Old stories, loose comedy, strange detours.
Story Time pairs narrated folklore and classic stories with running commentary from David and Michael. Episodes move from fairy-tale castles and Iliad battlefields to American cryptid sightings, often pausing for pizza debts, apartment plumbing, pop culture riffs, and stray wordplay.
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Story Time is a comedy-forward storytelling show where old material gets dragged into a very modern room. David and Michael move through fairy tales, ancient epic, classic story structures, and American cryptid lore with a loose, conversational rhythm. The source text matters, but the interruptions are the engine. A palace can become a basic apartment. A doomed Greek warrior can share space with jokes about breakfast. A lake monster sighting can turn into a riff on marketing, sonar equipment, and whose arms are being used as the unit of measurement. The show has the feel of two performers telling stories at a table while refusing to let any strange detail pass unnoticed. It is not reverent mythology hour. It is also not pure chaos. The episodes still follow the plot, especially in the long Iliad sequence where gods, Greeks, Trojans, Patroclus, Achilles, Hector, Ajax, Teucer, Glaucus, Sarpedon, and Zeus keep returning to the battlefield. The comedy comes from translating that scale into ordinary social logic. If someone spills wine, maybe it was prayer. If a castle appears by magic, someone should probably inspect the kitchen. If a trap door leaves a body in the cellar, the hosts notice the fairy tale’s strange priorities. The cryptid episodes apply the same instinct to reported monsters across the Midwest and the West. Sightings, drawings, disputed evidence, and local legend become setups for skeptical curiosity rather than hard belief. Personal openings are part of the texture, with digressions about heat, anniversaries, Vegas, plumbing, cash, pizza, and unrecorded Star Wars talk. The tone is blunt, quick, and playful. It works best for listeners who enjoy stories with commentary baked in. The result is familiar narrative territory made unstable in a funny way.
Made for: Story Time is for listeners who like folklore, myth, and cryptid lore but prefer conversational comedy over polished narration. It especially fits fans of improv-style banter, literary tangents, and irreverent retellings.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is its constant friction between grand source material and mundane modern commentary. Ancient battles, fairy-tale punishments, and monster sightings become funny because the hosts keep noticing the practical, awkward details inside them.
Comedians and improvisers David Miller and Michael Santell present Story Time! Bible Stories, fairy tales, unbelievable true stories, classic literature, ancient myths, and everything in between! Come hear a story you don't know, or rehear one you do with a comedic twist!Follow us on Twitter @thestorytimepod !David Miller @millerdMichael Santell @MichaelSantellMusic by Scott PassarellaArt by @JetpackBragginEpisode Archivist: Lotan Bar-Ad
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Old stories, epic battles, fairy tales, and cryptid lore become lively comic exchanges that keep their plots clear and their oddities visible.
Story Time turns familiar and obscure tales into loose, joke-filled conversations without losing the thread of the story. David Miller handles much of the narration while Michael Santel reacts, asks for clarification, and tests the stranger details.
Homer gets a campfire retelling, and you get the argument over Oily Ajax.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A fairy-tale castle chore turns into a loose comic reading with punishment threats, pizza money, and a trapdoor twist.
The episode treats a fairy-tale castle chore as both storybook menace and comic hangout. A girl is ordered to show off a dazzling castle while her stepmother searches through every room and corner for what is missing.
A castle fairy tale carried by pizza-money chaos and unruly banter.
The episode opens in a loose, teasing key, letting pizza money, cash, and group bickering set the tone before settling into "The True Bride." From there, the tale stays grounded in the bright castle, the kitchen, the cellar, and the trap door, so each turn reads clearly and the…
Story Time opens with playful banter, then lands hard in a grim fairy tale ending.
Story Time starts with a playful, sing-song welcome, then settles into a fairy tale that turns sharply grim: a dazzling castle, a malicious stepmother, a trap door, and a fall that leaves the tale abruptly dead.
A shorter Iliad chapter that still lands the prayer, the charge, and the spear through the mouth.
Story Time keeps The Iliad moving with Patroclus in Achilles' armor, a prayer to Zeus, and a charge that drives the Trojans back from the ships. The episode stays centered on Zeus's split answer: Patroclus will win at the ships, but he will not come back safely.
A loose, funny Iliad detour that settles into siege-side chaos after a slow start.
Story Time spends this stretch of the Iliad on siege work, booming boasts, and comic detours that give David Miller and Michael Santel a campfire ease rather than a pedestal tone.
A loose Western cryptid tour with enough banter to keep the monsters moving.
This installment turns the western United States into a loose cryptid tour, with David Miller and Michael Santel moving through California, Colorado, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest while circling Bigfoot entries and other creature sightings.
David and Michael recap Animorphs book 50, discussing the Yerks discovering the Animorphs are human and the evacuation of their families, including Tobias' mom.
["David Miller and Michael reopen Story Time after a sabbatical with a cash-only pizza argument, then pivot into Brothers Grimm chapter 187, \"The True Bride.\"", "The story centers on a young girl whose mother is dead, whose stepmother keeps escalating punishment, and whose only recurring help comes from a kindly old woman.", "The plot moves through 12 pounds of feathers, a spoon full of holes, a pond, and a castle built from gray rocks and invisible hands.", "After the reading, the hosts spend a long detour on Fox's 2016 Passion Live special, with Tyler Perry, Chris Daughtry, Seal, and Yolanda Adams all named in the discussion."]
David Miller and Michael return to Storytime after a sabbatical, joke about a pizza cash mix-up, and then announce chapter 187 of the Brothers Grimm, "The True Bride." The tale follows a young girl whose stepmother orders 12 pounds of feathers stripped by evening and then tells her to empty a pond with a spoon full of holes.
David and Michael banter about a pizza payment mishap with friends.
On Storytime, hosts David Miller and Michael Santel continue their comedic read-through of Homer's Iliad (translated by Emily Wilson), covering Book 16, "Love and Death," in a shorter episode.
David Miller and Michael Santel retell four folk tales on Story Time, including “The Giant and the Tailor” and “The Nail.” In “The Giant and the Tailor,” a boastful tailor answers a giant’s chores with impossible offers, prompting the giant to test him with a willow branch.
Story Time's "The Iliad Pt.
Story Time pairs “Master Pfriem” with “The Goose Girl at the Well,” two fairy tales read by David Miller and Michael Santel.
David Miller and Michael Santel retell Book 10 of Emily Wilson’s Iliad translation as Odysseus and Diomedes scout the Trojan camp.
Michael Santo reads four folktales on Story Time, 'The Owl,' 'The Moon,' 'The Duration of Life' and 'Death's Messengers,' from pages 560-566.
David and Michael discuss cryptids from the western United States, focusing on Bigfoot and similar creatures.
The hosts of Storytime return from a break to discuss personal life updates before diving into part three of their series on American cryptids, focusing on the Midwest.
David and Michael introduce a new episode of Storytime about cryptids in the southern United States, with banter about Star Wars and their D&D session.
David and Michael introduce a new season of their podcast, discussing their love for spooky topics and previewing an episode about North American cryptids, specifically focusing on the Northeast region.