Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
Hey folks, this is Kevin. On this
0:02
week's episode of Risk, you'll hear Kway
0:04
Tan. I take one of
0:06
those ice cubes and I start
0:08
funneling them up his anus and
0:11
his asshole swallows everyone and
0:15
they just disappear inside of him and
0:18
the day was saved. That
0:21
and more. But first, the next
0:23
Risk Live shows are May 16th
0:25
in New York and May 21st
0:27
in LA. We're
0:30
trying some new things at some of
0:33
these shows. We always love hanging out
0:35
with the fans afterward. And
0:37
even the Risk audio editors admit
0:39
that the show is even more
0:42
powerful when you are
0:44
there in the room experiencing
0:46
it with fellow Risk fans
0:49
as live theater. So
0:51
remember, May 16th in
0:54
New York, May 21st
0:56
in LA and tickets
0:59
are always at risk-show.com/live.
1:02
We'll be right back. I'm
1:04
Sandra and I'm just the professional your small
1:06
business was looking for. But you didn't hire
1:08
me because you didn't use LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn
1:11
has professionals you can't find anywhere else, including
1:13
those who aren't actively looking for a new
1:15
job but might be open to the perfect
1:18
role like me. In a given month over 70%
1:21
of LinkedIn users don't visit other
1:23
leading job sites. So if you're
1:25
not looking on LinkedIn, you'll miss
1:27
out on great candidates like Sandra.
1:29
Start hiring professionals like a professional.
1:31
Post your free job on linkedin.com/recommend
1:33
today. With linked in jobs, we tap
1:35
into a network of more than a
1:38
billion professionals to help you find quality
1:40
professionals quickly and easily for any role
1:42
you need. Marketing Wizards. Found Em Software
1:44
Engineers found that project Manager I can
1:46
never seem to hire and found linked
1:48
In jobs quickly matches your rolls with
1:50
candidates with the right skills and experience.
1:53
In fact, eighty six percent of small
1:55
businesses get a qualified candidate within twenty
1:57
four hours. poster first job for free
1:59
and get started at Linked in.com/spoken That's
2:02
Linked in.com/spoken Terms and conditions apply. You
2:05
hear that? Your dog knows. Spring is coming
2:08
sooner than you think. Dog walks, dog parks,
2:10
playing fetch, all the stuff your dog loves
2:12
to do with you. But the warmer weather
2:14
also means that fleas and ticks are coming
2:17
back. Fleas and ticks
2:19
are in the grass, in the woods, and
2:21
even on their dog friends. Fleas are an
2:23
itchy nuisance, can easily get into your home,
2:25
furniture, and beds, which can be terrible. Thicks
2:27
are even worse. They're hard to spot, but
2:29
can carry disease and get your dog really
2:31
sick. Pet Meds has your furry friends detected
2:33
with the best products to prevent flea and
2:36
ticks all year long. Pet Meds pharmacists connect
2:38
directly with your vet to save you time
2:40
and deliver the best products for your pets.
2:42
Pet Meds offers low prices on all flea
2:44
and tick meds, including Nexgard, Simperica, and more.
2:47
And Pet Meds auto-shift helps you save even
2:49
more with additional discounts on regular shipments of
2:51
pet meds, dog food, and other high-quality supplies.
2:55
So get ready for all the spring
2:57
fun now. Visit Pet meds.com and
2:59
use promo code PODCAST to save
3:01
40% on your first auto-shift order.
3:03
That's Pet meds.com and promo code
3:05
PODCAST. Now
3:09
here's the show. I
3:26
love you. We
3:28
love you. We
3:31
love you. We
3:34
love you. Hello,
3:57
folks. This is Rask, the show where
3:59
people... tell true stories they
4:01
never thought they'd dare to share.
4:04
I'm Kevin Allison and this is
4:06
Knightversus behind me now and we're
4:08
calling this week's episode boundaries.
4:11
When boundaries get crossed
4:13
in funny ways and
4:17
not at all funny ways at
4:20
first it might seem
4:22
a somewhat bizarre combo
4:24
of stories a surprising
4:26
pairing but it's
4:28
also a striking illustration
4:30
of just how profound
4:33
just how deep how
4:36
dimensional the issue
4:38
of consent is. In
4:40
a little bit we're gonna
4:43
hear from Oliver Cromwell not the
4:45
one from your history books but
4:47
first on the lighter side a
4:50
story from Kway Tan who stars
4:52
in the horror movie They Slash
4:55
Them here's Kway Tan now with
4:57
a story we call Hot
5:00
Bottom. Hookahoe
5:25
Escort Prostitute all
5:28
things you'll find listed on my resume. I
5:33
started doing sex work 10 years ago when
5:35
I was 18 years old and
5:38
if I had a virginity to sell I would have sold
5:40
it. I
5:42
am what you would refer to as a low-end
5:45
prostitute. I
5:47
had reasonable prices and a
5:49
questionable work ethic. I
5:51
wasn't throwing
5:54
it back I would you know lean
5:56
on the dick I would rock on it.
