Maria’s Journey to Trauma-Informed Storytelling with Rain Bennett
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In This Episode
In the inaugural episode of her "When Bearing Witness" podcast, host Maria Bryan is interviewed by veteran podcaster Rain about becoming a trauma-informed storyteller. Listeners can expect to learn Maria's origin story of arriving at this work after a student asked a pivotal question about incorporating trauma-informed practices into nonprofit storytelling.
Maria and Rainn define trauma-informed storytelling as the safe gathering and telling of painful stories in a way that transforms yet protects story owners, audiences, and storytellers. They discuss critical topics like consent, boundaries, grounding techniques, and the responsibility held by storygatherers and tellers.
This conversation lays the groundwork for what's to come on the podcast itself. Maria shares why she started the When Bearing Witness Podcast and what listeners can expect from season one of the show.
About Rain Bennett
Rain is a filmmaker, author, keynote speaker, and host of the storytelling lab podcast. He tells heartfelt human stories about health and happiness. Rain focuses on helping people through speaking, presenting workshops, consulting, and coaching on storytelling practices and how we can use them to connect deeper with our communities and audiences, solidify and strengthen our marketing messages, and increase sales and donations.
Connect with Rain Bennett
Website | YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | X
Storytelling Lab Podcast | CaptureFully
About Host Maria Bryan
Maria Bryan is a trauma-informed storytelling trainer. She helps nonprofit leaders tell powerful and impactful stories that resist harm. Maria has over fifteen years in marketing communications in the public sector. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, and is professionally certified in Trauma & Resilience, Trauma-Informed Space Holding, and Somatic Embodiment & Regulation. Maria is a firm believer that storytellers make the world a healthier, safer, cleaner, and happier place.
Connect with Maria
Speaking & Training | LinkedIn | Email
Trancripts
Maria Bryan: It's the very first episode and I have such a treat for you. We're kicking things off with one of my favorite storytellers, Rain Bennett. Rain is a filmmaker, author of six second stories, which is on my shelf, keynote speaker and host of the storytelling lab podcast. He has been part of my journey since I first kicked off my consultancy. Including one-on-ones to help me better understand my own story. And we're switching the script today.
Rain is going to be interviewing me on my journey of becoming a trauma informed storyteller. And what you can expect from the when bearing witness podcast. Well hello Rain.
Rain Bennett: Hello.
Before before Before i pass the mic to you i have to tell you something
Rain Bennett: Let's, hear it.
Maria Bryan: The very first podcast that I was a guest on was the Storytelling Lab
Rain Bennett: No, you told me you had been on 17 podcasts. I asked you if you were interested in being a guest, I was like, oh, she's a veteran. She.
Maria Bryan: And it is truly full circle to have you on the first episode of the When Bearing Witness podcast. I look up to immensely, you know that, and I am going to let you do what you do best and hand the mic over to you.
Rain Bennett: Well, I appreciate that and and you keeping that secret from me as well. Um, I take this role with, with much honor and gratitude and a lot of curiosity. I think it's really cool what you're doing, and I've been in the storytelling space for Almost 20 years now. So the overlap, the intersection of trauma and storytelling in like organically comes up all the time. So I think it's really interesting and really important. So I'm excited about the conversation too. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to learn more about it in this format. So for me, all things kind of start at the beginning. And what I love about storytelling and my podcast as well is like
All of us storytellers have a different path to this space. To this field. Mine's documentary filmmaking. But I know a little bit about your, you know, that podcast we did was a long time ago. So let's start from the world that kind of introduced you into this storytelling space.
Maria Bryan: I study journalism. I studied journalism and graduated right as print journalism died. And social media exploded. So at that time, I had joined the Peace Corps and really wanted to be this international journalist, and in my service fell in love with the public sector and landed in nonprofit marketing shortly after that.
So my background is very strongly in nonprofit marketing, communications and
Maria Bryan: storytelling, I
Maria Bryan: worked in-house to two public health nonprofits in New York City, and then transitioned to having my own consultancy, Maria Brian Creative.
