Our stigmas can come from all sorts of places.

Sometimes it's a name we're born with.

People would say, well, where's your name from?

And it was kind of like, you know, you're asking too many questions.

But really, I didn't know the answer.

Sometimes it's a burden we carry inside.

I went to Confessant, told a priest that I was attracted to men,

and the only advice he gave me was be careful who you tell that to son.

But the one thing they all have in common is the weight we feel when we hold them.

If people only knew what it looks like to have this kind of memory loss.

They don't want to talk about leprosy.

Doesn't mean I'm a bad person.

Who's going to tell our stories?

So this season on the Storycore podcast from NPR,

we're sharing stories about the stigmas we carry

and how it feels when we set them down.

It drops October 25th.

You can find it on the NPR1app at mpr.org

or wherever you get your podcasts.