6:01
But my clients didn't mind
6:03
because, like David was
6:06
saying, I am a trainee, a woman
6:08
in training. I train cultural.
6:11
And so my clients, you know,
6:13
they would, I'm a delicacy to
6:15
them. You know, that's
6:17
how they would suck my dick. They
6:20
would savor it. It's
6:24
true. For two
6:27
years into doing sex work, I
6:29
slept with, I made reasonable money.
6:31
I slept with many middle-aged, right
6:33
fathers. I pissed off
6:35
a lot of working girls along the way. I
6:37
poached some clients. But
6:39
then, just two years in,
6:42
I got blackballed. And
6:44
I know you're probably asking yourself, how do you get blackballed
6:46
from being a hoe? Well, I found a way.
6:49
I was banned from a top escorting
6:52
site for violating their terms of service.
6:55
People wrote fake Yelp reviews on my pussy,
6:57
which is a thing. They
6:59
gave me one out of five stars. And they
7:01
said I gave people AIDS, which
7:05
is just wallowed. So the
7:07
real kicker, though, was in
7:09
2017, when the congressional
7:11
bills, SESTA and FOSTA, went into
7:13
effect. And it
7:16
took down, the government seized my last
7:18
sex working site that I had available
7:20
to me, which was Backpage. Nancy
7:23
Pelosi was fucking with my money. So
7:28
at this point, if I wanted to sell pussy, I'd
7:30
have to do it on the street. So
7:33
I hung up my hooker heels, and I
7:35
retired. And
7:37
then I did The Unthinkable.
7:39
Now many college classes later,
7:42
eviction notices, I became
7:44
a Hollywood actress. And
7:49
one of the movies I did was They
7:52
Slash Them, not They Zoom. It's a slasher.
7:55
But the first film I did, I actually
7:57
played a text book. It was a Netflix film. house
8:00
called Cam, and it's about Cam girls, and it
8:02
was written by a Cam girl. And
8:05
then I worked with Tyler Perry,
8:07
Ryan Murphy, all the powerful gays.
8:10
And then I was just, I was on this
8:12
like train of success and I felt like it
8:14
was never going to stop, but
8:16
all trains make stops. My hooker
8:18
train made a stop, but I
8:20
didn't plan for, I didn't plan,
8:22
I just, I felt like I was just gonna keep
8:24
asking and booking roles. And
8:27
so I would only work if I was on set.
8:29
I didn't really like find other avenues to
8:32
make money. I bought a fancy car. Instead
8:34
of buying a house, I just, I didn't
8:36
do like those foundational things that I needed
8:38
to do like set myself up for success
8:40
financially. And then my
8:43
acting train finally stopped last year during
8:46
the dual Hollywood strikes. Yeah,
8:49
I lost so much fucking money
8:52
and I'm so pissed and so
8:54
fucking angry and
8:56
I'm rebuilding now. And I like
8:58
my fucking savings
9:00
just dwindled my stocks and bonds. You
9:02
know, I went from having stocks and
9:05
bonds to having an emergency fund. I
9:07
went from being a helping hand and
9:09
needing a helping hand and it
9:12
was extremely humbling. Now on
9:15
social media, our
9:17
union said to go back
9:19
to your day job. Now
9:22
I never really had a day job. My
9:26
day job was second day. You
9:29
know, and I mean
9:31
if I was a lazy hoe at 18, I'm
9:34
a geriatric one at
9:36
28. But
9:43
I belong to, I belong
9:46
to this Hooker Collective called
9:48
Hooker's Army and we practice
9:51
self-defense and we do peer support and I continue
9:53
to go to it because they're my friends
9:55
and you know that's my politics. So I continue
9:57
to go even after I was retired and And
10:00
I was telling the group, I told them, I
10:03
said, you know, I'm having these money issues. I
10:05
had a fucking, a fucking
10:07
car renewal. My car renewal bill was
10:09
fucking $700. That's what you
10:11
get when you buy a fucking Tesla. You have to pay almost $1,000
10:14
to renew your car. And
10:16
I was like, I have this bill and I
10:18
don't have any money coming in. And
10:20
there's the dominatrix of the group. Her
10:22
name is Princess Marks. And
10:25
she said that she would share a client with me.
10:27
Now, if you don't know about dominatrixes, and the
10:29
good thing about that is that they don't have
10:31
to fuck for their money, which is
10:34
great because my pussy was tired. And
10:36
so, so I
10:39
was like, this, you know, this is
10:41
amazing. And, you know, as we
10:43
were getting ready for the client,
10:45
I was telling her that, you know, I'm very
10:47
vanilla. I haven't done anything like
10:50
dominatrixing before. And
10:52
I just, I can't really relate to the whole
10:55
pain thing. And she said, no,
10:57
Clay, you like spicy foods. So
10:59
you do like pain, which I just found
11:02
so fascinating. I said, yes, she's right. And
11:04
I do, I love extremely spicy
11:06
foods. And she said, okay, listen to this.
