7 Minute Stories w/ Aaron Calafato
7 Minute Stories is Aaron Calafato’s extemporaneous, autobiographical storytelling podcast. This top award-winning story podcast is quick, immersive, and tinged with nostalgia. Each story feels deeply personal and always leaves you with something to chew on—7MS sounds like if a Millennial swapped stories with Jean Shepard, Spalding Gray and Paul Harvey at a Midwestern diner.
Episodes
January 22, 2026 • 7 mins
A GoFundMe is started for the actor Mickey Rourke, and the internet responds as it so often does. Reading the comments anonymously, Aaron discovers something rather unexpected, especially given the state of 2026. What unfolds isn’t really a story about a fundraiser or a public figure shaped by past and perception. It’s a meditation on people, and the quiet hope that lingers when someone is seen in need.
*Poster Art Jim Harris Desi...
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January 19, 2026 • 6 mins
This is this January's bonus episode of Short Stories of Hope. In this story, Aaron shares a quiet and unexpected moment centered on a woman on the edge of hunger and a small restaurant in New Jersey that becomes an unlikely turning point. What makes the moment even more surprising is the person who helps set it in motion, someone you’d expect to see under arena lights at a rock concert, not connected to an act of everyday generosi...
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January 15, 2026 • 9 mins
In this episode of 7 Minute Stories, Aaron revisits the last conversation he ever had with his pediatrician, a moment that left him angry, insecure, and determined to prove someone else wrong. What follows is a teenage experiment fueled by insecurity, chocolate milkshakes, and the belief that changing the body might fix everything else. Years later, Aaron reflects on what actually changed and what didn’t. It’s a story about growth,...
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December 25, 2025 • 8 mins
Every Christmas, a short story makes its return—one without a known author, but with a lasting impact. The Man and the Birds was famously shared each holiday season by Paul Harvey on the radio, and for years, it’s become an annual tradition on 7 Minute Stories.
In this special holiday episode, Aaron revisits the quiet, timeless parable about belief, humility, and what it means to truly see one another. Recorded live during Night S...
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December 21, 2025 • 28 mins
In this Storytelling University bonus episode, Aaron sits down with John Telich, who spent four decades shaping how Northeast Ohio experienced sports on television. Together, they explore the quiet craft behind covering wins, losses, heartbreak, and hope—and why sports stories, at their best, are rarely just about the score.
*Special thanks to the Medina UCC for hosting!
*Learn more about the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fam...
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December 18, 2025 • 7 mins
As the year comes to a close, Aaron returns to a childhood memory sparked by The Polar Express—a quiet library, falling snow, and a sound he still can’t explain. What begins as a story about believing in Santa becomes something larger: a reflection on why belief itself is real, necessary, and enduring. Through a timeless response to an 8-year-old’s question published in The New York Sun, this episode explores why the most important...
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December 11, 2025 • 9 mins
It’s Christmas Eve, 1987, and a 4-year-old Aaron suddenly realizes he has nothing to give. No money, no store to run to, and a desperate need to feel part of the Christmas magic. What follows involves a Glow Worm toy, a stash of odd “treasures,” and two parents who choose wonder over reality. This is the story of how a child’s small act of giving kept the magic alive and saved Christmas in the most unexpected way.
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The Wind Phone Story: A Reflection on Loss, Healing, and the Voices We Carry | Short Stories of Hope
December 7, 2025 • 4 mins
This is December’s bonus episode of Short Stories of Hope. In this month’s story, Aaron shares the quiet and powerful tale of the Wind Phone in Ochi, Japan, and the man who placed a silent rotary phone on a hillside for anyone carrying words they never had the chance to say. It is a story about grief, healing, and the small human acts that help us keep moving toward hope.
Created, Performed & Produced by Aaron Calafato
*Lear...
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December 4, 2025 • 6 mins
In this special holiday episode, Aaron breaks down the surprising origin of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” a song that was almost far too bleak for the movie it was written for. He explores how Judy Garland rejected the original lyrics, why Hugh Martin rewrote them, and how the shift turned the tune into one of the most emotional Christmas standards of all time. Aaron also compares the Garland and Sinatra versions, highl...
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November 27, 2025 • 8 mins
In this 7 Minute Story, Aaron (inspired by the NOVA Humans docuseries from PBS) discovers an unexpected kinship with his Neanderthal ancestors — not as cartoon cavemen, but as real people whose lives shaped our own. Through humor, identity, and deep-time storytelling, he explores what survives, what disappears, and why a tiny percentage of ancient DNA still carries meaning today. A funny and surprisingly emotional journey into who ...
