Mary Lou Maher —Mary Lou Maher to her son Brad Skow, whom she gave up for adoption 28 years ago

Son: Can you tell me about the day I was born?
M: The doctor, um, took you away quickly because they’d asked if I wanted to hold you and I said no because I was afraid if I held you, I wouldn’t be able to give you up. Um, so they took you away crying and that was all I saw. And they didn’t put me in the maternity ward because they were afraid that would be too hard for me.  They just put me in the women’s ward.  And, um, I remember one of the nurses coming up after you were born and, umm. ..  I was crying a lot and she just came up, um, and she just  hugged me for a really long time.  And she said, “You know, it’s going to be okay.  It just takes time.” And it took, I don’t know, about five years before  I  stopped thing about you every day and crying to just thinking about you every week to the point where it happened about once a month, but it still made me sad.
Son: So I have one, one more question and it’s the big one you’ve been waiting for.
M: Okay.
Son: So you now know, having lived through it, what the consequences of choosing to give me up are. So knowing what you know now, would you do it again?
M: Well. Of course knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t do it again.  I remember I used to talk to you a lot when I was pregnant and explain the whole situation.  Why I had to do this, um,  that I wasn’t ready to be a mother, I didn’t have a father for you.  I was really sure of myself. I remember that. That this was the best decision.  Now I wouldn’t even think about it because the separation and the loss is just way too hard. I mean where we have a relationship now and it’s great and you’ve sort of become part of the family, but I missed twenty years and you can’t ever get that back.

Vicki Page —Vicki Page tells her friend Terrence Hicks about being a teenager with cerebral palsy.

V: I had a few friends who I formed tight relationships with who all of a sudden wouldn’t sit next to me anymore at the lunch table, um, decided  I wasn’t cool enough, um, would stop calling me after I called them. Um, wouldn’t speak to me when I spoke to them. I, I was kind of on my own, and then as far as intimate relationships, being, being in a wheelchair you’re always protected, by, by this chair, there’s armor between you and the opposite sex, so intimacy’s a difficult thing.
T: Even now?
V:  Even now. You know I, I’ve never been kissed , so I have no idea what the, what the rules are, what the norms are of a  relationship, and I, I have to be honest, I don’t see myself in a romantic relationship at all.  I think that I’ve gotten to this place where a wall is up so much that I don’t even want to go in that direction because when I do, I get sad. I would just like to fully accept where I am.  And I’m on the road, but I’m not there yet.

Don Lerhman—Competitive eater Don "Moses" Lerman remembers winning his first contest.

D: Everybody got something in their life that they’re good at.  This is what I do good, I eat. I was always a bigger eater that most people in my family and about five years ago there was an ad in the paper for a matza ball contest. I went down to the contest, I broke a record. I ate ten matza balls—half-pounders the size of baseballs, in two minutes fifty seconds.  No one ever ate more than ten, and I went on to the finals and I won.  Mayor Giuliani gave me the trophy and the announcer said, “Let’s heat it for Don Lerhman and Mayor Guiliana!” And we’re both shaking hands like the President and the Vice-President elect. That was the first trophy, the matza ball trophy, evey in my life. I always wanted to be famous. I always wanted to be President, or a big lawyer, or a doctor or something  and it just never happened.  I had a couple of day-old bread stores. That was my business. I worked eighty hours a week, seven days a week. I just thought, you know, the parade would pass me by until the eating. My father never lived to see me famous, and ,uh,  he always thought I was a loser. You know?  But, uh, I wish he was alive to see, uh, that I’m a somebody.

Amy Schumer —Amy Schumer interviews her younger sister Kim about Kim's history of self-mutilation.