11:09
Bring all the jalapenos in your house
11:12
and we'll use them in the session. For
11:15
what? I know, for what? And
11:17
so she was saying that I had a
11:19
pain reference for them. And
11:21
she said, knowing what your submissive
11:23
slave is experiencing makes you that
11:25
much better a Dom. And
11:28
yes, the client was a submissive
11:30
slave, which I'm immediately uncomfortable with
11:32
because it just like creeps
11:34
me out that white people are, you
11:37
know, proud of slavery and like even
11:39
more disturbingly are aroused by it. But
11:42
I mean, but as we know, it
11:44
was just Martin Luther King Day, as
11:46
we know, money cures
11:48
racism. And I wasn't
11:51
missing out on my reparations. Okay,
12:02
so, she tell,
12:04
so I'm getting ready, we're gonna meet the client at
12:06
his house, and he lives in Glendale. Also,
12:08
Glendale, I'm selling my pussy
12:11
in Glendale, girl! So,
12:14
we pull up to the single story house
12:17
in the suburb, we're two afternoon hookers, and
12:20
when you're at home, you have
12:22
to be ready for anything. I mean,
12:24
this man, he could look like Brad
12:26
Pitt or Quasimodo. He
12:28
was neither. I swear to
12:30
you, I'm in the positive seat, I roll down
12:32
the window, as I see him,
12:34
I'm like, that is
12:37
a queen! That is a
12:39
homosexual! This man was
12:41
an aging queen. He looked like
12:43
an elderly Troy Savan, the twink
12:46
of yesteryear. But, you know, hey,
12:48
whatever, you know, so, he was really
12:50
gracious, he
12:53
opened the door for us, and he welcomed
12:55
us into his home, and he
12:57
gave us a tour. And
12:59
this man had BDS and toys as far as
13:02
the eyes could see. I mean,
13:04
he had whips and chains and floggers
13:06
and just, I mean, he
13:08
had fire, like, like, lighters to
13:11
be burned with electrodes. He
13:13
wanted us to electrocute him! He
13:15
was ready! And he
13:19
was also, and this really shocked
13:21
me, he had a
13:23
whole smorgasbord of treats and delectable
13:26
things that we could eat and
13:28
sip on, a charcuterie plate, and
13:31
wine, and I just, I wanted
13:33
to eat everything, but I had
13:35
the very strict no drinking on
13:37
the job policy, and even
13:40
stricter no eating from white people's house
13:42
policy. But
13:45
the guy, he was very, very kind, and
13:48
I mean, I've had kind clients before, but
13:50
I mean, this was like another level. I
13:52
felt like Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman. It
13:56
was really nice. And so
13:58
the client, he gets... dressed
14:01
and he has a dad bod,
14:03
a farmer's tan, and a flaccid
14:05
penis. And he gets
14:07
on, he gets, we're adults here,
14:09
he gets on one of his many benches
14:13
and he's doggy style and he's
14:15
bent over and he
14:17
exposes a lasered asshole and
14:20
the asshole itself is slightly
14:22
prolapsed. So he was experienced.
14:27
And we strap him
14:29
in, head, legs, arms, back,
14:32
everything. He is our willing
14:34
system. And so
14:36
the first thing we do is a
14:39
spanking demonstration. And
14:41
initially he just wanted me to watch, but
14:43
I know myself, I could never be an
14:45
audience member. I will always be the
14:47
star. Self-aware.
14:53
So we do this spanking demonstration,
14:55
I'm being taught how to spank. And
14:58
then after that we get creative. And
15:01
so Princess Mark tells me, grab
15:03
the jalapenos. And
15:07
she said, do you have any jalapenos
15:10
with him? And
15:12
she said yes. And
15:15
so I, as a rational, normal human
15:17
being, I take the entire
15:19
jalapeno, because there's nothing hot on the outside
15:21
of a jalapeno. That's not going to harm
15:23
you. And I stick that into his
15:25
abs and I twist it in there, you know,
15:27
nice and good so he can, you know, feel
15:29
the fantasy. And then I pull
15:32
that out and it's pristine, it's clean. And
15:35
I look over to Princess
15:37
Mark, she's on her knees,
15:39
chapping up the other jalapeno.
15:42
And she gets a knife. And
15:45
so, you know, I know that this is
15:47
insane. And she's telling me, okay,
15:49
now we're going to put these in his ass.
15:52
Now I know this is crazy, but I'm
15:54
on the job. And
15:56
sometimes, sometimes you just have to be like, oh, I'm
15:58
going to do this. Uma your provider
16:01
is selling you feel about I'm
16:03
not going to close seen by
16:05
manager in front of the client.
16:07
Oh. I see
16:10
how the plane yellows
16:12
of out every damn
16:14
every see every jalapeno.
16:16
Oil offices. And
16:19
it is not long before this
16:21
man start. School. Work
16:25
and Com. A
16:28
good at his. At
16:31
me and tell you this
16:33
the is a desert The
16:35
jalapeno ignited a flame across
16:37
his and this the mucous
16:39
membrane up his arrest them
16:41
what's receding. Because
16:52
I know that Bdsm. And
16:54
man like. but this seems
16:56
like this is another level.
