Audacious Live Show and Tell
Dead Language Beer Project
Hartford
Oct. 7, 2026
Back for its fifth edition, the Audacious Live Show and Tell lets randomly chosen participants share a special object and the story behind it with a live audience, and eventually the world. The event is hosted by CT Public’s Chion Wolf, recorded and turned into an episode of the weekly show.
Show and tell is something most of us left behind in grade school, which is honestly a shame. The objects we keep for years gain so much significance and value, making show and tell a more interesting activity when adults are doing it. The objects are often surprising as well.
Take what Maggie Roísín brought out Wednesday night. A natural storyteller, Roísín held a small clear container tightly in her hand as she set the stage. The date on the jar was January 20th, 1961. Through a somewhat convoluted web of family relations, Roísín’s grandmother was invited to the inaugural ball of President John F. Kennedy on that day. Naturally grandma wanted a keepsake to remember the day by.
Roísín placed the small container on a table between her and Chion, and a black lump was visible inside. Grandma had taken a piece of the inaugural cake.
She split the cake into four pieces, one for each of her children. After her parents passed, Roísín found the cake at the bottom of a bag when she was cleaning up their home. Never opened, Roísín put the cake into her cabinet, where it waited to be passed down again.
And it was, in an impromptu ceremony. Chion called Roísín’s daughter, Nora Pasco, up to the stage.
“I now bequeath the cake to you,” Roísín said solemnly, handing over the literal piece of history.
That wasn’t the only history lesson we got from Maggie and Nora’s family. Just a few minutes after her mother shared, Nora was selected to show and tell too. She placed a necklace made of labradorite on the table, which she said she’d purchased as a symbol of change.
When her son, a small child at the time, asked about the necklace, Pasco said it was actually a dragon egg. She told him a fantastic story of finding a cave deep in the woods of Unionville, braving the wrath of the dragon and escaping with the egg. The necklace became a new family heirloom, and whenever someone complimented Pasco on the necklace, her son eagerly told them about its origins.
Until recently. Pasco said the last time someone mentioned the necklace, he spoke up.
“Don’t let her tell you any stories,” he said. “I’m almost 13, and I know it’s not a real dragon egg.”
Pasco admitted it made her a little sad to lose that bond, but the necklace symbolizes change after all. Eventually, our kids grow up. But even if that tradition is gone, the cake still awaits her son someday.
There were many funny and touching stories attached to the objects others brought for show and tell, but you’ll have to listen to the episode on October 24 at 11:00 AM to learn about them.
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Jamil attends a talk about the nexus between art and flight.
