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Act One: Started From Phle-Bottom, Now We’re Here
When Adele wrote into our show last summer, she described herself as “the worst phlebotomist in the whole hospital.” Producer Diane Wu couldn’t resist calling her up to find out exactly what she meant by that.
Act One: Grime Scene
Reporter Nancy Updike spends two days with Neal Smither, who cleans up crime scenes for a living, and comes away wanting to open his Los Angeles franchise, despite the gore — or maybe because of it.
Act Two: Phone Home
Seth Freed Wessler reports on people going the opposite direction over the US/Mexico border.
More by Adam Davidson
Act Two
Several producers talked about the first stories they ever heard on the show, before they worked here.
Act Four: Be Cool, Stay in School
Unemployment is 9 percent, but it's worst among high school dropouts andpeople with only a high school education.
Act Three: Job Fairies
For a look at the nuts and bolts of government job creation, This American Life Senior Producer Julie Snyder and Planet Money correspondent Adam Davidson attend a meeting of the International Economic Developers Council in San Diego.