K: My name is Kim. I’m eighteen years old and my sister, Amy, is interviewing me.
A: And I’m twenty-two years old.  What is your memory of the most afraid you’ve ever been?
K: Probably when I went to the hospital for the first time.
A: And why were you there?
K: At that point, I was actively cutting myself—self-mutilation.
A: You have an anniversary (yeah) every month.
K: Next month on the twenty-second, it’ll be three years since I’ve cut myself.  It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do and it’s, continues to be the hardest thing that I do do. It wasn’t until the first time I tried to stop that I realized how addicting and how addicted to it I was. I would be in the shower and I would get an urge to do it and, or I would be like, ok, I’m not going to do it. I would get sick and I would throw up and my arm would start tingling and I would go through physical withdrawal from it. I’ve, I’ve been real close to committing suicide two times in my life and both times, the only re. . the only  reason at the time when I was really going to and  I didn’t was because of you and because of Mom and I could never ever do that to either of you because no matter how bad things get with me, I love you.
A: Who is your best friend?
K: You.
A: Soulmate?
K: You.
A: Idol?
K: You
A: How would you describe our relationship?
K: (Sighs) Our relationship is beyond words.  It’s like, “I love my sister, we share clothes.” (sarcastically) Like no, we share our souls.  Anything can go wrong in my life, anything can go wrong and I’ll be 100% fine if I know you’re there.
A: Me too. . . me too, me too. I love you.
K: I love you so much.

Michael Bergroth —Michael Bergroth to his granddaughter Kaycee Bauer.
K: What was my mom like growing up?
M: Uh, your mom was just like you when she grew up, uh, exactly like you.  You’re a duplicate of her.  She, uh, wanted everything perfect.  She told everybody what to do.
K: Was she well behaved?
M: Uh, kind of, like you!
K: Um, do you remember any songs that you used to sing to her?
M:   Yes, I used to sing a German song to her.
K: Can you sing it now?
M: Okay, I don’t have a good voice, but I’ll sing it to you.  It’s (sings German song)
K: What does it mean?
M: It means, “Go to sleep little girl.  Your mother is a monkey. Your father is in Pomaland and if you behave everything will be fine.  Go to sleep little girl. .  Go to sleep little girl.”

Michael Crowe —Michael Crowe tells his son about his sergeant during the Vietnam War.

M: I’m like nineteen years old. I’m impressionable as hell. He kind of took me under his wing for some reason. And he goes, “You wanna see my pictures—some of my shots from Vietnam?  You find these guys who talk to Vietnamese people, suspected Viet Cong—maybe they were, maybe they weren’t—up in helicopters.  They take two or three usually.  They ask a question “I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know Boss, I don’t know Charlie (terms used to address American soldiers), I don’t know, I don’t know.  They’d throw them out. The other two would have this look , you know, and if the second one didn’t talk, they’d throw him out. And they would get the information from the third one.  And then he talked about how they would cut ears off people after they were dead and they’d make necklaces. And he showed me the picture of soldiers wearing ear necklaces.  And then it got worse—pictures of heads on stakes that they would put like around a village that they had just gone through to scare the bejeebers out of people.  And here I am, I’m nineteen years old. I’m like what am I doing? I’m sure for the rest of his life sergeant  XXXXX  has had nightmares and he has had a tortured, tortured soul,  because he was a good man.  And it’s hard to say, but it’s true.

Kaitlyn Sever— Kaitlyn Sever interviewed by her mom, Lynne Lande, who is a lesbian.
K: I’m Kaitlin, I’m ten and today is the tenth and right now I’m being interviewed by my mom and I’m also interviewing my mom too.
L: How would you describe yourself?
K: I describe myself as nice, beautiful, caring, can be stubborn, ha, picky about friends.
L: What do you want to see yourself do when you’re a grownup?  What do you imagine?  What would make you happy?
K: I think I might want to be straight with a nice husband. And I think I would like to, uh, travel quite a bit. But of course I don’t have any idea what it’s like to have kids ‘cause I’m a kid myself. I have a question for you.  How has being a parent changed you?
L: Oh my God.  Being a parent has made me be much more responsible and made me really think about someone other than myself. I mean, can I tell you a secret?  I always used to be worried about dying. I used to have this like huge fear of dying (brain bug). Yeah, I had this huge brain bug and, um, when you came into my life, the brain bug just flew out the door (bye-bye) I know. And I think it really was because I stopped, like, having all this focus on myself, you know like, me, me ,me. Suddenly there was you.
K: Do you really truly love Anita?
L: Very much, with all my heart.
K: And how about me. Do you really truly love me?
L: Oh my God. With like my heart, the next door neighbor’s heart, the people around the corner’s heart. With everything I have, I love you.
K: Honestly?
L: Honestly.
K: OK. Do you want to ask me anything?
L: Do you love me?
K: Oh, stop it, of course I love you.
L: There you go (giggling)