It started as a conversation between two strangers.

Ben Groner volunteered to tell a story to a poet from Nashville Public Radio’s podcast Versify. Megan Leanne then turned his story into poetry, and we liked the conversation and resulting art so much that we chose it to be one of our inaugural episodes of the podcast.

The title came from a witty line that Ben’s mom said about his conception as a test-tube baby: “It Wasn’t The Fun Way.” Poet Megan Leanne took the phrase and used it to foreshadow his father’s struggle with cancer:

It wasn’t the fun way
It never is

But the life of this story didn’t end there. At Podcast Party 2019 — Nashville Public Radio’s celebration of audio storytelling — we turned the episode into a multimedia performance, including live music, video and, of course, poetry. Watch the video below.