Flatball Radio | Ben Wiggins’ A Brief Moment in the History of Potlatch by Matt Mastrantuono |

One of the hardest parts of the group workshopping process is the first time the storytellers present their story to the room. Nothing can make you feel more vulnerable than standing up in front of a small group of smart and talented people and saying, “this is my story.” So I wasn’t surprised to be greeted with silence after asking the group “who wants to share first?” Before things got uncomfortably awkward, though, Ben Wiggins stepped up to the plate.

Tyler and I had a lot of conversations about how and who to pick for our World Premiere. We wanted diverse perspectives and new voices in the ultimate community. So we hesitated when we thought about asking Ben to be a Flatball Radio storyteller. The guy has spoken at just about every ultimate conference out there, he’s been a part of countless ultimate projects, and he’s one of the most recognizable and decorated people in our community. It felt obvious to ask him, and we didn’t want his name to distract from what we were trying to do. The thing is, though, the most important criteria in our search was being a good storyteller. Everything else was a distant second. And anyone that knows Ben will tell you he’s one of the best storytellers around.

Most of the storytellers had notes ready to assist in their first run through, but Ben just got up and spoke from memory. He deftly told a seven-minute story that felt rehearsed for months. The bar was set for the rest of the meeting and it was just a matter of who had the guts to go next.

More about Ben: Had a goatee at one point that won him a Callahan award. Got married in nature. Shoots squirrels for fun. Has played ultimate.

*Ben graduated from Flatball Radio and has earned a spot on stage for a prestigious TEDx talk.*