Twisted Storytellers: The Perfect Family
Korean-American Catherine Ryu’s straight-laced family celebrates flatulence.
From the live stage in Detroit to earbuds everywhere, WDET presents Season 2 of the Twisted Storytellers Podcast. The podcast features a diverse cast of Detroit area storytellers who performed live at The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to sold-out audiences. They tell uproariously funny, real-life stories about how our families and diverse cultures shape our experience.
In episode six, Korean-American Catherine Ryu remembers when her sister’s serious medical condition brought her family closer together.
Ryu was brought up in a Methodist and Orthodox Confucian household.
“When you combine Methodist and Confucian rules together, ordinary things can turn into something very serious,” she says.
For example, Ryu grew up in a house where noises at the dinner table were looked down upon.
The strictness of Ryu’s childhood home is eventually shattered when her sister is diagnosed with, and eventually overcomes, colon cancer.
“To this day, (my sister) still suffers from many complications,” says Ryu. “When she’s unable to pass gas, the pressure builds up in her body and she inevitably ends up in the Intensive Care Unit.”
“That is why regaining her ability to pass gas has been the focus of endless prayers.”
Curated from the wildly popular Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers show, each episode is hosted by Detroit’s Satori Shakoor. Shakoor is the founder of The Secret Society of Twisted Story Tellers. She is also a former Parliament-Funkadelic singer, stand-up comedian and Moth Mainstage Storyteller.
Subscribe to the entire season wherever podcasts are available. Click above to listen.
A production of WDET Detroit 101.9 FM
Twisted Storytellers is produced by WDET 101.9 FM and sponsored by the MGM Grand Detroit.
