes to you? It's

48:46

a lot. Take it from me. I know. It's

48:49

not easy to pull this off. And

48:51

it's not cheap. So please visit

48:53

the support tab at risk-show.com

48:56

and find whatever way best works for

48:58

you to help fund this labor of

49:00

love. Today, it's

49:03

the day. Take a

49:06

breath! ["We're

49:26

Back!" theme music plays in the background.]

49:49

You son of a bitch! You

49:52

almost killed me! You

49:54

fucking terrified me! Oh

49:57

my God! Asshole!

50:00

That is what they say I said when

50:03

they found me in the blackness after three

50:05

hours, with my own cat leaping

50:07

and tearing at my throat. Hey,

50:13

it's me, John. I'm still here. Thanks

50:15

for sticking around to the end. I

50:18

want to play something for you. There's

50:20

this project I've been working on outside of

50:22

Risk for the past few months. It's

50:25

a four-episode podcast series called, Animals

50:27

of the Maui Wildfires. Remember

50:30

the fires out in Hawaii last summer? This

50:32

is what that's about, but it focuses

50:35

on all the cats and dogs and

50:37

pigs and other animals impacted by those

50:39

fires, particularly on the struggle that Maui

50:42

Humane Society had rescuing and retrieving

50:44

them in the wake of the disaster.

50:47

Have a listen and check out the series. I

50:49

believe the first episode should be out by now.

50:55

She's not paying attention, but I'm paying attention,

50:57

and I see... The

50:59

rearview mirror, I see the

51:01

black clouds of smoke, and

51:03

it's coming their direction. In

51:06

that moment, fear struck me. In

51:10

August 2023, high

51:12

winds and dry conditions set

51:15

the stage for disaster on

51:17

the Hawaiian island of Maui. And

51:20

on August 7th, a wildfire

51:22

suddenly erupted and swept through

51:24

Lahaina on Maui's western shore.

51:26

You can feel the heat off of the metal. Or

51:29

the rock walls, or the road, everything

51:32

around you. You know, I thought my

51:36

truck tires were going to melt, and I was

51:38

going to be stuck there, and I was going to be on foot. I'm

51:42

Marika Bell, CPDT dog trainer,

51:45

anthropozoologist, and an animal myself.

51:48

The Deal with Animals is a podcast

51:51

about the connection and interaction between humans

51:53

and other animals. However,

51:55

this series is going to be something

51:57

more. Like,

52:00

I honestly still have a lot

52:02

of survivor's guilt, and I have remorse for

52:05

seeing some of the things that I saw

52:07

out there that I didn't intend to see.

52:10

I should have just left the door open. I could

52:12

have, I should have done this, but disasters

52:15

are very complicated. Two

52:17

months after the island changing wildfires,

52:20

my family and I visited Maui. So

52:22

of course I reached out to Maui Humane

52:24

Society and asked if we could talk. This

52:27

podcast series is a result of

52:29

that conversation, which led to four

52:31

other conversations with staff of Maui

52:33

Humane Society. I felt it was my

52:35

job to listen. I felt

52:37

that if I was going to be the person that

52:40

was going to be communicating the needs of the

52:42

organization, that I needed to communicate the

52:45

hardship that people were feeling inside

52:47

of that. After

52:49

that first conversation, I knew this was a

52:51

bigger story than I could tell in one

52:53

hour. It needed more

52:55

context, it needed more voices, and

52:57

it needed to have a purpose. And

53:00

even though we are an organization, like really each

53:02

department is just made up of one or two

53:04

people or five people at the most, like serving

53:06

our whole island. Serendipity, intuition,

53:08

everything just came into play where

53:12

the more I was involved, the

53:14

more I felt called to stay.

53:18

We're releasing this trailer two months

53:20

before the first anniversary of those

53:22

same wildfires in Lahaina and surrounding

53:24

areas. And over the next

53:27

two months, the deal with animals will

53:29

be running a fundraiser to benefit Maui Humane

53:31

Society and all the work they do and

53:33

have done for the animal community of Hawaii.

53:36

Our goal is to raise $10,000 by

53:39

August 8th, exactly one year after

53:41

the wildfires. To donate

53:43

to this fundraiser, we have a special

53:45

link on our homepage that will take

53:47

you straight to Maui Humane Society's donation

53:49

page set up just for this fundraiser.

53:51

So yes, all of your money will

53:53

be going straight to MHS. Follow

53:56

the deal with animals now, wherever you

53:58

listen to podcasts. so you don't miss

54:01

a single episode. Join

54:03

me as we ask the question, what's

54:05

the deal with the animals of the Maui

54:07

wildfires? The

54:11

fire burnt so hot that it even melted

54:13

asphalt and we can see paw prints all

54:15

over the place. These

54:18

animals went through hell. Subscribe

54:22

and donate at thedealwithanimals.com

54:27

Okay, that's it. Thank you. Bye.