Story Call

Here's your chance to contribute to NPR's (awesome) radiolab. Help a brother out. Our man Pat Walters (pkwalters@gmail.com) with the pitch:

Here's how we're coming at it: Darwin taught us nature is a selfish place — deep down, we're all looking out for number one. Right? So, why then do so many creatures do nice things for each other? Why do they sometimes even sacrifice their lives for each other? Scientists have lots of fancy explanations, but the reason I'm writing to YOU is because we're looking for stories that tell us something interesting about how altruism works among our own particular species — HUMANS that is.
So, basically what we're looking for is a story about selflessness among people — especially about how messy things can get when one person tries to help another person. Seems simple. Right? But we all know it's usually not. So, just to get your brain wheels turning, here are some KINDS of stories that might work: (1) Person tries to help, but makes things worse. (2) Person tries to help, but ends up ruining his own life in the process. (3) Or worse, person tries to help, but the people she's trying to help ends up screwing her over. (4) Person tries to help, appears to have succeeded in helping … but then, for reasons he can't even entirely understand, he doesn't feel so great about what he's done; goes from being all idealistic and starry-eyed to being, well, just jaded — if you haven't done so already, listen to This American Life's "Midlife Cowboy" story here … http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/402/save-the-day.
And, of course, I'm sure there are a hundred others I haven't thought of. Oh, and of course, it's gotta be a STORY — featuring a character, in a situation, doing something, yadda yadda yadda … basically, no science, no reports … just stories. Could be something that happened to you, something you heard about in the bar, something you read about in a magazine, hear about on the radio, saw on television. Could be something you've written about, something you're writing about now or something you've always wanted to write about.

So, basically what we're looking for is a story about selflessness among people — especially about how messy things can get when one person tries to help another person. Seems simple. Right? But we all know it's usually not. So, just to get your brain wheels turning, here are some KINDS of stories that might work: (1) Person tries to help, but makes things worse. (2) Person tries to help, but ends up ruining his own life in the process. (3) Or worse, person tries to help, but the people she's trying to help ends up screwing her over. (4) Person tries to help, appears to have succeeded in helping … but then, for reasons he can't even entirely understand, he doesn't feel so great about what he's done; goes from being all idealistic and starry-eyed to being, well, just jaded — if you haven't done so already, listen to This American Life's "Midlife Cowboy" story here … http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/402/save-the-day.

And, of course, I'm sure there are a hundred others I haven't thought of. Oh, and of course, it's gotta be a STORY — featuring a character, in a situation, doing something, yadda yadda yadda … basically, no science, no reports … just stories. Could be something that happened to you, something you heard about in the bar, something you read about in a magazine, hear about on the radio, saw on television. Could be something you've written about, something you're writing about now or something you've always wanted to write about.