Real Tall Tales
By Cassandra Young & Munir Meghjani
We believe every person has an interesting story to tell and some of those stories even evolve into life work for some of our guests, charting their future before they even knew it. We'll uncover these stories while highlighting important perspectives, ideas that challenge our everyday thinking and stories - that in the end - make you sit back and think.
Real Tall TalesOct 25, 2022
The Brothers Who Built An Ice Cream Facility Out Of Legos
This pair of brothers had a dream - to create something delicious that reminded them of home, but they had one small little problem: no where to do it it. So what did they do? They constructed an entire ice cream facility...out of legos. Yep, you heard that right: a place to make ice cream out of LEGOS. Welcome to the story of Ice Cream Walla.
Reza and Rehan Bhiwandiwalla grew up in Bombay, India enjoying the culinary creations of their grandmother and some of the wonderful dining experiences the city had to offer. The brothers moved to Atlanta with their parents at the ages of 12 and 8.
They started experimenting with food from an early age and decided they wanted to bring some of the most memorable flavors from India to their friends in the States. Ice Cream Walla was founded with the goal of creating superior and innovative Indian ice cream by using the world’s best ingredients and applied food science - the most dedicated and sincere approach to craft food manufacturing. Reza studied ice cream science as the two brothers sought to perfect their recipes and invent new flavors to delight their guests.
Bribing Thai Officials + Breaking Up With Royalty
From bribing Thai officials and witnessing what goes on in the backrooms of Parisian strip clubs with celebrities to dodging real life monsters in the night and breaking up with Royalty, Laura Feuillebois has enough enough real tall tales to fill a book...but we'll settle with a podcast episode for now.
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About Laura:
Laura Feuillebois has spent her career working with international arts and culture nonprofits throughout the U.S., the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. As a passionate advocate for a more just world, she has contributed to journalism and research projects aimed at advancing economic, racial, and social equality. Over the past two years, Laura adopted a crazy but lovable dog, got married, and - with her husband's assistance - created a tiny human daughter.
Fire Eating, Daredevils, And Adrenaline Junkies
Do you ever wonder why do some people’s lives seem so exciting and other's are - well - still great, but seem to lack the thrilling and terrifying aspect of living on the edge? Clinical psychologist, speaker, and science writer Dr. Ken Carter has made a career out of examining why some people are thrill seekers, daredevils, and adrenaline junkies... and why some aren’t. And it’s rooted in a central emotion: fear. So if you’re listening and you’re wondering where you fall on the thrill seeking scale, we’re about to find out about the adventures you can expect in your life. (You can take the sensation seeking quiz we discuss in this episode here.)
Dr. Kenneth Carter is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University. He has published in both academic and lay publications, translating psychology research into engaging everyday language. His articles have been published in magazines such as Psychology Today and Women’s Health, and he has appeared on news programs such as CNN Tonight, NPR’s: ShortWave, and NBC’s Today show. The psychology of thrill-seeking is the current focus of Dr. Carter’s research. He has delivered TEDx talk on thrill-seekers and is the host of Mind of a Motorhead an NBC Sports web series that examines the personalities of motorsport athletes. His most recent book is Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies (Cambridge University Press). When not teaching, speaking, or writing, Dr. Carter prefers reading and relaxing on the beach to wingsuit flying or BASE jumping.
A Former Jehovah's Witness And The Fire That Changed Everything
It's the biggest night of your life. It's all on the line and you're staring down the barrel of success and then the entire course of your life shifts in one moment. Could you imagine losing your entire life savings all in one night? Our guest Josh Kim talks to us about the night an unexpected fire in Vietnam changed it all for him as well as what his life was like as a former's Jehovah's Witness.
Josh is a second-generation Korean American born in Queens, NY, raised in NJ, who moved to Atlanta following his dreams of Commercial Real Estate. His parents immigrated to the States in the early 80s with only a little cash and a family of seven. He grew up going door-to-door preaching in the suburbs and eventually dropped out of college to support a religious non-profit full-time as an ordained minister. This lead him to Vietnam to help remote deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. He would eventually get into business ventures, involving boutique hotels and rooftop bars, and while the opening night of the first venture, with his entire life savings, may not have gone as he expected - it eventually led him to meet his fiancee on a plane from Taipei to Tokyo. He now has a scratch donut shop in Milton, GA serving locally roasted coffee and ground-in-house burgers called Bloom Roadside.
