PODCAST · religion
Stories by Donna Marie Todd
by Donna Marie Todd
Small stories for the soul from Award-Winning Storyteller Donna Marie Todd.
Episodes
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The Good Die Young
On the joys of having a son and the sorrow of knowing young soldiers who fall in battle lose that chance.
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CHAOS FOUR- Betrayal 416
America is in the midst of a painful betrayal. Donald Trump's threats toward everyone, and every aspect of American democracy, are launched one after another. Americans are on a societal rollercoaster. The betrayals are as indiscriminate and unrelenting as they were in the story you'll hear here.
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Stories by Donna Marie Todd: Chaos Three, Black Lung
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, over 700 scientific grants (or portions of grants) have been terminated during Donald Trump's second term, and his current nominee for Surgeon General doesn't hold a current medical license. This unprecedented attack on science is...
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Iran and Chaos
For the first 17 years of my life, my only knowledge of the world beyond West Virginia came from missionaries on furlough. They brought us trinkets from places like the Congo or Korea and showed us home movies of natives wearing colorful costumes in a darkened church basement. They never talked...
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Unleashing Chaos on American Citizens
Our government has unleashed danger at home and across the world. Our elected leaders said they might take action, but what they did was throw up their hands and go home for a holiday. Chaos. Everything is chaos. American Citizens are dead from the guns of ICE. What's a senator or congressman to...
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Peaceful Protest: Invaded
I never understood why Daddy couldn't see his sister for who she really was. When I heard that "The President" and our news-commentator-turned-secretary-of-war had invaded Venezuela and kidnapped their leader, memories flew out of my mind like F-22 Raptors on a tarmac because… I know what it…
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Christmas with Grandma
The year I turned eight, we spent Christmas with Grandma Long. She was my mother's mother. She was very old, close to a hundred in fact. As a bride of the Great Depression, she'd birthed seven children at home and lost three of them to diseases I was vaccinated for. Mother said their deaths had...
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Night Vision: A Just 3 Minutes Story
Night Vision I have awful night vision. And with the end of Daylight Savings Time, the darkness feels really dark, and it always arrives before I'm ready for it. But, my elderly Jack Russell, Mr. Pip, HAS TO HAVE a late-night constitutional if I want an accident-free dawn. So, every night I…
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Our Souls Are Stained Glass
I was a preacher's child, so I grew up in churches. I spent a lot of time looking at stained glass windows on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Not because my Daddy's sermons were boring. But because preachers practice their sermons like singers working on a song, and when you've heard the...
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Baby in a Backpack: A Just 3 Minutes Story
My son is in internal medicine practice now. He's financially secure. His fiance is also well-employed in engineering. They'll be married soon. But when I brought up those grandchildren I would love to have, he almost snapped my head off. Why? Why would my loving son respond that way? Because the...
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Butterfly Breath: Finding Quiet Amidst the Noise, A Just 3 Minutes Story
I was searching for quiet amidst all the noise: Yet another tariff, more school violence, inflation, wars. The scorching heat of our record-breaking summer had broken. A shy coolness was in the air. I'd washed the sheets, and since I love the smell of sunshine, I took them outside to dry on the...
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Puffins, Cod, and Empty Shelves
I was in the beautiful land of Canada this past week where I learned the power of friendship, and the price we pay for broken relationships.
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Doggone Days: A Just 3 Minutes Story
It's hot. Oh, and it's humid, too! That must mean the dog-days of summer are here. I volunteer at the animal shelter and the dogs there are all wanting the same thing we are: to belong. We all want to belong to a pack, it's instinctual and necessary. And we all want a leader who makes wise...
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Wild Magic: A Just Three Minutes Story
I was so depressed one day I couldn't even make a decision about whether or not to eat an egg. Then a shot rang out and I thought I was in a true crime drama. But what happened next reminded me that the world is still filled with magic.
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"Meeting Racism" A Just 3 Minutes Story
Racism is ugly stuff. I thought we'd left it behind but I guess it was just hiding. I didn't know what racism was until I met it in the kitchen one day after a party my parents gave. The person targeted was someone I loved dearly. Remembering the story, even now, makes my face grow hot with anger...
