Episode 430
with Tessa Fontaine, Abdi Nor Iftin, Moses Storm, and Laura Veirs
Host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello relive some of their greatest escapes; writer and former sideshow performer Tessa Fontaine explains how learning to eat fire helped mend her broken heart; comedian and actor Moses Storm riffs on why he and his mom once had the same platinum blonde hairdo; memoirist and green card lottery winner Abdi Nor Iftin recounts his journey from war-torn Somalia to rural Maine; and singer-songwriter Laura Veirs performs “Margaret Sands” from her album "The Lookout."
Tessa Fontaine
Sideshow Performer turned Memoirist
Come one, come all, you’re invited to writer Tessa Fontaine’s big show – her new memoir THE ELECTRIC WOMAN beautifully chronicles her time working in World of Wonders, the last American traveling circus sideshow. Fontaine writes about her experience as an escape artist, a snake charmer, and a high-voltage Electra as part of her carnival life, as well as how she trained her body to ignore fear even as she suffered through the pain of personal loss. Come for the unique sideshow stories, but stay for the universal themes of camaraderie and self-discovery.
Website • Twitter
Abdi Nor Iftin
Author
As a child in war-torn Mogadishu, Abdi Nor Iftin learned English by watching action movies. When U.S. Marines landed to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these real-life American action heroes. Sporting hip-hop clothes and dance moves, he became known as “Abdi American.” But when radical Islamists took control in 2006, it became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Instead, Abdi risked his life posting secret dispatches to NPR. As life in Somalia grew more dangerous, he fled to Kenya. In an amazing stroke of luck, he won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa lottery, and is now a proud resident of Maine, a Tedx Amoskeag 2019 speaker and he is working on a documentary about his story. Abdi is US citizen, his naturalization ceremony took place in Portland, Maine on January 17th, 2020. Website • Twitter
Moses Storm
Comedian
Moses Storm is a comedy machine who takes in life and spits back out hilarity in the form of lauded standup sets, winning storytelling, and viral social experiments (such as throwing his birthday party at the security-dense LAX airport). Storm spent the first half of his life traveling in a bus with his family of religious missionaries. In the second half, he’s already received a standing ovation after his set on Conan, won the Moth’s storytelling GrandSLAM, and will appear in the upcoming season of Arrested Development on Netflix. For Moses Storm, life experiences + time = funnier and funnier material. Website • Twitter
Laura Veirs
Singer Songwriter
If you’re a productivity buff, consider this case study – singer and songwriter Laura Veirs released her TENTH solo album this year. Oh, and she also released her podcast Midnight Lightning, and a book, Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotton. Veirs has always been a musical workhorse, both with her own recording and performing as well as running the record label Raven Marching Band Records. The Lookout is a concept album about the fragility of precious things that’s the result of a year of daily songwriting. Veirs puts in the work, and we benefit from the fruits of her labor. Website • Twitter • Spotify
