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One woman's quest to save a bookshop, a pretentious high school love letter, and more storytelling podcasts

Got a good party story? So do this week’s storytellers.
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This week's featured podcasts on a brown background: The Moth, Normal Gossip, Grown, and Mortified.
(Courtesy of podcasts)
Podcast Playlist53:39The magic of storytelling with The Moth's Meg Bowles

This week on Podcast Playlist, we're bringing you the best of storytelling podcasts. 

In 1997, a novelist named George Dawes Green invited a group of friends to his New York apartment to listen to people tell stories. It was the first event for the storytelling series that would come to be known as The Moth. Soon, the events outgrew George's apartment and moved on to bars and other venues. 

27 years later, The Moth is an internationally touring stage show and a popular podcast and radio show. Earlier this year The Moth released their fifth book, a collection of stories called A Point Of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go. 

Meg Bowles is a senior director at The Moth, co-host of The Moth Radio Hour, and one of the editors who put the book together. Leah sits down with Meg to chat about the book and The Moth's evolution. 

Plus, on the podcast Mortified, storytellers go onstage to read embarrassing things they wrote when they were kids, like diary entries and song lyrics. It began as a stage show 20 years ago, when founder David Nadelberg found an old love letter he had written as a teenager. We share that letter with you. 

All that and more, this week on Podcast Playlist.

This week's featured podcasts on a brown background: The Moth, Normal Gossip, Grown, and Mortified.
(Courtesy of podcasts)

The Moth: "Maniza Naqvi tells the story of how she traveled across the world to help save a bookstore."

Grown: "In this mommy AND daddy issue episode, we take a look at how much our parents shape who we are. Alyssa Ladd finds comfort in her dad, and Daniela Llerena tries to get her parents to understand anime."

Mortified: "To celebrate the project's 20th anniversary, Mortified founder David Nadelberg shares the show's origin story including: never-before-heard recordings from the debut stage show, behind the scenes trivia and the unsent love letter that started it all."

Normal Gossip: "​​We're joined by our Radiotopia colleague and host of Weight for It Ronald Young Jr. for a story about the ridiculous things we do when we fall in love with familiar strangers."

What stories do you want to share? Email our team at podcastplaylist@cbc.ca. Or find us on Facebook.

For more great podcasts, check out CBC's podcast portal, and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.