I loved supporting nonprofits with marketing strategy, marketing campaigns, and
Maria Bryan: marketing. For the
Maria Bryan: past few years, I focused on training folks in the nonprofit world to tell their story and tell their story impactfully which brought me to
A really life changing moment where a student of mine during a very general nonprofit storytelling webinar that I hosted, asked me during the q and a, how does trauma informed storytelling work into your marketing framework? And a lot of us. I found since then have that moment as consultants, as trainers, as leaders in the marketing and storytelling space where people are asking us, how do we.
and dignify the people we serve through storytelling. And I had no answer for this student. And I tried my best to, in intuitively answer her with not even a definition of trauma in mind. And shortly after that, and actually it was so impactful, I could tell you when it was. It was October 6th. Of 2022 that I Googled trauma-informed nonprofit marketing, and very few voices came up.
Very, very little came up and that's the 180 my life took was I am going to learn about trauma because this is not my background. I need to understand trauma and its impacts on people that we serve, and I need to make that connection with. Storytelling. And so that's, that's what I've been up to
Rain Bennett: yeah, my response would've been, WW what's, what's your approach to trauma-informed storytelling in your marketing strategy? No, I, yeah, I totally empathize with that, with that moment. And that they kind of didn't call you out, but, you know, put you on, you know, on stage like that. So that's a great segue. To let's, I'm always really focused on like laying the groundwork, so let's define it for folks. I do this all the time with storytelling. So what exactly is that question? That was kind of a curve ball that you got that day. What How do you define trauma informed storytelling?
Maria Bryan: Trauma-informed storytelling is a safe way to gather and tell painful stories.
And there's a lot that goes into that.
It is safely holding space for story owners to tell their story. It's also holding a safe space for our readers and audiences who could be triggered by their own lived experiences or by things that they have never really read or experienced before,
All kind of storytellers within what you do as well. Rain, we tell very painful stories and people are sometimes learning things for the first time and can cause a, huge stress response and human response. And something that I really feel passionate about are storytellers who are.
Incredibly vulnerable to secondary trauma and vicarious trauma, and compassion burnout. So they also need to be taking precautions to protect themselves during the storytelling process.
Rain Bennett: I have lots of questions. We may be here a couple of hours. Okay, so first one is an easy one. You know, now I'm remembering 'cause it was years ago when we first talked, but as a documentary filmmaker, you often find yourself working with working for, aligned with nonprofit organizations because they make a lot of documentaries.
It's very like Mission-driven. Type of program. And so I, I have also done a lot of nonprofit work. I started off in that 20, you know, 18 years ago, whatever it was, and I'm still tied to that. And when we launched the podcast, we were looking for people like in, in that similar space. I was speaking at nonprofit conferences, et cetera, et cetera.
So what I found in my nonprofit journey is, okay, yeah, you might. Have a nonprofit that's like a membership association for Monopoly fans, But like by and large, most of them, as I said, are mission driven. They're trying to pursue some cause they're trying to affect some change in the world and often Those are dark problems and traumatic problems they're trying to solve. So it wasn't long before I started working with organizations that were, you know, handling some heavy, some heavy topics. So I. Is, is that where you first, besides this guy asking you the question, did you inherently kind of see that in the work that you were doing, it was like, Hey, this isn't just me like making a social media post, like we're handling something of significance here, of weight of gravity here, and it must be handled somewhat differently.
Maria Bryan: I very quickly felt this urgency around trauma-informed storytelling. I was getting little bits and pieces from journalists that are paving the way from anti-oppressive writers who are paving the way. But there was just no cohesive resource for people. And the impacts of trauma are so pervasive that yes,
I quickly realized that nonprofit marketers and storytellers and so many other kinds of storytellers, like journalists and filmmakers and podcasters are out to tell the stories, some of the most painful and difficult stories out there, and we are equipping. Social workers to, to work in trauma spaces.