16:59
We do something and.
17:02
Most a citizen another forget it. We
17:06
let. Him go excel the jalapeno
17:08
out at him and see looked
17:10
him dead in his eyes and
17:12
caught him a simmering solas and
17:15
fault him for know with this.
17:17
Office I was like oh my gosh
17:19
with but but but she did one
17:21
nothing she did his s C. Linked
17:24
to the refrigerator, to the kitchen. And
17:26
she grabbed with cream thinking that
17:28
is yours would calm down See
17:31
now I don't think that works
17:33
in an end this but. But
17:36
I'm self anointed up his ass, even
17:38
when. Now This Doesn't work.
17:41
Because as I turned the can around.
17:46
With. My
17:55
friends money. You
18:00
know, I took a couple of improv classes,
18:02
and so I started looking around, and I
18:04
looked behind me, and I remember the wine
18:06
that I didn't drink later from all the
18:08
food he put out. He put out ice
18:10
cubes, and these are these big ice cubes.
18:12
You know, the ones that are like four
18:15
inches, and you get from like a stainless
18:17
steel refrigerator, where you have to take a
18:19
cup and then press it on the lever,
18:22
then the ice falls out. Real rich white
18:24
people shit. Not an eight-tray
18:26
in eight. I took one of
18:28
those ice cubes, and I started screwing
18:32
them up his anus, and
18:35
his asshole swallows everyone, and
18:38
they just disappear inside of him,
18:41
and the day was saved. Now,
18:50
eventually, Princess Mox
18:52
will let him go to relieve himself,
18:55
because she didn't want to be sprayed
18:57
with jalapeno booty juice. Now,
18:59
I left this man with
19:03
a bulbous asshole, and
19:05
he left me with $600 on a microphone
19:09
that I used for podcasting.
19:12
This is the hero's turn-in! Woo!
19:22
He said he enjoyed it, and that I'm very unique. Thank
19:29
you. My name is Clay Sant. Oh,
19:45
oh, then, why'd you buy
19:47
me a hot sauce bagel? My
19:50
hot sauce bagel? Go get me a hot sauce bagel. Go
19:53
get me a hot sauce bagel. My hot sauce
19:55
bagel? Go get me a hot sauce
19:57
bagel. We'll
20:00
be right back. Do
20:10
you wake up in a cold sweat from your work
20:12
dreams? Have a coworker who keeps inviting you to
20:15
do escape rooms? Can't get a
20:17
coworker to agree to do escape rooms? Or are
20:19
you just genuinely not sure how to take the
20:21
next step in your career? I'm Kate. And I'm
20:23
Kin. And together we run Amy Poehler's company,
20:26
Paper Kite Productions. We've been friends and colleagues for
20:28
years, so we know how important it is to
20:30
feel like someone has your back at work. And
20:32
we want to be that for you. So we're
20:34
hosting a weekly advice show where we answer
20:36
all your work-related questions. Something
20:38
amazing happened. I got offered my dream job. How
20:41
am I supposed to bring this up to them
20:43
without hurting your ceiling? What should I do? I
20:45
want to like skip the pleasantries without
20:48
being an asshole. Careful, money and friends.
20:50
They don't mix, babe. They don't. And
20:52
don't work with your friend. Make your friends at work.
20:55
I can't believe I'm going to say this,
20:57
but that was actually million dollar advice. Whether
21:00
you need advice or just love to listen to
21:02
other people's problems, this show is for you. Listen
21:05
and follow Million Dollar Advice and Odyssey Podcast,
21:07
available now for free on the Odyssey app
21:09
and wherever you get your podcasts. Knowing
21:13
how to speak and understand a new
21:15
language can be an invaluable tool when
21:17
traveling, meeting new friends, or just even
21:19
a master new skill. But it's not
21:21
always simple when you're bogged down by
21:23
textbooks and structure classes. That's why so
21:25
many people trust Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone
21:28
is the most trusted language learning program
21:30
available on desktop or as an app.
21:32
It truly immerses you in the language
21:35
you want to learn, like Spanish, French,
21:37
Italian, Chinese, and more. You won't just
21:39
be studying English translations. The Rosetta Stone
21:41
intuitive process helps you pick up a
21:43
language naturally, first with words, then
21:46
phrases, then sentences. Don't
21:48
put off learning that language. There's no better
21:50
time than right now to get started. For
21:52
a very limited time, listeners can get Rosetta
21:54
Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off.
