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
120
January 22, 1999

Be Careful Who You Pretend to Be

Three stories of people pretending to be something they're not, and what happens to them.
  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript
Dave White

Prologue

Viola disguises herself as a man, takes a job working for this guy with whom she promptly falls in love. He believes the pretense: He thinks Viola is a man, so he never gives her a second look. This is the problem with pretending: If you're successful, and people actually believe you, you can get stuck in an identity you don't want. The other problem is this: Some people actually come to believe they are the person they're pretending to be. (4 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Doing Good By Doing Bad

Ron Copeland is a historical interpreter at the Conner Prairie Living History Museum, outside of Indianapolis. For several months a year, in his job, he pretends to be a slaveowner in the old south. People come looking to experience the slave experience. He screams at them. He bosses them around. And it's starting to change him. (14 minutes)

By

Alix Spiegel

Song:

“The Boy Done Wrong Again” by Belle and Sebastian
Act Two

Psychobabble, Qu'est-ce Que C'est

There's the pretending we do as individuals, and there's the organized pretending that happens in group therapy sessions, in the roleplaying games that are done in some clinical settings. Jack Hitt tells the story of the Mother of All Roleplaying Games. It was in the 1970s and he was there. (11 minutes)

By

Jack Hitt

Song:

“Avé Maria” by Franz Schubert, sung by Dame Janet Baker
Act Three

What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding?

Alix Spiegel travels with a group of white suburbanites as they pretend to be runaway slaves, at the Conner Prairie Living History Museum. Her goal: to find out what it is that people actually get out of this elaborate game of pretend. (24 minutes)

By

Alix Spiegel

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
644: Random Acts of History
Apr. 27, 2018

Act One: The Miseducation of Castlemont High

A bunch of high school students gets taken to see a movie that’s supposed to teach them about history.
623: We Are in the Future (2017)
Aug. 18, 2017

Act Two: Past Imperfect

Comedian and actor Azie Dungey recounts her time playing a slave for visiting tourists at George Washington’s estate in Mount Vernon.
223: Classifieds
Oct. 11, 2002

Act Two: Help Wanted

An audio diary of two people using the classified ads to find jobs.

Staff Recommendations

View all
266
June 4, 2004

I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help

Nancy Updike goes to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.

241
July 11, 2003

20 Acts in 60 Minutes

All kinds of little stories that we ordinarily can't use on the radio show because they are just too short.

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