We are training frontline staff to hold trauma-informed spaces, but we are not investing in training storytellers on how to do something as simply as have consent. I mean, the most simple, simple trauma-informed best practices are not readily. Available when we are, I think one of the most vulnerable parts of trauma-informed storytelling is the interview process. And there are, it's not just philosophical. There are really practical ways that we can hold or strive to hold and promote safe spaces that resist harm. So yes, very, very quickly I felt, okay, I need to connect these dots. Because there are just so many storytellers out there that I think have the same question or might not even realizing the harm that they are causing through their storytelling processes.
Rain Bennett: It is such an important Thing that you are trying to accomplish here, because if we're going to encourage people to open up to be more vulnerable, to share and connect with each other. then we are going to have to create new systems of managing all those feelings, right? Like the traditional way is just to bottle it up and don't talk about it, you know?
But if we're going to follow these people, like, you know, I look up to Brene Brown, there's a lot of people do that are kind of you know, encouraging us to be vulnerable and be open, especially in the storytelling space, right? Or the content creation space. You hear that all the time. Be authentic, be vulnerable. I know it creates the, the, the, the door to empathy and connection. But you also have to have these systems in place and and understand how to manage all the, all those new feelings. The, and what I love what you've already said is like yours and theirs and the re the recipients potential triggers that come from that. Um, one of the questions I often hear, so I'll start here with, with you, is, where is the line? Let's talk about content creators or the storytellers. Where is the line? Between being vulnerable and opening up to create that connection and oversharing, is there a line?
Maria Bryan: Right, right. So this is a really interesting question because I do talk about three kinds of people, the story owner, the story
receiver, and us the storytellers.
And I give the most flexibility and grace to the story owner. If telling your story as part of your healing
Maria Bryan: process, to me
Maria Bryan: there is no oversharing and I think it's our role as storytellers.
To be aware that we will be holding space for something very difficult and very painful. Now it is the storyteller's responsibility from there to decide what parts of this story are we gonna share. That makes it very clear that something painful took place, but without. Necessarily sharing the details that could be harmful to both audiences and to the original person telling the story.
There's a few ways that you can do that. One. Start with the pain. Make sure we're being clear about the pain, but make sure in your storytelling that you're focusing on transformation. We know that those are important elements of a powerful story, the beginning, the middle, and the end, and the transformation taking place.
And so many of us take that pain and fill the middle of the story with that pain. We can make choices to fill the middle of this story with ups and downs and challenges, but really focusing on hope and strength and empathy, and not what we might consider to be the gory details. When we are telling very, very vulnerable stories, we're talking about people who have died by suicide.
We're talking about violence. I think that we need to be doing simple things like providing content warnings to allow people to decide whether they want to engage in a story where someone is fully expressing their lived experience. Another way to do this, that dignifies and protects a story. Owner is to bring it back to them before the story is published.
We want to create safe spaces for people to tell their story. They may forget this story might end up on their website, on social media in a, in a kind of medium that's easily shareable. So bring it back to them and let them review it before you share it. So really what I'm getting at is the responsibility.
For this comes on the storyteller, and once they've received a story and listened to their story, how they're going to share that story. But I want to say something really important. That doesn't mean that storytellers can't set boundaries, so for one is to be very clear on what your scope is. So to let them know right at the beginning, I am here for you to tell your story.
I am not a therapist, so if there is something that you are needing more support on, I want to be able to direct you to the right people and the right resources afterwards, and it's okay to remind them of that. And if there is a very emotional story being told. We're human, thank them. Hold that space for them.
Let them tell that painful story. But what you're doing to center yourself afterwards are other choices that you can make. How are you spending the rest of the day to feed your nervous system and to, again, center yourself? I, I talked to one journalist who it got to the point that every time her editor called, she would have a panic attack.
She was so, so triggered by the next story that she would have to tell but she ended up putting some really wonderful boundaries and self-care and nervous system systems in place to protect her before and after holding space for these painful stories.
