All Episodes

Best friends, inseparable, until one day they weren't. Two boys in my neighborhood have gone their separate ways, and I don't know why. Or what will happen next. So I imagine endings for a story whose truth I'll never know. How would you write their next chapter?📖 Read A Fading Friendship on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Time moves differently in a warm, still room. Liam counts the minutes to escape, certain it will last forever. The clock has other ideas.A short tale about the daydream we never quite outgrow—the one where freedom is always just a few minutes away. You might recognize the feeling.📖 Read Tick Tock on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

I lost a point in college for writing "to boldly go." Turns out the grammar guides say otherwise, and I've been splitting infinitives ever since.Join me as I take a friendly swing at one of the most persistent grammar myths in the English language. Where did it come from? Why won't it die? And what do Chicago, Dreyer, and a certain starship captain have to say about it? Pull up a chair. This won't hurt a bit.📖 Read To Boldly Split That Infinitive on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Who puts carpet in a Jeep Wrangler? This week, a mostly-true investigation into Siberian Huskies, dog hair magnets, and the great cargo-liner conspiracy.📖 Read Who Puts Carpet in a Jeep? on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

I promised my Ever Patient Partner in Life I'd do something. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. You can probably guess what happened next. The curse of to-do lists strikes again. Will I ever get organized?📖 Read Note to Self on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

My doctor believes a man of my age should deal with exploding oatmeal and gelatinous blobs. My mostly true experience with psyllium husk.📖 Read Of Exploding Oatmeal and Gelatinous Blobs on my website📚 Curious about the reference to Mad Maverick McDougal and his band, Exploding Oatmeal? Check out my novel, Sour Notes. Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Our anonymous hero rescued a lost dog. Then he asked for my help. The rest—chaos, tree rats, and fumbled phone calls—is mostly true.📖 Read The Anonymous Hero on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Pollen crushes me every year. The watery eyes. The clogged sinuses. In my suffering, a story sprung to mind. What if aliens invaded during allergy season?📖 Read Essentially Harmless: The Pollen Files on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

One brazen bear. Three Siberian Huskies. A hiking trail blockade. A shriek echoing through the mountains. Just another day in Asheville.📖 Read Brazen Bear Breakfast Blockade on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Why was I racing around the yard before dawn, clad only in my pajamas, shrieking like a barefoot lunatic? I blame a certain Siberian Husky.📖 Read Barefoot Lunatic: My Predawn Spectacle on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appPhoto of Landon © D. K. WallMusic licensed through Adobe Stock

The New York Times recently profiled a person who claimed to publish 200 novels in a year with the assistance of AI. That article inspired this week's tale: a Faustian bargain between soulless creation and the simple belief that writers write. 📖 Read Writers Write on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Why do some books imprint a hum in our souls? Project Hail Mary echoed a classic that sparked the same wonder as watching the moon landing.📖 Read That Old Familiar Hum: From Rama to Hail Mary on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appTitle Image: A photograph from the James Webb Telescope of the Nebula PMR 1, aka the “Exposed Cranium” nebula. Public domain photo. Credit to: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI). For more information, visit https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/webb-studies-cranium-nebula/Music licensed through Adobe Stock.

One day I'm sweating in shorts, the next I'm bundled against a snowstorm. How does one dress to survive the extreme weather whiplash of March?📖 Read Weather Whiplash on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

One long walk. Two humans. Three dogs. Three weather apps. Zero umbrellas. Zero thoughts about the building clouds. One soggy betrayal.📖 Read A Soggy Betrayal on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Ever suspect a sinister intent behind the origin of Daylight Saving Time? Let me share the demonic story about our stolen hour.📖 Read The Stolen Hour on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

After receiving a dreaded jury duty summons, my initial annoyance transformed into creative glee, but the justice system held one final, ironic twist.📖 Read Jury Duty on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Ever tried to exercise with a dog in the room? How about three dogs? One exercise mat. Zero dignity. Caninesthenics. 📖 Read Caninesthenics on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

What is the secret to everlasting love?For Hubert, the answer is simple. It isn't expensive roses or fancy restaurants, but a picnic basket packed with fried chicken, a glass of sun tea, and a simple bouquet of wildflowers for his beloved wife, Ava.Forever Valentine is a story about listening, the beauty of quiet gestures, and a Valentine's Day picnic that holds the weight of eternity. It’s a tale that proves some bonds can never be broken.📖 Read Forever Valentine on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

Exaggerated accumulations. Claims of driving skills. Legends of regional toughness. Winter reveals Snow Mythology under every drift.Over the past two consecutive weekends, Asheville has been hit by winter storms. Much of the eastern half of the U.S. has felt the pain. Social media has been on fire with claims that seem more mythical than real, at least in my experience.This story was originally a musing I wrote back in 2017, but it's as true today as it was then. I dusted it off and recorded it for the podcast.📖 Read Snow Mythology on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.

The forecast calls for snow. The internet calls for panic. The grocery crowd calls for bread and milk.When a winter storm threatens, Gabe loses a fateful game of rock-paper-scissors and must venture into the suburban nightmare known as the pre-storm grocery run. His mission: bread, milk, and toilet paper. His obstacles: empty shelves, a shopping cart with the steering of a drunken goose, and an increasingly angry woman in fleece pajama pants."Bread and Milk" is a short comedic story about the chaos we create when the clouds roll in—and the absurd lengths we'll go to for our families. Perfect for anyone who's ever stood in a barren dairy aisle, questioning their life choices.📖 Read Bread and Milk on my website Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast appAll images and music are licensed through Adobe Stock.