21:57
Visit rosettaestone.com/rs10. That's
22:00
50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses
22:03
for the rest of your life. Redeem your
22:05
50% off at
22:08
rosettastone.com/RS10 today. Hiring
22:10
for your small business? If you're not looking
22:12
for professionals on LinkedIn, you're looking in the
22:14
wrong place. That's like looking for
22:16
your car keys in a fish tank. LinkedIn
22:19
helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere
22:21
else, even those who aren't actively searching for
22:23
a new job but might be open to
22:26
the perfect role. In a given month, over
22:28
70% of LinkedIn users don't even visit other
22:30
leading job sites. So start
22:32
looking in the right place. With
22:34
LinkedIn, you can hire professionals like
22:36
a professional. Post your free job
22:38
on linkedin.com/recommend today. We're
22:41
back. This
22:58
is Rizk. This is Cinematic
23:00
Orchestra behind me now. And
23:02
we just heard from Janelle
23:05
Monae, a song called Jalapeno,
23:07
which we thought of after
23:09
Quay Tan's story. And check
23:12
out her podcast, Traineez, that
23:14
she co-hosts with Nailah Moon.
23:17
Folks, we are now offering
23:19
seven day free trials of
23:22
our $5 and $10 and $25 tiers of
23:24
Patreon membership. So
23:30
you can sign up and get a taste
23:32
of what you'd be getting as a paid
23:34
member at that tier. A
23:36
Rizk fan named Cierra recently became a
23:38
member and she wrote to us saying,
23:42
Rizk isn't just entertaining, it's
23:44
affirming. It's an exploration of
23:46
what it is to be
23:48
human. With all our foibles
23:50
and darkness, it's vulnerable and
23:53
funny and kind and just
23:55
all around beautiful. The
23:57
world would be much less bearable.
24:00
Without it. Thank you
24:02
so much Sierra You know
24:04
there's a fascinating conversation on
24:06
patreon right now between myself
24:08
and our story editor Taj
24:10
Easton and Eli Matilda Ridley
24:12
who shared a story called
24:14
my feminine side about connecting
24:16
to their feminine side during
24:18
a spiritually invigorating acid trip
24:21
That was on a recent
24:23
episode and the discussion on
24:25
patreon is fascinating and there's
24:27
plenty more Where
24:29
that came from at patreon.com
24:32
slash risk Also, if
24:34
you just want to help risk out by
24:37
making a one-time donation that's at PayPal.me slash
24:40
risk show Next
24:43
we're going to hear from
24:45
Oliver Cromwell now the subject
24:47
of sexual abuse is in
24:49
this one and it was
24:51
shared so honestly and Compassionately
24:53
by Oliver and here he
24:55
is now with a story
24:57
we call poison
25:22
So At
25:30
the age of 15 I was at
25:32
a youth event at a church
25:35
and I'm
25:40
standing there listening to
25:43
the youth pastor Talk
25:45
about you know Jesus God
25:48
relationships with spirituality I
25:51
Don't remember a lot of
25:53
what was said But
25:56
towards the end of it he said
25:58
something so profound that's different with
26:00
me that kind
26:02
of altered the trajectory of
26:05
my life at that point. Six
26:09
years prior to that, I met
26:12
the man and woman who had become my mom
26:14
and dad. And
26:18
I make that distinction. I
26:20
made it for
26:22
as long as I can remember. I have a
26:24
mom and a dad and
26:27
a mother and a father. And
26:30
the reason I made the distinction was because anyone
26:34
can be a mother and father. It's
26:37
a simple process, really. But
26:40
it takes a lot more, a lot
26:43
more love and care and dedication
26:45
to be a mom and
26:47
a dad. Six
26:51
years before that, I was living
26:53
with my father. I
26:55
had lived with my
26:58
mother's parents after
27:00
being born. Then I
27:02
lived with my mother and then at
27:04
this point I had been living with
27:06
my father, my biological father.
27:11
I don't really have a lot of
27:14
memories per se. I
27:17
can remember that at least between
27:20
the ages of three and five while
27:23
living with my father, I spent
27:25
my life looking to
27:27
him for guidance, for
27:30
care. At the
27:32
time he was simply another person
27:35
in a line of people who
27:37
said they would be there for me and
27:40
take care of me and
27:42
make sure I didn't die. And
27:46
in some ways he
27:50
succeeded. In other ways
27:52
he failed. The
28:01
biggest memory that I have
28:03
during this time is
28:06
not a happy one. I
28:08
remember standing in
28:10
the living room of the
28:12
apartment that my father was
28:15
renting at the time, and
28:18
I'm looking out the patio door to a
28:21
gray kind of overcast
28:23
gay. My
28:26
father was an
28:28
alcoholic, so it wasn't
28:32
unusual for me to experience
28:35
him in an altered state of mind. I
28:37
may not have understood it at the
28:40
time, what caused it, if
28:42
that was just normal for him, if
28:45
it was just who
28:47
he was. I
28:49
do know that looking back,
28:52
if I pull up his face, he
28:54
kind of looked like a mix between
28:56
old school mullet,
28:59
A.K. Bracey Hart, Billy
29:01
Ray Cyrus, and
29:04
Dale Earnhardt, who happened
29:06
to be his favorite
29:08
NASCAR racer. So,
29:12
on this day, my
29:14
father calls me upstairs, and
29:18
like the good son that I am, I
29:20
go upstairs to see what he wants. And
29:24
he proceeds to tell me
29:26
to take my clothes off, and I'm
29:29
confused, I think maybe I'm just getting changed.
