Virtual Memories Show 655:
Hunter Prosper
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“No matter who you are, you have emotions that I have felt. Our experiences are different, but I can speak to the emotions. I’ve felt love and you’ve felt love. I’ve felt anxiety and you’ve felt anxiety. That connectedness makes me feel less alone in the world.”
ICU nurse Hunter Prosper joins me this week as we celebrate his wonderful new book, STORIES FROM A STRANGER: Every Person Has a Story (Simon Element). We talk about the ICU experiences that led him to start talking to strangers in public and asking them deep questions about their lives five years ago, how those conversations have changed him, why he started sharing them online, how he figured out the questions he wanted to ask, and how long it takes just talking to someone before they’re both comfortable with him recording the questions. Along the way, we get into how we each approach the dance of having a conversation with someone we’ve never met, what it was like to discover he had an audience, whether people speak differently when the phone comes out, and how it felt to see a book-length version of this project. We also discuss how he wants to explore new ways of making his videos, how it felt to discover there’s a group-chat of his past strangers (that he’s not invited to), why he’ll always be a nurse first and not a ‘content creator,’ going traveling with his fiancee to do interviews and photos for the book, what he sees when he looks in the mirror, and more. Oh, and things get heavy once I tell him it’s okay to ask me some questions. Give it a listen! And go read STORIES FROM A STRANGER!
“I was starting to get burned out from listening to people’s stories, because when I listened and then had to perform CPR on them, I wasn’t able to disconnect the two when I got home.”
“I’ve been doing this now for five years, and I’ve built a community that’s centered around people who really care about other people.”
“How can I expect someone to tell me their life stories when they’re just going out to get groceries?”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Hunter Prosper graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and became a resource nurse (a nurse who works anywhere throughout the hospital) but when COVID hit he decided to specialize in the ICU. He’s currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but travels all over the world interviewing people for his Stories from a Stranger series. Hunter began making content in 2021 as a form of therapy for himself and others.
Follow Hunter and Stories From A Stranger on TikTok, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Hunter by Adrienne Estella. It’s on my instagram.