406:
True Urban Legends
Originally aired 04.23.2010
Can a rat crawl through your plumbing and end up in your toilet? Can your cell phone give you a brain tumor?
Download a transcript or read much more information about our Steve Poizner story. Christopher Ketcham's GQ cell article is here.
Prologue.
Host Ira Glass investigates two urban legends - alligators in the sewer, rats in the toilet - to find out if they're true.Act One. What's That Smell?
A retired millionaire tries to understand the reality of a tough, seedy, inner city neighborhood. But what if the neighborhood is none of those things? Ira Glass evaluates the claims of this millionaire, Steve Poizner, who is also running for governor of California.
Download a transcript or read much more information about this story. Read an interview with Ira Glass in Mt. Pleasant’s literary magazine, the Cardinal Quill.
Act Two. Fleeing is Believing.
Foreigners arrive in the United States believing all kinds of misinformation about us... misinformation that turns out to be true. Mary Wiltenburg tells the story.Act Three. Sleeper Cell.
Do cell phones give people brain tumors? Ira speaks with Christopher Ketcham, who wrote an article on this subject for GQ magazine.
Another article on the subject appears in the current issue of Harper's Magazine.