29:33
At this point, all I can really
29:35
feel is a sense of confusion, not
29:38
knowing what's going on. And
29:41
then he proceeds to bend me
29:43
over the bed and violate me. And
29:50
it turns from confusion to
29:53
pain and fear and...
30:00
just wanting
30:02
to be anywhere but here.
30:07
I don't know how long
30:09
it went on. I
30:13
can vaguely remember seeing the light
30:16
dim and
30:19
I got to a point where I had
30:21
a feeling in my gut that
30:25
the one thing I needed to do at that
30:28
moment was poop. I
30:31
tell my father that I have to use the
30:33
bathroom. As
30:35
I've gotten older, I've kind of understood that
30:39
no, that was just the feeling of
30:41
being violated, of
30:46
having something foreign and
30:48
unwanted within you. So
30:51
I have to retreat to the restroom and
30:54
I'm sitting on a toilet just kind
30:56
of hiding. Nothing's
30:59
happening. I'm just there,
31:01
scared. After
31:11
five, maybe 10 minutes, my father
31:13
knocks on the door and he
31:16
says, finish up. And I
31:18
just, I wipe my eyes and
31:21
rub my nose and I
31:23
slowly, anxiously open
31:25
the door and make my way back
31:27
out. He
31:31
continues to violate me for a
31:34
little bit longer and
31:36
then he's done. At
31:41
this point, I can kind of remember getting
31:45
partially dressed and
31:47
I retreated to the closet in the corner
31:50
of the room. It
31:52
was one of those apartment,
31:55
small walk-in closet type things.
31:59
And I just kind of... I went in
32:01
there, curled up and hid for
32:03
a while. I
32:06
don't know how long I stayed in there, but
32:09
when I went in there, I knew it was dark
32:11
outside. When I came
32:13
out, I could see street
32:16
lights and
32:18
the lights of like a
32:20
gas station that was down the way. I
32:23
can't remember if my father was
32:25
asleep on the bed or if
32:27
he had gone out to the
32:29
patio or
32:32
what it was. I just knew I
32:34
didn't want to see him.
32:38
I was a ball of confusion
32:40
and fear and
32:42
anxiety, and
32:46
I just wanted to be alone. Sometime
32:50
after that, while I was still living with my father, I
33:00
happened to go to
33:03
another relative's house, one
33:06
where I had an older half-brother, and
33:10
my cousins were there. I
33:13
had a female cousin
33:17
who was 16 at that point, and
33:21
she took us off into this side
33:23
room in this kind
33:25
of finished basement, as it
33:27
were. There were carpets, there was
33:30
a TV system set up with
33:33
movies, there was another
33:36
room off of it. There was like the
33:38
laundry room or something like that, and
33:40
there was a side room that I suppose was
33:43
someone's bedroom or it was like
33:45
a pseudo guest room because
33:49
there was a bed in there, there was
33:52
a little table, and there
33:54
was a small bookshelf with some
33:57
books on it. And I
33:59
remember, My 16 year
34:02
old cousin, she carried
34:04
in a basket full
34:07
of little slips of paper. My
34:11
half brother and I, along with my
34:13
cousin, were
34:15
in the room and she proceeded to shut
34:17
the door and told us
34:19
about a game. We
34:22
would pick slips of paper out
34:24
of the basket, unfold
34:26
them, read what it says and
34:29
then do what it says on them. And
34:32
me being a young child
34:35
between the ages of 3 and 5 at
34:37
this point, I'm kind of excited
34:39
because I like games, sounds
34:42
fun. But
34:44
it turns out that this game had a bit
34:46
of a sinister goal. People
34:52
because we were just young
34:55
boys and she was a 16 year
34:58
old young woman. These
35:08
slips of paper happened to have sexual
35:11
acts on them. My
35:15
brother and I pulled these slips
35:17
of paper, read what
35:19
they said and proceeded to perform
35:21
set acts. I
35:24
can remember getting kind of
35:27
frustrated at this game
35:29
that she had us playing because all
35:31
I could seem to draw out of
35:33
this basket of papers was
35:37
the act of oral
35:39
sex on her. I
35:43
remember very distinctly just this
35:46
kind of sour, awkward
35:49
taste in my mouth. It
35:52
was just the same
35:55
thing over and over. I
35:58
remember after some... time
36:01
just kind of looking at my
36:03
cousin and just saying, I
36:05
think I'm done with this game.
36:17
I now have two instances in
36:19
which family
36:21
members did certain
36:23
things with each other. This
36:26
was normal. Some
36:31
time later, I remember
36:34
being in my father's bed with
36:37
my half sister. She was
36:39
younger than I was. And
36:42
we started a game of doctor. Not
36:45
a normal game where, you know,
36:47
you pull out
36:49
the toy stethoscope and
36:52
the toy x-ray machine and,
36:55
you know, oh, you're sick. Let's see
36:57
what the problem is. No,
37:00
this is one of those games of
37:02
doctor where you start
37:04
taking your clothes off and I'll show
37:07
you mine if you show me yours. And
37:11
I'm older now. I know
37:14
that's not normal. But
37:16
at that point, I was
37:19
a child. It was completely normal.
