We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
118
December 18, 1998

What You Lookin’ At?

Stories about seeing and being seen. Taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City in December 1998, this was a co-production with WNYC New York, featuring live music by the pop band They Might Be Giants and the This American Life Orchestra.

  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript
Ella Novak

Prologue

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)

By

Ira Glass
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)

By

Sarah Vowell

Song:

“Shoehorn with Teeth” by They Might Be Giants
Act Two

Lifesavers

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. (18 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“She's Actual Size” by 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 They Might Be Giants songs featured in this show are also on their live CD Severe Tire Damage.

By

David Rakoff

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
180: Return to Childhood 2001
Mar. 23, 2001

Act Three: Ich... Bin... Ein... Mophead

Producer Alex Blumberg sets out to find a woman named Susan Jordan, who babysat him and his sister for a year when he was nine.
2: Small Scale Sin
Nov. 24, 1995

Act One

The Golden Peacock.
194: Before and After
Sept. 21, 2001

Act Three: Notes From The Underground

In our search for events that might illuminate what we've seen in New York this week, we hear interviews with survivors of a terrorist attack that happened in a crowded city, during rush hour, just six years ago.

Staff Recommendations

View all
487
Feb. 15, 2013

Harper High School - Part One

We spent five months at a high school in Chicago where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

488
Feb. 22, 2013

Harper High School - Part Two

Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

This American Life

This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email