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Full episode
235: The Balloon Goes Up

Prologue

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Host Ira Glass talks to Anthony Swofford, a former marine sniper and author of the Gulf War memoir Jarhead. He explains what he's seeing when he watches this new war with Iraq on television. (6 minutes)

By

Anthony Swofford

More in Iraq

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607: Didn’t We Solve This One?
Jan. 6, 2017

Act One: Good Things Come to Those Who Wait. But Not Always.

An Iraqi translator named Sarah has been trying to get to the U.S. for eight years.
607: Didn’t We Solve This One?
Jan. 6, 2017

Act Two: He’s Making a List

Nancy returns with a story that explains the origins of the special visa program for interpreters.
593: Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee
Aug. 5, 2016

Act Two: Thank You for Smoking

People don’t have a lot of money in the refugee camps, and our producer Miki Meek went to see what that’s like at a camp that’s been built on the grounds of an abandoned psychiatric hospital.

More by Anthony Swofford

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232: The Real Story
Feb. 14, 2003

Act One: Jarhead

Anthony Swofford reads an excerpt from his memoir, Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, about his experience fighting in the first Gulf War in 1991, as a Marine sniper.
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