Imagine your parents controlled your online dating profile. That’s what happened to Pabba and this is his story.
We first ran this story 10 years ago and next week we’ll have a brand new story with him. I can already reveal that a LOT has happened in the meantime.
This two-parter with Pabba is curated by Lulu Miller from Radiolab and Terrestrials. In addition to Pabba's story, she's made a Spotify playlist for you of her other favorite stories from our show. They're normally paywalled but we've unlocked them for you for the next month. If you don't use Spotify, here are direct links to the episodes wherever you listen: Falling Slowly, Gay Talese: Committed Voyeur, Terry's Treasure, Love Hurts # 1.
If you’d like to see photos of Pabba, including the pictures his parents wouldn’t let him use for his dating profile, and the one they chose instead, check out our free posts on Substack or Patreon. And course, if you’d like to support our work and unlock many more premium episodes, you can also become a paying subscriber on either platform.
Huge thanks to Pabba for letting us rerun his story and for taping the update with me for next week. We aren't using Pabba’s full name here because he’d rather his family didn’t hear this story, but he performs and teaches improv at Mettlesome in Durham, North Carolina, and he moonlights as a robot from the past, who traveled to the future to party and fight in Giant Robot Fight Club. Like all tech bros in a midlife crisis, he has also gotten really into Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Revenant Combat Club.
Big thanks to Lulu Miller for curating this week. Lulu is perhaps best known as the co-host of Radiolab, and the co-creator of Invisibilia, and she also makes the fantastic show Terrestrials for the whole family. It’s one of those rare podcasts that you can share with your kids but enjoy just as much for your own pleasure, because it’s full of Lulu’s creativity and curious mind. She likes to investigate all kinds of quirky things and come out with the best possible story about them. This is also the case in her book, Why Fish Don’t Exist, which I cannot recommend highly enough.
Paying subscribers, our next member hangout is:
Tuesday, September 29: 5pm PT – 6pm MT – 7PM CT – 8PM ET – 1AM BST – 2AM CEST.
Also big thanks to Laura Fetherstonhaugh for producing the original story with Pabba and being an incredible storyteller and human being, and thanks to my equally amazing current associate producer, Vix Jensen, and our beloved helpers: our intern Aviva Barry, our production volunteer Jen Alevizos, and Ark who made our social media reel this week.
Get in touch at [email protected] and be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
The entire back catalogue of Strangers can be found at STORIES by Lea Thau on Patreon and Substack, where you can also find my new work in its entirety, all of it ad-free. You can join as a free or paid member, so come be part of my community! Or follow my new work in my new public feed, STORIES by Lea Thau, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
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