The Moth

The Moth Radio Hour

Other names	The Moth
Genre	Storytelling
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Syndicates	Public Radio Exchange
Hosted by	Catherine Burns Sarah Austin Jenness Jenifer Hixson Meg Bowles George Dawes Green
Produced by	Jay Allison Viki Merrick Whitney Jones
Executive producer(s)	Sarah Haberman
Air dates	since 2009
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	96
Opening theme	The Drift, ‘Uncanny Valley’
Website	The Moth site
Podcast	The Moth podcast

The Moth is a non-profit group based in New York City dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling.^[1] Founded in 1997, the organization presents storytelling events across the United States and abroad, often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities.^[1] The Moth offers a weekly podcast and in 2009 launched a national public radio show, The Moth Radio Hour, which won a 2010 Peabody Award.^[2][3] The 2013 story collection The Moth: 50 True Stories reached #22 on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-Seller List.^[4]

Overview

The Moth was founded in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, when moths were attracted to the light on the porch where he and his friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales.^[1][5] Green and his original group of storytellers called themselves "The Moths", and Green took the name with him to New York.^[1] The organization now runs a number of different storytelling programs in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and other American cities (26, as of April 2016), often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities.

Live events and programs

The Moth features several different varieties of live shows, all dedicated to the art of first person storytelling.^[1][6]

The Moth Mainstage is their curated flagship program, which is a "staple" of the literary scenes in New York City and Los Angeles and regularly tours around the United States and the world as The Moth on the Road.^[6][7][8]

The organization also holds The Moth StorySLAM events, open mic storytelling competitions open to everyone in cities across the United States, including New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Louisville, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Cambridge, and Los Angeles.^[6][9] The format was inspired by and is similar to poetry slams.

For the StorySLAM, ten participants are chosen at random from a pool of volunteer storytellers to tell a true story (without notes) in the five to six-minute range. Storytellers are scored by three teams of judges—selected from audience members—on a scale of one to ten. The storyteller with the highest score will then advance to The Moth GrandSLAM, which is typically held two or three times annually in the same city as the StorySLAM and is generally a more formal affair.

The MothSHOP Community Education Program offers storytelling workshops free of charge to "students and disenfranchised adults in underserved neighborhoods."^[6] The MothSHOP Corporate program "trains employees to utilize the power of storytelling to promote their goals and ideas."^[6]

In 2012 The Moth launched the High School Slam program, which brings Story SLAMs to public high schools in New York City. They currently hold slams at twelve high schools in three boroughs.

Broadcasting

The Moth offers a weekly podcast, which provides free audio of stories from all types of Moth events.^[6] The podcast has over 70,000 subscribers and averages over 1 million downloads a month.^[6] In August 2009, the organization also launched a national public radio show, The Moth Radio Hour, produced by Jay Allison and distributed by Public Radio Exchange.^[2][6] In the fall of 2009 The Moth Radio Hour was licensed by more than 200 public radio stations, and it later won a 2010 Peabody Award.^[2][3][6]

Publishing

The Moth: 50 True Stories

Editor	Catherine Burns
Author	Various
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Storytelling
Publisher	2013 (Hyperion Books)
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	432
ISBN	978-1401311117

On September 3, 2013 Hyperion Books published The Moth: 50 True Stories, a collection of stories from the group's performance history. In December 2013 it reached #22 on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-Seller List.^[4]

Storytellers

As of the end of 2013, over 10,000 stories have been told at The Moth.^[10] Storytellers include:

The organization's annual fundraising event is called the Moth Ball. At this event they present the Moth Award, celebrating the art of the raconteur. Past awards have gone to Garrison Keillor,^[50] Salman Rushdie,^[51] Anna Deavere Smith,^[52] Calvin Trillin,^[53] Spalding Gray (posthumously),^[54] Martin Scorsese,^[55] and Albert Maysles.^[56]

References

Further reading

• Brocklehurst, Steven (21 August 2009). "The Moth flies in to tell stories". BBC Scotland news. Retrieved 2009-08-23. 
• Buchanan, Leigh (October 2013). "Both Simple And True: The Secrets of Effective Storytelling". Inc. New York: Mansueto Ventures. 

External links

• Official website
• The Moth, on SoundCloud
• O'Grady, Jim (November 14, 2008). "Songs of Themselves". NYTimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2014. 
• Williams, Alex (August 14, 2009). "Going Solo Gets Crowded". NYTimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2014. 
• Wright, Travis R. (October 28, 2009). "The new raconteurs: The Moth flies with a hip pocket full in Detroit". MetroTimes.com. Metro Times. Retrieved January 15, 2014. 
• Buck, Joan Juliet (September 21, 2012). "A Bus Called Wanda". NYTimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2014. 
• Kay, Roger (January 13, 2014). "Crowdsourcing Drives Podcast Quality". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved January 16, 2014. 
• "Interview: Catherine Burns – Artistic Director of The Moth – Diamonds in the Rough – Coaching New Storytellers". ArtofStorytellingShow.com. March 13, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2014.