Stories of love in its earliest stage. Crushes: what's terrible about them, what's great about them and how they can overshadow real love for some people.
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Act One
Kiss
So what if you held onto a high-school crush? Under what conditions would it never go away? Tobias Wolff reads a short story called "Kiss." (38 minutes)
Act Two
How A Bill Becomes — A President
Bill Bradley press secretary Julia Rothwax explains how a political crush works. This is a crush that wants only for a candidate to get elected to office. She says her own political feelings for Bill Bradley are very different from the way she felt about the only other Presidential candidate she worked for: Bill Clinton. (6 minutes)
Act Three
On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One April Morning
As pure of a depiction of unadulterated crush feeling as can be imagined—from writer Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories, The Elephant Vanishes. It's read for us by actor Matt Malloy. (9 minutes)
Chocolate Box Of Love Stories
We collaborated with Google on the Valentine's Day Google Doodle.
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Act Two: Fists And Guns
Geoffrey Canada, author of the book Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America, talks about what it's like to carry a gun. He also talks about what poor neighborhoods in New York were like before the proliferation of handguns among young people. When he grew up in the South Bronx, kids had fistfights in a very formal arrangement with formal rules that everyone lived by.
Act Two: Suburban Girl
Chicago writer/musician Rennie Sparks, a member of the independent band The Handsome Family, reads "Skanks," a story of a girl struggling in a situation where some rules are strict, but other rules are up for grabs.
Act Four: If The Shoe Fits
Actor Matt Malloy reads a short piece of fiction called "Shoes," about a boy trying not to be a turncoat.
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