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.
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)
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.
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)
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)
Song:
“What's the Good Word” by Jackie Reinach/Mel Poretz
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)
Related
If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
Act Three: Human Sacrifice
This American Life producer Nancy Updike reveals to Ira the staff’s concernabout his dog, Piney.
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.
Act Three: Ich... Bin... Ein... Mophead
Producer Alex Blumberg sets out to find a woman named Susan Jordan, who babysat him and his sister for a year when he was nine.
Staff Recommendations
Prom
While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town.
Will They Know Me Back Home?
Stories of people who've grown so accustomed to wartime that the lives they've left behind no longer make sense.