The big and the small moments of life are equally illuminating for Aaron Calafato. Watching a passionate Elvis impersonator in a local restaurant. A pet bird, dying in his hand. Enjoying Sunday sauce with family at his great grandmother’s house. Eating a dandelion green salad. Becoming a father.
These moments, and hundreds more, make up the Medina resident’s podcast, 7 Minute Stories.
“The promise I’ve made to my listeners is they get a 7-minute extemporaneous story. It’s not political,” he says. “It’s about everyday, ordinary life, which oftentimes is extraordinary because people connect with it.”
With five completed seasons and hundreds of episodes released, Calafato’s earned a big audience, reaching more than 30 million people in his last season. Each story is recorded in his basement studio.
The stories aren’t monetized; you won’t usually hear ads or sponsorships bookending the content. The podcaster instead makes money through his podcast consulting firm, which led to work as a cohost and consultant for GlassDoor’s ongoing The Lonely Office podcast, among other notable projects.
All of this work in storytelling starts, of course, with his own story. In the 2000s, Calafato found himself living in New York to chase an acting career, when he had an opportunity to tell stories at a local cafe. But after bit parts in TV and challenges in the industry — not to mention the 2008 economic recession — Calafato and his then-fiance moved back to Northeast Ohio due to debt. Back in his hometown, he found work in catering and at a for-profit university’s admissions office.
That job became the inspiration for one of his most well-known stories: his hit one-person monologue performance For Profit, which delves into his own turmoil with student loan debt, and what it was like to place potential students into debt through the university.
“I had this literal rebellion moment where I was like, ‘I can’t work here anymore,’” Calafato says. “I caused a scene. I called everybody, all the potential students, because they were doing some really unethical stuff there. I got fired.”
For Profit first appeared at Euclid Square Mall thanks to an appearance and promotion on Dee Perry’s morning show on WCPN. Then, an off-off-Broadway sellout. Then, a national tour of 250 performances in 20 states.
“But it came to a point where it’s like, how many times can you do the student debt show?” he says. “And I have so many more stories to tell. Plus I had a daughter on the way, and I wanted to figure out a way to live in Northeast Ohio, have roots here.”
He started recording other stories, and discovered a natural rhythm and timeline: Each vignette typically landed around seven minutes.
“Growing up, my dad, my grandfather, being Italian American maybe had something to do with this: This idea of being at the dinner table and having a small space that you had to fit your story in because you didn't want to take too much, but you wanted to get your word in there,” Calafato says.
His wife Cori recorded the podcast introduction, and a friend, audio engineer Ken Wendt, took on editing work. The team spread the word about the stories through family and circles of friends, and the project picked up some steam, landing on NPR’s Snap Judgment show, a feature in a Portuguese magazine and multiple viral moments on listening platforms.
Many of the stories make light of personal moments, but Calafato sees the project as a more universal human experience, with inspiration from storytellers like Spalding Gray and Gene Shepherd, the original storyteller of A Christmas Story.
“It’s so ego-driven, in the sense that it’s my prism. But I think where people gain trust is they know it's not about the exploration of me,” he says. “It's literally just like, can you believe this sh**? Like, are you in on the joke too?”
Now, Calafato has expanded the 7 Minute Stories universe, aiming to launch both an app for his dedicated listener base, along with bonus episodes for those who use it. He’s starting up a weekly, live, long-form conversation show The Storytelling University with a variety of guests like Soledad O’Brien and Angus Fletcher, which will run for two to three hours on YouTube every week — and which will contribute to the weekly short-form podcast as bonus content. A weekly late-night audio livestream will feature Calafato’s stories to help guests relax before going to sleep, with some versions featuring special guests and celebrity call-ins.
And he’ll still keep up with his podcast dedicated to briefer snippets of life, too. Season six launches in September.
“I’m onto something here — and that something is something we are all capable of and have available to us,” Calafato says, “which is telling stories that were given to us as human beings.”
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