37:22
My father had done things to me. My
37:26
cousin had done things to me. These
37:29
are just what family members
37:31
do sometimes. In
37:35
a way, I closed a
37:37
loop and created a new
37:40
cycle of abuse. It
37:49
would be my hope that I
37:52
didn't screw up my half
37:54
sister the way I had been Because
37:57
she was so young. Years
38:01
past. I
38:03
bounced to my father's.
38:05
Pants. Foster
38:08
family. Another foster
38:10
family. And six
38:12
years after the abuse. And
38:15
nine years old. And
38:18
I meet the man woman who
38:20
would become my mom and. Some.
38:25
Time later, Not
38:27
too long. And
38:29
need to girls who would
38:31
become my younger. Sister's.
38:35
I'm still a child. Their
38:37
children as well. I've
38:40
never told anyone about
38:42
what happened all those
38:44
years ago. There
38:49
came a time. When the
38:52
cycle of abuse. Came.
38:54
Back. It
38:57
wasn't long, but it was the not. My
39:02
mom and dad never did anything to
39:04
me. Nobody
39:06
in my new family
39:08
did anything. They were
39:10
loving, caring and time.
39:14
They were supported. Anything that I wanted
39:16
to do is my life. They stood
39:19
behind me and tried to help me
39:21
make it better. My
39:24
parents found out what I did,
39:26
what has happened, I
39:30
went to therapy. Has
39:32
they thought perhaps? this was a
39:34
nice and we need to figure
39:36
out what was up in. My
39:42
parents fought tooth and nail to
39:45
make sure. That
39:47
the family stayed together. I
39:50
had made my mom cried. So
39:54
many times. The
39:57
actions. My
40:02
goes on. I was
40:04
so young created. I
40:08
wouldn't say a monster. I
40:12
created a perfect storm of.
40:15
Fear. anxiety
40:18
down gilts.
40:24
And. A dynamic
40:26
in my own plane
40:29
that wasn't normal. But
40:32
I didn't tell my parents. I
40:35
was either ashamed or scared. Or
40:39
aside, it's they knew they wouldn't
40:41
want me anymore because so many
40:43
other people just got tired of
40:46
me and sat me somewhere else.
40:49
And my parents had many
40:51
times in which they could
40:54
have done so. And
40:57
yet they stood through. It sickens,
40:59
sent. Out
41:01
a genuine love and
41:04
tear on from Pass.
41:09
And six years after
41:11
I met. A
41:13
man and woman who would become my mom
41:15
and dad. I
41:17
found myself. Or use of
41:19
that. And. A church at
41:21
the age of fifteen. listening
41:24
to. A pastor
41:26
talked about. Face.
41:30
Jesus Spirituality and.
41:34
Above All Saints. Forgiveness.
41:40
While I don't remember ninety
41:42
nine percent of what's this,
41:44
youth, Pastor said. He
41:47
said one thing. That
41:49
from that day however piece to
41:51
other people in situations in which
41:53
I thought it's to be most
41:56
relevant. holding
41:59
on to is
42:01
like drinking poison and
42:03
expecting the other person
42:06
to eat. That
42:09
very phrase, speaking to him,
42:12
and changing my perspective on
42:15
everything that had happened. It's
42:17
been a good chunk of time thinking
42:20
about all the things that had happened,
42:23
thinking, oh, if I
42:25
could change this, that everything might
42:28
be different. Or
42:30
if this had never happened,
42:33
I'd be okay. And
42:35
yet, this one phrase
42:38
allowed me to look back at everything that
42:41
had happened, all the
42:43
bad that I had experienced, not
42:45
only with my father,
42:48
my cousin, the
42:51
things with foster families. And
42:55
it made me realize that
42:57
if any of that had changed, any
43:00
of that had not happened, I
43:03
would not be the person with
43:06
the heart and
43:08
compassion for
43:11
the broken, the battered,
43:14
the damned, as it were. I
43:18
would not be the person
43:21
who wanted to be able to
43:23
reach out a hand and
43:26
say, you are not alone.
43:29
You can get through this. You
43:33
are not a monster. And
43:37
that one phrase
43:40
allowed me to look back at the people who
43:44
had changed my
43:46
life so
43:48
negatively and
43:50
given me so
43:53
many things to
43:55
be afraid of within
43:57
myself. I
44:00
was able to look back at them and
44:04
say, I
44:06
forgive you. I
44:08
will never forget what
44:10
you have done to me. I
44:13
will never forget the
44:15
things I have to try to
44:17
understand. But
44:19
I will also never forget what you
44:21
have given me, the
44:24
desire and capability
44:27
to help others who
44:30
have been through the same. And
44:38
in the years since, I
44:41
have worked to be able to
44:43
do so. Shortly
44:46
after that night of
44:49
the youth event, I was able
44:51
to gather enough courage
44:54
to look at my mom and dad,
44:58
the people who took me in six years
45:01
prior, who said, we
45:03
will take care of you. We will
45:06
love you. We will nurture you.