Rain Bennett: I. I got a question recently from someone who works for me with my, with my new startup where we're asking, we're interviewing elders. I think you're, you're aware and we're telling their life story and capturing their memories, and there's a very interesting question about trauma because we all know that conflict drives story. And so when I'm interviewing people, I don't just stay on the surface or, or even just the happy things because sometimes the values that we hold that help us through the dark times of and challenging times of our life. So we're really insightful. You know, life lessons exist, right? Like what got you through that?
Because everyone will go through these times, so I don't hesitate to take it there. But the question that I received was, and I'm now I'm gonna pass it off to you, the expert is one was, it was kind of two parts. Like one, how cautious or aware should we be of, if we're going to open that wound. Putting it back together before we let them go back into their, their lives, which I thought was so insightful and like just what an incredible question.
And then two, like how do we execute that? Like how do we go about that? We are asking these people to interview with us for an hour. They're not really sure what to expect, and then we send them on the about their lives. And if we open those doors to potential, those potentially traumatic doors. How do we handle that with care?
What do we do to ensure that they can, they are not, you know, completely thrown off for the rest of the day, the week, or the month?
Maria Bryan: When you are interviewing someone and you foresee asking difficult questions, first thing is we wanna make sure that they understand, even though they agreed to be in that space and to tell their story. They continue to have consent with every question, and you can remind them of that, and really it's our responsibility to remind 'em.
I would love to know if you could dig a little bit deeper into that. But you are in control of how much you want to tell, if you want to even dig further at all, and you just, with every question, keep giving that permission. So that is just kind of setting the tone for allowing people to continually have consent and their conversations, build two things into your interview questions, a grounding question in the beginning, and a grounding question at the end.
Now that sounds very. Social work therapeutic. Very simple. It can just be. So what are you having for dinner tonight? Just something that brings them back to the present. So start out with something grounding to bring them where they are, and it actually just really helps people to feel more comfortable with you.
It's a general best practice, but afterwards, after especially someone has told a very painful, difficult part of their life, you can ask a question like, one of my favorites is, what are you most excited about for the future?
Rain Bennett: Great question.
Maria Bryan: Like even to like this weekend, like what are you pumped about doing this weekend Again, something that ends positively but also brings them to the present, brings them out of that painful experience and brings them into the present.
Now, we're not therapists. We do want to make sure if people are having a strong human response to telling their story, this is what trauma is. Rain trauma isn't the event. It's your human's response. An event. So you may be able to know that someone is having a strong human response.
Likely you don't know. So there's two things you can do to mitigate this. One is allow them to bring. A support person, you know, a, a daughter, a niece, a neighbor, a friend who can be there if they need that support afterwards. If they can't, maybe you could just ask, especially if you know you're gonna be talking to a veteran, they're gonna be talking about something very, very difficult.
Maybe ask them, listen, if during this conversation you're just having a really difficult time, a really painful time, is there a number that we can call? Afterwards to someone maybe that can just be, come and pick you up, you know, just take that extra precaution. Also have resources that you can pass off.
Again, this is knowing your scope. You're not a therapist, but after this, try your best to ground them. But then let them know, by the way, here are affordable resources. If
this conversation has brought things up for you, here's a support group. Here's affordable sliding scale, you know, therapists et cetera, even if it's a website.
Rain Bennett: I, I think this is this is so key and a lot of these are so easy to implement and, and like the one that just stuck with me was, you know, is there someone we can call or really just asking them, is there anything that you need? Like if we go through this together, and often the answer would be, obviously I'm generalizing, w will be no, but it's, it's. What I've learned is the act of offering these things does so much to put, make people more comfortable and disarm them a little bit and, and help them navigate that even, even if they don't accept any offer for that sort of help, just letting them know it's a safe space and that they're in control. I. often, Helps them just, just that, just that alone. And they still might go there with you, but knowing that they can pull out and eject at any point gives them the, you know, the confidence that they are in control. So I've seen that being helpful, but those are such, such good tips. I'm curious now that. Virtually everyone is a content creator or you know, lots of people like to call themselves a storyteller, but we're creating content that are often telling stories that are certainly being emotional. We most people, if you're creating content now, understand that emotion is what drives people's attention, their action, et cetera. So is this something that. Any storyteller or content creator could benefit from, should benefit from, in terms of learning trauma informed storytelling, and, and, and how to navigate that.
