57:

Delivery

Originally aired 03.14.1997
Stories about the delivery business and the people in it. UPS men, bike messengers, FedEx dispatchers. Includes a new radio play by David Sedaris, in which we give him one sound effects record and this assignment: His radio play can only use sound effects from this record, and it must use all the sound effects on the disc.

Prologue.

Host Ira Glass goes to the Federal Express hub at Memphis to watch 1.2 million pieces of overnight mail get sorted in one night and to talk to the adrenaline junkies in the FedEx Command Center. (5 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Act One. Speed.

Tony Starbucks, interviewed by Dierdre Dolan and Paul Tough. (7 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Act Two. Who You Meet.

"Edison, New Jersey," a story about delivering pool tables from Junot Diaz's book Drown. (18 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Act Three. World Premiere.

David Sedaris play, with Toby Wherry and Penelope Boyer. (13 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Act Four. Check Out the Package on That Guy.

Nancy Updike and UPS Men. (6 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Act Five. Faith Shattered.

An unhappy customer gets a phone call from the CEO of FedEx and still keeps his personal boycott going of the company. (7 minutes)

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this story into your web page or blog.

pixels

Embed

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this episode into your web page or blog.

pixels