Host Ira Glass with Cornell University Professor Richard Klein, on how seeing isn't just seeing. Seeing implies a kind of power over someone else. It's why slaves aren't allowed to look at their masters, why royalty traditionally doesn't like to be seen. (5 minutes)

Act One. American Goth.

There are the people who take two hours to get dressed every day, who dress primarily to be seen, and then there are most of the rest of us. Writer Sarah Vowell decides to make the leap into the two-hours group. As part of her lifelong quest to look meaner, she takes lessons in Goth. Goth is the subculture of people who dress in lacy black clothes and dark eye makeup. (15 minutes)


Song: " Shoehorn with Teeth," They Might Be Giants


Act Two. Lifesaver.

Ira tells the story of Lucia Lopez, a former gang member who would beat you up if she caught you looking at her ... and how her life changed when she put herself in a position where hundreds of people were looking at her.


Song: " She's Actual Size," They Might Be Giants


Act Three. Climb Every Mountain.

Writer David Rakoff travels to a place where everyone seems to be looking at him, a place where no one follows the customs people follow back home in New York City, a place called ... New Hampshire. (17 minutes)

(Note that many of the TMBG songs featured in this show are also on their TMBG's live CD Severe Tire Damage.)

Song: "Dr Worm," They Might Be Giants


Act Three. Climb Every Mountain.

Writer David Rakoff travels to a place where everyone seems to be looking at him, a place where no one follows the customs people follow back home in New York City, a place called ... New Hampshire. (17 minutes)

(Note that many of the TMBG songs featured in this show are also on their TMBG's live CD Severe Tire Damage.)

Song: " Dr Worm," They Might Be Giants