289: Go Ask Your Father
May 13, 2005
In this show, sons and daughters get to find out the one thing they've always wanted to know about their father. The answers aren't always what they hope for.
- Paul Tough's father was a mild-mannered professor. And then one day he left his family and went on a quest. In this story, for the first time, Paul joins him on that quest: To make contact with extraterrestrial life. Paul asks his father the questions he's always wanted answered about his alien pursuits. Paul Tough is one of the original contributing editors to This American Life. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey's Canada's Quest to Change Harlem in America. His next book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, will be published in September. He first read a version of his story at the Little Gray Books lecture series in New York. (18 minutes)
