People climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?
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Prologue
Ira Glass talks with Paul Feig, who, as a sixth-grader, read the Dale Carnegie classic How to Win Friends and Influence People at the urging of his father. He found that afterward, he had a bleaker understanding of human nature—and even fewer friends than when he started. (9 minutes)
To Make a Friend, Be a Friend
David Sedaris has this instructive tale of how, as a boy, with the help of his dad, he tried to bridge the chasm that divides the popular kid from the unpopular — with the sorts of results that perhaps you might anticipate. (14 minutes)
Stay In Touch
After the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, U.S. diplomats had to start working the phones to assemble a coalition of nations to combat this new threat. Some of the calls, you get the feeling, were not the easiest to make. Writer and performer Tami Sagher imagines what those calls were like. (6 minutes)
People Like You If You Put a Lot of Time Into Your Appearance
To prove this simple point—a familiar one to readers of any women's magazines—we have this true story of moral instruction, told by Luke Burbank in Seattle, about a guy he met on a plane dressed in a hand-sewn Superman costume. (13 minutes)
Just Be Yourself
Jonathan Goldstein with a story about what it's like to date Lois Lane when she's on the rebound from Superman. (13 minutes)
Jonathan Goldstein is the host of the podcast Heavyweight.
Related
Act Two: Sheetcakes In The Conference Room, Whiskey After Dark
Act Three: Secret Wiretaps From A Secret Court
Act One: Cowboys Of The Apocalypse
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