This episode explores the different zones we live in: comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone. Allison talks about her experience at dinner with new friends and how she complained the entire night. She realizes she ventured too far into her stretch zone and panicked. Misha Mehrel tells his story on the stage at Lip Service, a live storytelling event in Miami. The story is about his hairy ass. The story was written in his very first writing class in response to a prompt. Misha worked on the story for the stage. Misha knew he had to reveal something difficult in that first class in order to feel comfortable writing about any other intimate situations. Our teacher, Andrea Askowitz, tells her story about wanting to give birth to her first child on stage. She realizes that she’s not as comfortable as she thought having people witness her in such an intimate moment. In fact, she’s extremely uncomfortable with people watching her give birth. A new student in the class, Karen Collazo, reveals her struggle with drug addiction. For Karen, staying in her comfort zone is dangerous. She has taken over our Writing Class Radio blog for the next 90 days. Follow Karen on our website.

Writing Class Radio is a podcast where you’ll hear true personal stories and learn a little about how to write your own stories. Writing Class Radio is equal parts heart and art. By heart we mean the truth in a story. By art we mean the craft of writing. No matter what’s going on in our lives, writing class is where we tell the truth. It’s where we work out our shit, and figure out who we are.

There’s no place in the world like writing class and we want to bring you in.

Writing Class Radio is co-hosted by Allison Langer (www.allisonlanger.com) and Andrea Askowitz (www.andreaaskowitz.com). Writing Class Radio is produced by Misha Mehrel, Andrea Askowitz and Allison Langer. This episode was produced with additional support from Chaplin Tyler.

Visit our musicians page to learn about the talented and generous people who allowed us to use their songs.

There’s more writing class on our website(www.writingclassradio.com), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/writingclassradio/) and Twitter (@wrtgclassradio).

If you love the lessons you get on each episode, you can get them ALL in one place--our three-part video series. $20 for one part or $50 for the series. Click on Video Classes on our website.

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There’s no better way to understand ourselves and each other, than by writing and sharing our stories. Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

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