When Running With The Bulls Almost Goes Very, Very Wrong
PT 2 - A Teenage Gang Leader Turned Lawyer
This episode is a continuation of PT 1 - A Teenage Gang Leader Turned Lawyer
When he was just 14, David Lee Windecher dropped out of high school and joined a gang for protection with the street name "Red." At 16, he started his own gang. He was arrested 13 times and spent over 7 months incarcerated as a juvenile. Now, he’s a lawyer fighting for those who don’t have the resources to pay for justice.
In Part 2, David tells us about his gang initiation fight, a story about the NINETEEN cars he owned but legally couldn't drive, bribing corrupt law enforcement officials, false accusations, and why you should always choose impact over income.
Learn more about David's non-profit, "RED," the important work he's doing with the justice system and how you can help stop recidivism at stoprecidivism.org.
David practices at the Windecher Firm and his book, "The AmerIcan Dream: HisStory in the Making," is out now.
PT 1 - A Teenage Gang Leader Turned Lawyer
When he was just 14, David Lee Windecher dropped out of high school and joined a gang for protection with the street name "Red." At 16, he started his own gang. He was arrested 13 times and spent over 7 months incarcerated as a juvenile. Now, he’s a lawyer fighting for those who don’t have the resources to pay for justice.
Learn more about David's non-profit, "RED" and how you can help stop recidivism at stoprecidivism.org.
David practices at the Windecher Firm and his book, "The AmerIcan Dream: HisStory in the Making," is out now.
A Firing Squad And A Secret Family Spy
When Derreck Kayongo was 10, he found himself rounded up by the hands of a military firing squad with his family and was forced to watch as his neighbors were randomly selected and killed. He escaped and now? He's a CEO, non-profit founder of a humanitarian aid organization, and CNN Hero.
Derreck Kayongo is the founder of the Global Soap Project: a humanitarian aid organization that collects discarded and unused soap from thousands of hotels worldwide, reprocesses it, then distributes it to in-need populations around the world. He is also the former CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, a social entrepreneur and is the Chairman and Founder of Africa Mbele. Africa Mbele is building a global movement within the Diaspora to fight against extreme dilapidating corruption in Africa. You can learn more at www.africambele.org
A 7-Year-Old Who Saved 12 Lives With A Chopstick
Welcome to Real Tall Tales, the podcast that showcases the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Ever meet someone with the most INSANE story? So ridiculous, so unbelievable, that you're sure it must be made up? Except it's not, and these are the stories we're telling.
In this episode, Munir Meghjani tells us the tale of how he and his family were held up and robbed at gunpoint on Thanksgiving Day, then left to freeze to death in an industrial freezer...but one 7-year-old boy and a single chopstick saved the lives of 12 people.
Warning: this episode contains discussion of gun violence and armed robbery.
Trailer: Real Tall Tales
Ever meet someone with the most INSANE story? So ridiculous, so unbelievable, that you're sure it must be made up? These are the stories we're collecting: the extraordinary stories of ordinary people.
Cassandra Young and Munir Meghjani started this podcast when they realized that everyone they spoke to, no matter what they did in life or who they were, had at least ONE story that was so ridiculous, so unbelievable, so extraordinary...that it can't possibly be true. But it is.
We believe every person has an interesting story to tell, (after all, storytellers have been the oral history keepers of the human race for centuries), and some of those stories even evolve into life work for some of our guests, charting their future before they even knew it.
You know your story: the one you tell at parties but no one believes, the story that sounds like pure fiction, the story that you still can't quite believe happened to you. It's strife with wonder and sparks disbelief, but you love telling it every. single. time. It's an adventure in your back pocket. It's an experience that's so uniquely you - crafted from your life story - that it captivates everyone who hears it. Those are the stories we want the world to hear.
We'll uncover these stories in each episode of "Real Tall Tales" while highlighting important perspectives, ideas that challenge our everyday thinking, and stories - that in the end - make you sit back and think.
We hope you'll love listening to these life stories unfold as much as we did.
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