45:08
We will help you grow. Six
45:11
years to gather the courage and
45:14
to trust them enough with
45:17
the knowledge of what my
45:19
father did to me and what my
45:21
cousin did to me and what
45:23
I did and why. It
45:29
was in that moment that so
45:31
many pieces fell into place for them.
45:35
My dad is a Vietnam
45:38
veteran. He's
45:40
a Marine. I've
45:42
never seen this man cry. And
45:45
yet the amount of understanding
45:49
and compassion that I felt
45:52
come from him after telling
45:54
him what had happened was
45:58
such a sense of... relief
46:01
and wonder because it
46:04
was an experience of
46:07
emotion that I had not
46:09
seen from him. But
46:13
in that moment I truly
46:15
understood and my mom
46:17
and dad didn't just
46:19
say they would love me and
46:22
care for me and help me
46:24
grow. In that
46:26
moment I knew they meant it. I
46:33
had come to
46:36
forgive my father, my
46:39
cousin, and
46:42
all those who had hurt me
46:45
in the past. But
46:49
I've also realized that I
46:52
never let go of the
46:54
poison. I've
46:56
kept it in my pocket. And
46:59
maybe someday I'll be able to come back and
47:02
tell the story of how I was able to dump
47:04
that poison down the drain and
47:06
leave it behind me. Maybe
47:09
someday I'll be
47:11
able to come back and tell
47:14
the story of how
47:16
I learned to forgive myself. When
48:19
your day is long And
48:24
the night, the
48:27
night is yours to
48:29
lose When
48:35
you show you've had
48:37
enough Of
48:41
this life And
48:50
don't let yourself go
48:58
Because everybody cries
49:06
And everybody
49:08
dies Sometimes
49:36
And you're not sensitive And
49:42
we timed the release of that story
49:44
for April If
49:48
you want to know more, go
49:50
to the National Sexual
49:53
Violence Resource Center I
49:56
would say that I have learned so much
49:58
about the National Sexual Violence Resource Center that
50:00
issue in the 15 years we've
50:02
been doing the show from
50:05
the generous sharing of
50:07
stories like Oliver's. I
50:10
hope you have too. I'm
50:13
also so thankful to Oliver for
50:15
saying that all
50:17
the trauma he did endure did
50:20
have something positive that grew
50:22
out of it. His
50:25
deep sense of
50:27
compassion and empathy for
50:30
the vulnerable. I
50:33
feel like hearing stories
50:35
like Oliver's does
50:37
a little bit of that
50:39
same thing for all
50:41
of us too. There
50:43
are so many issues that I feel
50:45
like I've become more educated about from
50:47
working on the show and
50:50
I'm also so honored when people
50:52
share about the most beautiful, the
50:54
most joyous, most wonderful
50:56
experiences in their lives. You
50:59
know, I do one-on-one coaching and a
51:02
fella recently came to me and
51:04
he wanted to work on his wedding
51:07
vows and I cried three times while
51:15
just reading his first draft. It
51:17
was such a joy to work
51:19
with someone sharing in that way also.
51:27
And thank you to
51:29
all of you out there in
51:31
the risk audience who show up
51:33
to listen to one another and
51:36
for making all of this possible.
51:40
We'll be right back. So
51:43
in a little or a lot Shopify
51:47
helps you do your thing. However, you Chaching
51:49
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps
51:51
you sell at every stage of your business
51:53
from the launcher online shop stage to the
51:56
first real life store stage all the way
51:58
to the did a way. platform
52:12
to their in-person POS system. Wherever
52:15
and whatever you're selling, Shopify has
52:17
got you covered. Shopify helps you
52:19
turn browsers into buyers with the
52:21
internet's best converting checkout. 15% better
52:24
on average compared to other leading
52:26
commerce platforms. And sell more with
52:28
less effort thanks to Shopify magic,
52:30
your AI-powered all-star. Shopify powers 10%
52:33
of all e-commerce in the US and
52:35
Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds,
52:38
Rothy's, and Brooklyn and and millions of
52:40
other entrepreneurs of every size across 175
52:42
countries. Plus Plus, Shopify's award-winning
52:44
24-7 help Shopify's award-winning 24-7 help is there
52:46
to support your success every step of
52:48
the way. Because businesses that grow, grow
52:51
with Shopify. Sign up for a $1
52:53
per month trial period
52:55
at shopify.com/Odyssey Podcast, all
52:57
lowercase. Go to shopify.com/Odyssey
53:00
Podcast now to grow
53:02
your business no matter
53:04
what stage you're in.
53:06
shopify.com/Odyssey Podcast. We're
53:09
back. Ready to start talking to your kids about
53:11
financial literacy? But
53:18
that's Thursday, and folks, today's
53:20
the day. Take
53:23
a risk. ♪
53:27
Cause everybody hurts ♪ ♪
53:35
Take comfort in your friends ♪ ♪
53:41
Everybody hurts sometimes ♪ ♪
53:44
Everybody hurts sometimes ♪
54:04
Sometimes.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More