We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
197
October 26, 2001

Before It Had A Name

There's the time when you know something is happening, but you're not sure exactly what. The illness before it's diagnosed. The era, before it's been given a title. And something changes when the name is given. Stories of that transformation...between what it is now, and what it was before it had a name.

  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript

Roel Groeneveld

Prologue

Rod Hudson grew up on a dairy farm in New Hampshire. When his father retired, Rod ran his own operation on his dad's property and did just fine until the mid 1980's when something strange started to happen with the cows. A series of strange things started to happen actually, beginning with their hooves. (6 minutes)
Act One

Mr. Boder Vanishes

In 1946, a man named David Boder started to investigate the Holocaust before it was known as the Holocaust. He dragged a primitive recording device around Europe and gathered the first recorded testimonials of concentration camp survivors. But his research was largely ignored, and his recordings forgotten for decades. The tapes are broadcast for the first time nationally on tonight's show. Carl Marziali tells the story. (31 minutes). Listen to Boder's recordings, or read transcripts, at their official home on the web.

By

Ira Glass
Carl Marziali
Act Two

Of Course I Remember Your Name

A short story about the moment when we suddenly learn the name of something that has heretofore been unnamed for us...and about the difference between knowing the person, and knowing the person's name. Heather O'Neill is the author of Two Eyes Are You Sleeping, a book of poetry. (6 minutes)

By

Heather O'Neill

Song:

“What's My Name” by Bric-a-Brac
Act Three

A Bad Day For Plates

The story about what happens when you discover the medical reason your mother was such a bad parent all your life. Laura Tangusso tells the story of how she and her siblings learned the name of something they'd always wondered: What was wrong with their mother? (14 minutes)

By

Laura Tangusso

Song:

“What's the Good Word” by Jackie Reinach/Mel Poretz
Act Four

You Call That Love?

There is that moment when you're falling for someone, before either of you says the word love...but when you both FEEL it. But then once the word love is applied to a feeling...is it possible we're all actually referring to different feelings? Jonathan Goldstein tells a story about what if the word love didn't exist. He's the author of the novels, Lenny Bruce is Dead and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!. (5 minutes)

By

Jonathan Goldstein

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
235: The Balloon Goes Up
Mar. 21, 2003

Act Five: What Peacetime Forgets About Wartime

A few years back, a writer named Lee Sandlin wrote a story for the weekly paper The Chicago Reader about what makes wartime different—how a country's perceptions and logic during war are fundamentally different than during peace.
383: Origin Story (2009)
June 19, 2009

Act Four: Bill Clinton’s 7-year-old Brother

Reporter Mary Wiltenburg tells the story of a little boy stymied by the question "Where do you come from?" (8 minutes)
250: The Annoying Gap Between Theory...and Practice
Nov. 7, 2003

Act Three: Zero Divided By Zero Is Still Zero

What happens if you're poor, and do everything right, all your budgeting, all your choices...are you actually any better off? Actor Liza Colón-Zayas reads a passage from Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's book Random Family.

Staff Recommendations

View all
562
July 31, 2015

The Problem We All Live With - Part One

There’s one thing that has been proven to cut the achievement gap between black and white students by half: integration.

563
Aug. 7, 2015

The Problem We All Live With - Part Two

A city goes all out to integrate its schools.

This American Life

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

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email