Maria Bryan: I have often had people say, you know, I wanna go to one of your trauma-informed storytelling workshops, but we don't really work with people who've experienced
trauma. And what they're thinking is the people we serve haven't been trafficked. I. They haven't experienced domestic violence. They haven't experienced poverty.
Here's the thing, trauma not only is far more pervasive than we think, there is data to show that we have all experienced at least one traumatic experience by the time we're 18. A few years ago, the pandemic happened, and this is considered a historical trauma. Every single person on planet Earth has experienced, and there are experts and specialists that say, since the pandemic, we can assume that every single person has experienced trauma.
And again, trauma is a nervous system. Response to. A situation where you feel your life is in danger, you don't feel safe, or like extreme toxic stress. And we felt that in so many different ways and experienced that in all different ways during the pandemic. So even pre pandemic, the majority of us have experienced trauma, but now it's safe to say we all should be equipped to hold safe and trauma-informed spaces that resist harm.
Because everyone that we're talking to has experienced trauma or likely has experienced trauma, and you don't know what kind of response their body is going to have to the conversation that you're going to have with them. So yes, I think that everyone, every kind of storyteller out there should be aware of trauma and its impacts.
And the, the easy, really, some of these things are so easy on how we can be trauma unaware and, trauma informed and hold spaces that resist harm.
Rain Bennett: I think the biggest gem that I've learned and taken away from today's conversation is the, is the fact that trauma is not the event, but the response. And I think that's so helpful for people to know because it's subjective. Like what might create or trigger someone or create trauma in someone about a certain event might, might not for someone else be, you know, because those uninformed, non-trauma informed. See what I did there may think it is just event-based. And so they're like, well, this didn't happen. Why, why would that person, you know, be struggling from that? But we never know. We don't know what combination of, of experiences and emotions are contributing to that. So I, I personally, I appreciate that definition because just in this conversation that's helped me understand it a little bit more.
And there's, I've have plenty of trauma in my life but that's a good way to kind of like level it out and make Make it make more sense for me and hopefully for for others. Let's get a little bit focused on the podcast itself. First of all, what does, when bearing witness mean to you? Like why that title? I.
Maria Bryan: When we are telling stories, we're not just passing story from one place to another. We are bearing witness. We are holding space to precious, sacred stories, and I know that we will not make positive change in this world if it weren't for the
Maria Bryan: stories, that we
Maria Bryan: tell. Furthermore, oftentimes those stories are very painful and difficult stories.
So this podcast honors recognizes and celebrate storytellers who bear witness to painful and difficult things in order to make the world a better place.
Rain Bennett: Oh, I, I, that was beautiful because it's so true and it's. It's, it's a, not only is it a privilege, but it's a responsibility and one that we cannot take lightly. So just like plus one, plus a thousand of what you just said, like, I got, I'm so moved when you said that because it's true. We're not just doing a job and moving a story from one, you know, one place to the next. It is a great, a great responsibility that we have. So I I absolutely love that. It's very meaningful to me. How do you, What can we expect from the podcast? Like, you know, let's get down to kind of the nitty gritty, like how, what can we expect every week? How are you going to approach it? What types of storytellers are you, and you've kind of alluded to this already, are you seeking to have, what can the subscribers expect?
Maria Bryan: I.
am so excited about this podcast because it's going to be a lab of sorts for me where I am bringing people on this journey to become a trauma-informed storyteller. I. And again, they're coming with me. I have really invested in learning more about trauma, but I am, you know, I love Katie Kurtz. One of my teachers says that being trauma informed is a journey, not destination.
