Hello! Justin Spencer here! I am the co-founder of StoryLight along with Gail Shalan. We are both actors dedicated to bringing more light into the world by telling stories. As artists, we believe that it is our privilege and duty to share good stories of all kinds with each and every human being we can.

 

For a child with my imagination, getting sleep each night was a major accomplishment. Everything would freak me out. I would have to have something to distract my mind from all the bad things that could happen.

 

So I turned to stories. Mostly stories in the form of audiobooks.

 

I can remember listening to Michael Jordan’s biography Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam every night, for over a year, until my parents got tired of it, took it, and made chose something else. I think it was The Lord of the Rings. Something about Edward Herrmann’s rich baritone mixed with a story about the life of one of my heroes helped me relax and allowed me to sleep.

 

Stories also charged my imagination. Dressing in costumes and pretending to be someone else, playing with action figures, watching movies like Star Wars, and especially listening to audiobooks fed this part of me. They helped me to be myself. At the end of the day, they made me happy.

 

And now, having two young girls myself, I wanted to give to others this gift to others the gift that was given to me by stories: joy and peace and hope and encouragement.

 

To that end, Gail and I have created StoryLight, a podcast in which professional actors read their favorite stories from when they were young. Each episode is an hour long, and we release two episodes per week.

 

Welcome to the StoryLight family! We are glad you’re here! We hope that whatever the day may bring, whatever darkness you may be encountering, this podcast can make it a little brighter.