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"The Three Kings" A "Just 3 Minutes" Story Standing Up for What's Right
Back in the 1960's our country was divided over racism. We'd long ago fought to end slavery but civil rights were still a dream away. This was especially true in the heart of coal country, up in the hills of West Virginia. This is a story about the time my Dad stood up to The Three Kings: who…
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Cowboys and Indians: A Big Girl Pants Story about My Daddy
I wish my Dad was still here so I could celebrate Father's Day with him just one more time! But this little story will have to suffice! When I was a kid, we didn't play organized sports. We roamed the neighborhood like feral cats. But we mostly behaved because, back then, any parent that caught…
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"The Hangin: A Just 3 Minutes Story"
Trump reinstated the death penalty by executive order in January 2025. As we reconsider capital punishment in America, this is a story worth hearing. It took place back in the 1940's. What happened in this story was so powerful it pushed my father into the ministry. It's a powerful reminder that...
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Pip and the Sheriff: A Just 3 Minutes Story
Memorial Day invites us to honor those who have given their all to protect our Freedom. On a visit to the vet, a scared little Jack Russell mix has the opportunity to do just that. A magical story that just happens to be totally true.
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Whale Fall: A Just 3 Minutes Story
Ever wonder what your legacy from this life will be? What have you done worth remembering? What will you leave behind that anyone else will want? When my sister died this year these legacy questions began coming one after another. And then during a week at the beach, I saw something that helped…
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Chaos vs Violets
With all the chaos in America these days, it's good to remember that man is never really in charge. Our power is more of a delusion than a reality. And, I highly recommend a springtime walk as a way of scrubbing the soul from all the dirty grunge of our current political fiascoes.
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The Power of Naps
I'm so overwhelmed by all the stuff hitting the fan these days, all the weird goings on with American politics, I've needed a lot of naps. And, it's been fascinating to see what I become aware of when I wake up!
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The Best of Intentions: A "JUST 3 MINUTES" STORY
What we plan our lives around matters. I'm the one that always seems to figure that out too late. My sister died recently of ovarian cancer. She taught me a lot about living by the way she chose to spend her time.
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Loneliness: A Just 3 Minutes Story
It seems like friendships are in short supply these days. Could you use a few more?
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Snowflakes: A Just 3 Minutes Story
Nature is always modeling things for us. I had another chance to contemplate that this past week when four inches of snow fell and turned the Great Smokey Mountains into a fairyland. Always claim the uniqueness that makes you who you are! The world needs all of us to show up and come together.
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WINTER REST a Just Three Minutes Story
If you've lost power in a storm or found yourself in a state of depression, you may have found yourself sleeping more. I've been sleepimg more after the difficult death of my sister. Winter is a time for rest. Perhaps tonight you should nourish yourself with a warm bowl of soup and a long winter...
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The Homeless Baby: A "Just 3 Minutes" Story
Christmas is a celebration of a homeless birth. Here's another story about another homeless birth and some questions we all need to be asking about when babies will be entitled to a safe home.
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Seeing Clearly - A Just 3 Minutes Story
Sometimes our vision, opinions, and judgment, becomes clouded. It's amazing what a fresh look at life can to help us see clearly again! As a new year begins, let's try looking at one another with a fresh set of eyes, and look for what we have in common instead of what divides us!
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A Thanksgiving with Moonshiners and Missionaries
I'll never forget what happened in the Zickafoose sisters cabin the Thanksgiving day the moonshiners arrived. Once you hear this, you won't forget it either.
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AFTERBIRTH
I lost my husband when our son was newly sixteen. His birth was relatively painless, since it was a C-section. (The recovery from surgery, was not much fun, but epidurals are pretty amazing things.) But I just delivered the placenta. This is the story of a mother's love and the length of time it...
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Hauling Ass to Hospice
When you get that call that someone is dying, you leap in the car and go. Death doesn't keep an appointment book and cancer plays by its own rules.
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Hurricane Helene and Me
The catastrophic events of climate change (like hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, and floods) force you to abandon your sense of safety.