So I'm bringing storytellers along on these really, really important conversations to bring us there. And there's three kinds of. People that are affected by trauma in the storytelling world. And I said this earlier and you're gonna hear me say it over and over again. Our story owners, those who bravely tell their stories, our story receivers, those who listen and consumer stories, and us the storytellers who bear witness.
And so you can imagine how many conversations touch on how we can hold trauma-informed spaces, protecting all of those kinds of people. So we are going to bring in people who specialize in being trauma-informed trauma-informed specialists, just to lay the groundwork a little bit more than what I said on what it means.
To have experienced trauma, how prevalent and pervasive is trauma. So our second episode is gonna kind of bring in shared language on trauma. And we're going to be bringing in nonprofit marketers and storytellers. We're gonna be bringing in journalists, we're gonna be bringing in people who are studying and deeply trying to understand how language matters.
And how language helps shape our stories in a way that is anti-oppressive. I love people who are working towards the mental health and safety of storytellers and journalists who'll be bringing in some of those folks as well. So there's really gonna be a range of people that all in their sectors and corners of the world are working on.
Creating spaces that are more anti-oppressive, and trauma
informed.
Rain Bennett: Lovely, lovely. Well, I have one more question for you, which is, is often a final question or, or, uh, type of a final question that I, that I ask in my interviews and I. You know, you've kind of set the, the tone or the stage in terms of where we first met and where you were in, in your journey that I didn't know at that time. And I know that you've been a mother. Or you are a mother and you've had that part of your journey introduced as well. And here is another chapter of your story, and I know that one doesn't seek out trying to create what you, you're creating and solve what you're solving, solving. Have they had they not gone through their own trauma,
Maria Bryan: Hmm.
Rain Bennett: know, without us opening the door to another conversation right now, I know that there's a story there that you hold. And so my question is. Given all of that and where we've started and where you've started and what you are accomplishing and doing now, are you proud of yourself?
Maria Bryan: Rain. I am. I have never felt. Purpose driven than pursuing trauma informed storytelling because. One. Thread has remained the same in my consultancy, and that is providing storytellers with the utmost valuable tools and resources to do their job well, which has been very nuts and bolts up until recently. And being able to provide practical resources for people to just do better in this world through storytelling. I'm already seeing people interviewing differently, writing stories differently, having hard conversations. But more than anything, I am seeing storytellers feeling validated, feeling like, you know what?
You're right. This is hard. I. This is so hard. Bearing witness to difficult stories is emotionally very hard.
Telling stories in a way that is impactful, that like moves the needle. Like let's be serious. Whether you're raising money or trying to get more views, like gets that actual ROI. Also, in a way that protects and dignifies people
is really really hard and it is just such a joy and an honor to be.
Supporting storytellers through trauma-informed storytelling trainings and support.
Rain Bennett: Well, I'm quite proud of you. And your passion for it is like palpable. It's evident like I just, in your emails, I've known you for years now and seeing you write about it and talk about it, it's very, very clear. So I'm very proud of you. I'm excited to see what the podcast brings and everyone else should be excited too.
Maria Bryan: Thank you Rain. , I cannot tell you what honor it is to have you on this very first podcast. And before we go, I want people to know how they can work with you. Can you tell us a little bit? More about the Storytelling Lab podcast and also capture fully what are you up to these days.
Rain Bennett: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so my background is documentary filmmaking. I still and, and I'm a writer, so I'm still creating my creative projects and I've done video production for most of my career. Until very recently, where I've co-founded a, a new startup based on all the lessons that I've learned, telling true stories of real people for 20 years, which is the power of a personal story, is tremendous, right?
It's profound, especially When it is delivered or, or you know, passed along as we've said today, to those most impacted by that story. IE our family members, our loved ones, right? And so capture fully captures on video. I. The life stories, the family memories interviews with our seniors, with our elders.
