On this episode, we’re talking family. Finding, reconnecting, and standing up for family. From a conflict in Eastern Europe, to a surprise email, we're learning why family matters. This episode was hosted by Jodi Powell. Storytellers: Alicia Kenworthy gets some unexpected news from Germany. Stacy Staggs learns to live with her nephew. Marko Ivanov takes care of his brother in a war-torn region. Podcast # 910 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Jodi Powell. And on this episode, family matters. Yes, we're talking family. Finding, reconnecting, and standing up for family. First up, we've got a story about family finding you. Alicia Kenworthy told this at a D.C. Grand Slam where the theme of the night was between the lines. Here's Alicia, live at The Moth.
So one morning about a year ago now, I was lying in bed and staring at my phone when I received a message via the contact form on my personal website. And now to be honest, I'm not sure why I even keep a contact me form available for the world wide web. Mostly what I get is spam.
Although one time a lady from Vancouver, Canada wrote to let me know she shares my name and also receives my Papa John's delivery notifications. to her inbox. She just wanted to let me know the pepperoni pizza I ordered was on its way. So it has its uses. This message that I got, though, was different.
It was well-written and with almost impeccable grammar, so clearly not spam, and it hailed all the way from Munich, Germany. Dear Alicia, it read, I do some family research and I would really like to drop Ken Kenworthy a line. Ken Kenworthy may have known my biological mother. Ken Kenworthy is my father.
So I googled this German gentleman with almost impeccable grammar and I came across his LinkedIn and there was a photo of a man who is the spitting image of my father staring right back at me. And I took a deep breath and I thought how exactly to tell my father he too had missed a delivery notification for a son. The thing is, my dad and I don't really talk.
Like, not in any kind of dramatic sense. We talk. He's a retired Air Force veteran. He's done three tours in Vietnam. And if you put in the movie Top Gun, he can tell you all about which scenes are the most realistic and why. And from his stories, I've kind of gleaned the grand outlines of our family history.
I know that he raised my three older half-siblings as a single father, that he met my mother in a bar, and that I obviously am the best thing that ever happened to him. But other than that, he's very business-like and direct and to the point, and we just don't really do, you know, conversation. So I decided I would just forward the email with minimal commentary.
So just sent it along and said, hey, Dad, looks like this is meant for you. And he replied about 15 minutes later, and he said, hi, Alicia, I will follow up on this. And so I waited for him to follow up.
And as I was waiting for my dad to kind of process the idea that this German gentleman with almost impeccable grammar was most likely his long-lost son, I just started thinking about what the guy had written in his email. He claimed he didn't really want anything much from my dad, maybe a photo and some information about our family history.
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