Musings & Tales
The foundation of a good story begins with a nugget of truth. With a shift of light and shadow, a focus on a detail, a blurring of lines... the storyteller remembers it better. From his home in Asheville surrounded by beautiful mountains, author D. K. Wall shares his stories—thoughtful reflections and original tales drawn from a lifetime in the Carolinas and Tennessee. They all have one thing in common: They're 100% true... except for the parts he makes up. Join author D.K. Wall for Musings & Tales.
Episodes
Our lives are governed by choices, but what if you only had to make one? Meet Roscoe, a Siberian Husky whose life is a blissful, decision-free paradise... with one hilarious exception. While his meals, exercise, and bedtime are dictated by a higher authority, one daily ritual becomes a dramatic performance of indecision. He performs the "Roscoe Shuffle"—an intricate, comical dance of sniffing, circling, and leg-lift delibe...
For her big Hollywood break, my sister, a professional ballerina, was plucked from a rehearsal and thrust onto a chaotic movie set. The role was simple: die. But the director's increasingly bizarre notes—from "faster" to "slower" to the baffling "curvier"—turned her debut into a masterclass in absurdity.
📖 Read A Curvy Death on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tale...
Staring down a canceled flight and a ruined holiday weekend, Jordan Delay is drowning in frustration. But the sound of a hushed, emotional phone call from a young soldier in the terminal changes everything. He's faced with a choice: retreat into his own problems, or change the course of his journey entirely. "Long Way Home" is a short story about perspective, empathy, and how the kindness of strangers can redefine the mean...
Confronted with a hefty trespassing bovine, my lack of cattle wrangling skills and conflicting expert advice led to a hilarious bum steer.
📖 Read Bum Steer on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Seven cities. Seven schools. Time for number eight.
Caleb’s survival strategy for the first day as the new kid is simple: stay invisible. But within minutes of stepping into the chaotic hallways, a series of small disasters—a collision, a wrong turn, a stolen seat—threatens to make him a target.
When everything goes wrong, can one small act of kindness change everything?
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, aut...
"A flamingo punched me in the nose." How can a tale start any better? Take a feisty flamingo flamboyance and diaper-dangling days, then mix in one very determined goat. What's a few off-the-rail animal encounters among friends?
📖 Read Great Goat Grab on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home h...
Today's tale is Mystical Talking Jack-O'-Lantern, a recounting of a magical event that happened every Halloween in my childhood neighborhood—a talking jack-o'-lantern came to life.
This story was originally published in 2017, but it has become a perennial favorite, captivating readers every year. To celebrate Halloween this year, I decided to bring this beloved tale to audio.
"Code Blue" next door. In the sudden silence of the ER, I braced for tragedy, but the first voice to emerge from Room 28 changed everything.
📖 Read To The Stranger in Room 28 on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Join my world of forgotten acquaintances, awkward encounters, and the time a convenience store clerk outplayed me in a memory game. No matter how much I try, I Can't Remember Your Name.
📖 Read I Can't Remember Your Name on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100...
If social media is so broken, a reader asked, why don't I quit? Because I ditched doomscrolling and went back to the past when it was fun. Here's how.
📖 Read Putting the Social Back in Social Media on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for t...
With political polarization rampant, is respectful disagreement a lost art? When will we learn to listen, disagree, and let live?
📖 Read Listen, Disagree, and Let Live on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Fifty years ago, on June 20, 1975, Jaws landed in movie theaters—and changed how we felt about swimming in the ocean. That same summer, we vacationed in Myrtle Beach, like we did most years. Only this time, the trip ended in tragedy when a shark attacked my best friend. This is that story—told as best I can remember it—through the eyes of the eleven-year-old who witnessed the horror.
A chance encounter on a crowded train platform. A near-fatal accident. A famous actor steps in to save a young man’s life. It could’ve been forgotten—a passing moment lost to history. But the identities of the two men make this fleeting event unexpectedly remarkable.
📖 Read An Insignificant Historical Event on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a ...
It’s 2 a.m. You’re awake. Again. You’ve already solved world hunger, redesigned your kitchen, and cast the reboot of Golden Girls. Still no sleep.
Good news: You’re not an insomniac—you’re historically accurate. Before electric lights and 9-to-5 jobs, people regularly woke up in the middle of the night. It was called biphasic sleep. Very trendy. Circa 1500.
Maybe your bladder isn’t betraying you. Maybe you’re just living lik...
Smart tech meets shedding chaos. My newest robovac takes on four Siberian Huskies—only to get hilariously lost in an avalanche of fur.
📖 Read Lost in Fur: Tech Gone Wrong on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
An airplane crashed while landing at the Toronto airport. The wing ripped from the fuselage. Spilled fuel ignited in a fireball. The plane came to rest upside down. The passengers hung from their seatbelts. And then came the ordinary goodness that so often happens when things go wrong.
Watch the CBC Interview with Pete Carlson that inspired this musing.
📖 Read Ordinary Goodness on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of ...
The foundation of a good story begins with a nugget of truth. With a shift of light and shadow, a focus on a detail, a blurring of lines, the storyteller remembers it better.
I am D. K. Wall, an author of novels and short stories. From my home in Asheville, surrounded by beautiful mountains, I share my yarns—thoughtful reflections and original tales drawn from a lifetime in the Carolinas and Tennessee.
They all have one thin...
Popular Podcasts
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!