I mean, that's the first use case at least because we understand that there is some urgency there. And really the way I look at it is I. There has always been a tribal storyteller in cultures since humanity has, you know, has begun to pass down the histories and the lessons learned from the previous generations to the new generation so that we can see ourselves forward and Continue to strengthen our communities, and we've kind of lost that. Even though we have all these, you know, devices now and technology to capture and create stories, we've kind of lost that role. And so I kind of, you know, as cheesy as that might sound, that's what I see us doing is bridging the gap between our generations because our, you know, the children and grandchildren, Almost always don't know about their parents or grandparents' lives before they were born them themselves. So you don't probably know your grandmother's story from when she was a child, and you certainly don't know her relationship with her grandparents, which now we're spanning four generations.
That's incredibly powerful and also a great responsibility. And hey, sometimes we're talking to people that have. And have navigated and are navigating traumatic parts of their lives. So this really aligned with, with what we're doing, which is why I was so interested to talk to you today. And, and I don't mean to go off on a complete tangent, but it's like, it's something I'm seeing daily at this point. Uh, other than that, which, that, that right now is in the Raleigh Durham market of North Carolina. Is, which is where we have started. And we'll be going to other markets very, very soon. The Storytelling lab is the podcast where we initially met that we've been doing for years now, and we, I, I seek out all kinds of different storytellers to discuss how we can leverage stories in our personal and professional lives.
And so that's. Still going. Well, I'm still enjoying it. And there's a lot of great a lot, a lot of great episodes there from writers and marketers. And listen, tomorrow I've got on a country music singer who did a whole album that was telling this, her family stories. E every song is literally the generations of her family growing up as ca on a cattle ranch in Texas.
Like, so it's not just writers and marketers. I'm so excited for that one. I've, I haven't had one like that before. So, All types of personal and professional storytelling, but understanding how to use stories to connect deeper with other humans.
Maria Bryan: I was pen pals with my grandmother
growing up. So precious, these letters about her growing up in the depression,
Rain Bennett: Right.
Maria Bryan: my grandfather serving in the war,
Rain Bennett: That's
Maria Bryan: and so. Man, if I could have had capture fully and been able to like really record these conversations and have that for my daughters, how special,
how crucial that we hold onto our histories and our family histories.
Rain Bennett: Absolutely. And I would encourage anyone listening to, like, you don't even need to, like, use capture fully or something like that. Like if you, if you can, great, but if you can't Do what you did. That's so incredible. That's so much better than nothing. Grab your smartphone and just record it like next time you see your grandparent at Thanksgiving or your parents. Listen, I've learned the hard way that life moves fast and, and, you know, we lose people and, and it's, it's tragic, but that old story that your dad is told a million times, that you roll your eyes at the day, the day that he's gone. You would pay anything to hear him. Tell it one more time, and that's the problem we're trying to solve.
Maria Bryan: When I was days away from having my first daughter, my mother came over and I recorded a conversation asking her. about motherhood and how my life was about to change. And I had something very like specific in mind that I was hoping she'd impart. And it was so different than I thought.
I have since moved away to Tallahassee and you know, she was such a big part of my day-to-Day in a way that she geographically can't be anymore. And I can't tell you how often I will listen to that recording to. Affirm myself as a mother and to hear
her voice. So double heart, tap on how important it is to record these stories and to have them to listen to voices when you, when you need them,
when you need them more than you.
When you think. Thank you so much for joining the very first episode of the When Bearing Witness podcast. I will be putting links to how people can learn more about you and your work and your podcast and capture fully and yeah, thank you.
Rain Bennett: It was absolutely my pleasure and a privilege.
The When Bearing Witness Podcast is produced by Rustic Roots. They are video storytellers passionate about sharing the impact of nonprofits. From story ideation to beautiful and powerful videos on screen, they've got you covered. Learn more at Rusticroots.co.