821: Embrace the Suck
This American Life
01/21/24
•58m
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People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.
- Prologue: A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated. The strange thing is, it helps her. (9 minutes)
- Act One: Two college friends try to stop Donald Trump’s primary season momentum by convincing New Hampshire voters to vote against everything they care about. Producer Zoe Chace follows along. (22 minutes)
- Act Two: When producer Ike Sriskandarajah tries to sleep-train his baby, a neighbor decides to call the police. Later, Ike thinks, "I can work with that." (9 minutes)
- Act Three: A story by producer Boen Wang about how to get through a summer of bad days. (9 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
Previous Episode
567: What’s Going On In There?
January 14, 2024
•59m
Often we see someone’s situation from the outside and think we know exactly what’s going on. This week, we get inside and find out just how much more interesting the reality of it is.
- A mysterious tunnel is found in a forest in Toronto. Public speculation is all over the place and totally wrong. Nick Kohler tells Ira the story behind the tunnel. (10 minutes)
- Act One: A teenager reports what it is like to be inside an abusive relationship with an older man. (29 minutes)
- Act Two: Larry speaks English. His dad speaks Chinese. They grew up in the same house but Larry could never speak to his dad. After 20 years, with the help of filmmaker Bianca Giaever, he and his dad have their first conversation. (16 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
Next Episode
822: The Words to Say It
January 28, 2024
•58m
What it means to have words—and to lose them.
- Prologue: Sometimes we don’t want to say what’s going on because putting it into words would make it real. At other times, words don’t seem to capture the weight of what we want to say. Susanna Fogel talks about her friend Margaret Riley, who died earlier this week. (6 minutes)
- Act One: The story of a woman from Gaza City who ran out of words. Seventy-two days into the war, Youmna stopped talking. (27 minutes)
- Act Two: For years there was a word that Val’s mother did not want to use. Val sets out to figure out why. (22 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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