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554
April 10, 2015

Not It!

Stories of people, cities, and commonwealths touching their noses and proclaiming "not it!" Including the story of how one city used a rocking chair to take retribution against a late night TV show host, and an island that takes people it doesn't want to deal with and ships them away.

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  • Transcript
Brian Reed

Prologue

When Adriana Cardona-Maguigad started talking to homeless men in the Chicago neighborhood she works in, she discovered that many of them had the same, very strange backstory. Adriana tells Ira how she stumbled upon this. (7 1/2 minutes)
Act One

Como Se Dice "Not It"?

Adriana's story continues, as she ventures deep into a mysterious world of heroin addiction treatment centers where no one seems to be taking responsibility for the people they're treating. Adriana is the editor of the bilingual newspaper The Gate. She did an interactive version of this story for WBEZ. (17 minutes)

Story Update

Update on unlicensed rehab center story

Act Two

Last But Not Least

Producer Brian Reed tells the story of a city that years ago was given a title and is now saying, "not it!" They want to shed that title once and for all. (16 minutes)

By

Brian Reed
Act Three

The Big Crapple

A story about a substance we've played "not it" with for generations, and why maybe we shouldn't anymore. Producer Zoe Chace explains. (16 minutes)

Song:

“Don't Throw Your Love in the Garbage Can” by Vicki Anderson

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Act Four: And On The Eighth Day, God Created Tartar Sauce

A few times every summer, for complicated scientific reasons, thousands of live fish, crab and shrimp wash up onto the beaches of Mobile Bay, Alabama, on the Gulf Coast.

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This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

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