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A Reason for Thanksgiving
I remember writing a report in 3rd grade on the reason for Thanksgiving. Mine was a little different than Tommy Spencer's. But then, I didn't dress up in a headband with a rooster feather in it either.
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Turning With the Season: What Do You See?
No matter what is happening in the world of man, nature has her own rhythm. Something amazing is often right in front of us, but in our rush to "accomplish something" we miss it. Take a break to listen to this story about just such an almost-missed opportunity, and then take a break to walk in...
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Life for Sale
Have we gotten to the point where our lives are for sale?
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Time Is Running Out
It feels like time is running out to do what we came here to do. How are you spending your days these days?
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Big Change
When you sell your house, it's a lot of change all at once. I've been finding hidden messages at the back of the sock drawer, flipping through memories from childhood, teen times, and adulthood. Memory after memory flashes from every corner, from every found item. Some of our memories are like…
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Meeting Racism
I like to think of myself as discriminating (in a good way) but not prejudiced. But in today's times, it's important to think about how we contribute to prejudicial attitudes about other people based on political opinion or childhood conditioning. This is the story of how I first met racism and…
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THE BOARDING HOUSE: A Bed and a Meal for $10 a Week
This isn't the first time America has had a housing crisis. A recent encounter with a homeless camp brought back a story about my great-grandmother. Twice widowed, she solved a problem for herself and for others. Maybe it's time to let stories from the hard times of the past inspire how we…
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Put Your Money in the Mattress
I think most of us worry about money more than we'd like to admit. No matter how much we have, it seems like it's never enough. But have we entered a time like the one that made my Grandmom put her money in the mattress? Listen to her story, and mine. Maybe it's time to give that idea some new...
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Never Forget: People Died to Keep You Free
With all the political huffing and puffing in advance of the 2024 election cycle, the big issues we face as Americans are, again, off the table. Affordable health care, homelessness, food insecurity, mass shootings and more. Social media is slicing and dicing us like a red tomato into little…
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The Hangin'
God has a strange way of putting us exactly where he wants us to be.
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Born from Stories and Mystery
The formation of a human soul is complex business. As children we sift through ideas but also marinate in the stories of our family and the rituals that are passed down from one generation to the next. This is the story of one such formation.
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Rescue Mission
After hearing a Easter sermon about "taking up my cross" I saw a cat torture and kill a baby bird. And thus my ministry to save the birds of Elm street was born.
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Life: Speeding Away
Sometimes you meet the right one and the right one takes you on the ride of your life.
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Window to Another World
I feel all caged up by winter, until I look out my window.
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Patience: Playing the Waiting Game
I picked the wrong year to start coloring my hair. Over twenty years ago I waited 9 months to have a baby. Now I'm waiting to have a knee replacement and feel like I'm 90. Getting old is NOT for sissies.
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Jello Cake and Santa Snack, Welcome to My New Years Eve
New Year's Eve festivities in my childhood were exquisitely boring, the ones in San Francisco so celebratory I can't remember them, and then my husband rolled one in by having a massive stroke, but we won't dwell on that. You never really know your relatives until you spend the holidays with…
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A Christmas Story: Iris in the Snow
I wrote this for Appalachian Voice magazine many years ago. It's a story about a boy I knew back in the hills of West Virginia. If you're in need of a feel-good story this holiday season, this might just fit the bill! Merry Christmas from my heart to yours.
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Birthday Parties
I never had a birthday party until I turned 25. Then gave myself one and never looked back!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Small stories for the soul from Award-Winning Storyteller Donna Marie Todd.
HOSTED BY
Donna Marie Todd
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Stories by Donna Marie Todd have?
Stories by Donna Marie Todd currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Stories by Donna Marie Todd about?
Small stories for the soul from Award-Winning Storyteller Donna Marie Todd.
How often does Stories by Donna Marie Todd release new episodes?
Stories by Donna Marie Todd has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Stories by Donna Marie Todd?
You can listen to Stories by Donna Marie Todd on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Stories by Donna Marie Todd?
Stories by Donna Marie Todd is created and hosted by Donna Marie Todd.
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