278: Spies Like Us
Nov 19, 2004
Stories about amateur spies—regular people who spy on other regular people, and the consequences of their spying.
- When Burt Covit was programming his VCR one day, he accidentally tuned in to a channel showing the lobby of a building. He started to watch, and couldn't stop. Then a mysterious woman appeared, wearing a pill-box hat. Burt told this story on the CBC radio program Wiretap. Jonathan Goldstein, a contributing editor to This American Life, is the host of Wiretap. This story is a work of fiction, staged as a radio interview. (12 minutes)
Song: " Television," Robyn Hitchcock - Writer Beth Lisick decides to try a new strategy to get her infant to sleep better, and buys a baby monitor as part of the deal. Soon, she's hearing her neighbors make drug deals over the monitor's frequency. And then she learns some other, more complicated information. (15 minutes)
- They are ordinary people who go undercover in coffee shops and chain stores, spying for The Man. This American Life producer Lisa Pollak reports. (12 minutes)
- What do you do when you think your apartment is being bugged? You call the apartment de-buggers. It's a weird job; still, someone's got to do it. This American Life producer Jane Feltes goes on a counterespionage mission. (10 minutes)
