“Stone Soup” Part 1

Tell Us Something

Four storytellers share their true personal stories live without notes on the theme “Stone Soup”. A dramatic river rescue, bullets confiscated at TSA, a middle-aged woman cookin’ up an incredible stew and a man, a porcupine, a jar of pickles, and a little birdie.

Our podcast today was recorded in front of a live audience on March 30, 2022, at The Wilma in Missoula, MT. 8 storytellers shared their true personal stories on the theme “Stone Soup”. Today we hear from 4 of those storytellers.

Our first story comes to us from Tess Sneeringer.

After her friend falls down a hill on rock scree, Tess Sneeringer puts her training to work. She, along with several of her friends, paddle through the night to bring their injured friend to safety.

Tess calls her story “All Aboard the River Ambulance ”.

Tess Sneeringer grew up escaping the suits and the stress of Washington, DC by following her older brother down the current of the Potomac River every summer. She is now settled in Missoula and works for Parks and Recreation.

Our next storyteller is a Tell Us Something storyteller alumni. You can listen to all of the stories that she’s shared right here. Joyce Gibbs has some very special hunting bullets confiscated at TSA, she resolves to get them back.

Joyce calls her story “Only in Missoula. Only on Christmas.” or “If You Don’t Ask, You Can’t Hear Yes.” (Hat tip to Chris LaTray)

Joyce Gibbs is a resilient, creative, and adventurous woman who was raised in Missoula. After a brief stint in New York City and then in New Orleans, she bought a dilapidated railroad house on Missoula’s Northside and spent the next 15 years remodeling it and making it her own. Joyce loves being in nature on Montana’s abundant rivers, and hiking and hunting in the woods. When she is not busy building beautiful spaces with her tile installation at Joyce of Tile, you can find her riding her motorcycle, gardening, going for neighborhood walks with her husband of 12 years, Marc (that’s me!), and their kitten Ziggy.

In our next story, Lizzie Juda finds awakening after middle age in a story that she calls “Something’s Cookin’ in My Pot”.

Lizzi Juda has been a proud resident of the westside of Missoula for nearly 33 years. She is the founder and co-director of Turning the Wheel Missoula and has over 25 years of experience teaching improvisational movement classes, expressive arts groups, and ceremonial rituals. She is passionate about providing opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to play, move and connect deeply with themselves and express their creative spark. She is an absolutely avid advocate for accordion and alliteration artistry and is a wannabe beat poet. She considers movement and touch her first languages and is finding her way with words. She identifies most with being a mojo sprinkling pixie

Rounding out this episode of the Tell Us Something podcast, Brent Ruby buys a jar of pickles for a gathering with friends. No one ever opens the jar of pickles, so he brings it home. The hitchhiker he picks up along the way is very happy to learn about this magic pickle jar.”Paws, Claws, Pickles and a Little Birdie”

Brent Ruby is a research professor at the University of Montana and has been on a nearly 30-year quest to do good science. He also is committed to writing his own brand of ornery poetry during his relentless study of applied human physiology. One of Brent’s research goals is to effectively share his research findings to improve the health and performance of wildland firefighters. Brent spends time outside of his research in the great outdoors of Montana with his wife Jo and their border collies, Wrango and Banjo. Brent also enjoys building hollow wood stand-up paddleboards, woodwork, art, and writing children’s books. Check out his books, download free coloring book pages, and more at wrangoandbanjo.com.