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November 20, 2025 • 8 mins
Aaron tells the story of the day he tried—truly tried—to run away at age five, fueled by righteous anger over a forbidden episode of GI Joe and a backpack full of peanut-butter crackers. What begins as a funny childhood rebellion slowly reveals a deeper truth about grief, confusion, and a kid trying to make sense of a family unraveling. This is a story about the moment you realize running away isn’t the answer—and why coming home m...
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Brett Anderson, formerly the lead singer of the groundbreaking band The Donnas, sits down with Aaron for a deeply personal conversation about aging, identity, and the power of reinvention. Now following a new path in the world of Gerontology, Brett shares how her journey through music, personal grief, palliative care, and end-of-life work reshaped her understanding of longevity and mental health. This bonus episode of 7MS Presents:...
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November 13, 2025 • 9 mins
This week, 7 Minute Stories transforms into a courtroom drama—well, sort of. In this courtroom-style story, Aaron Calafato takes on the role of defense attorney, arguing not against cynicism but for hope. As the prosecution condemns Hallmark movies as “brain rot,” Aaron makes a case for why these small-town stories, full of clichés and Christmas lights, might be exactly what our overstimulated culture needs. A clever, heartfelt ref...
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November 6, 2025 • 9 mins
The first-ever Super Kmart in America once stood in Aaron’s hometown of Medina, Ohio—a place where he grew up under blue light specials and late-night wanderings with friends. Years after the store shut down, seagulls claimed the empty parking lot, and his daughter renamed it the “Seagull Zoo.” Now that the building has been torn down and replaced by Meijer, Aaron is left wondering—stores may change, but do the memories, and the mo...
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November 2, 2025 • 5 mins
In this debut Short Stories of Hope bonus episode, Aaron shares the true story of a young boy who was told he’d never walk again. What follows is a moving journey of determination, faith, and the resilience of the human spirit. By the end, you’ll discover who this person was—and how one child’s courage turned shattered records all the way to the Olympics.
Created & Performed by Aaron Calafato
Edited by Rob Montague
*Learn m...
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October 30, 2025 • 9 mins
In this Halloween episode of 7 Minute Stories, Aaron shares a true story about getting lost deep in the woods with no phone, no compass, and a rising sense of panic. What begins as a peaceful evening walk turns into a confrontation with fear itself—and a rediscovery of the real meaning behind Halloween. By the end, you’ll see how an ancient story about courage and transformation helped him find his way back home.
📻 If you like ...
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October 23, 2025 • 10 mins
In this week's 7 Minute Story, Aaron’s night starts simple, dinner with the family and a quick trip for Advil before his son’s band concert. But what unfolds is a comedy of errors that turns a small headache into a full-blown odyssey. By the end, the story takes a turn that proves even the most frustrating nights can carry an unexpected lesson.
📻 If you like 7MS, make sure you follow Night Stories LIVE! — Aaron’s late-night st...
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October 16, 2025 • 9 mins
When Aaron received a text that said, “I think it’s dead—and it’s in your backyard,” he didn’t expect it to lead to one of the most unexpectedly moving encounters of his life.
What began as a grim discovery turned into a quiet reflection on empathy, loss, and the humanity that can show up in the most unlikely places. In this 7-minute true story, Aaron meets a man whose job is to remove what’s been left behind—but whose heart revea...
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October 9, 2025 • 9 mins
In 1993, five bucks at a drive-thru could feed a family. Today, it barely covers a soda. In this story, Aaron Calafato takes us through the chaos of the modern fast-food experience—wrong orders, long waits, and the creeping perfection of AI drive-thrus. What starts as a rant about overpriced combo meals becomes something deeper: a meditation on imperfection, nostalgia, and what we lose when machines get everything right.
📻 If y...
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October 2, 2025 • 9 mins
In this episode of 7 Minute Stories, Aaron takes listeners back to one unforgettable day at his Grandpa Joe’s house. From a roadside McMuffin breakfast and legendary Air Force fight story, to stacks of bargain-bin movies, tuna sandwiches on rye, and homemade pasta and meatballs—every detail becomes a core memory worth holding onto. Through his grandfather’s wisdom and humor, Aaron reminds us that even in life’s hardest moments, the...
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