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243
July 25, 2003

Later That Same Day

Stories about what the passage of time can do to someone. When each story starts, the world's aligned one way. Years pass—or sometimes just months—and everything's different.

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George Eastman House

Prologue

Host Ira Glass plays parts of a speech by George Ryan, former Governor of Illinois. When he was a state senator in 1977, Ryan was part of a successful coalition that voted to reinstate the death penalty in Illinois. Two decades later, he became governor and had to make the final decision in state capital cases—cases which he'd helped bring about 20 years earlier. He found that the death penalty looks a lot different when you're the one who bears final responsibility for whether someone lives or dies. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

The Hiker And The Cowman Should Be Friends

Scott Carrier tells the story of how the environmentalist that ranchers hated the most—whom they tried to run out of town and hanged in effigy—came to take the ranchers' side of things. Some funding for this story comes from Hearingvoices.com and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Scott Carrier is the author of the book Running After Antelope. (26 minutes)

By

Scott Carrier

Song:

“The Hiker and the Cowman” by Jon Langford and John Rauhaus, with apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein
Act Two

Scrapbook, The Verb

A Houston woman tries to document every day of her four-year-old daughter's life...in preparation for a day far away. Produced by Julie Checkoway and Kimberly Meyer of Story Rodeo. (13 minutes)

By

Kimberly Meyer
Act Three

Slingshot

A story by John Hodgman about returning to the beach after a very bad year. John Hodgman is the host of the monthly reading series The Little Gray Book Lecture Series. (9 minutes)

By

John Hodgman

Related

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386: Fine Print
July 24, 2009

Act Two: Occupancy May Be Revoked Without Notice

David Rakoff tells the story of a contract between a son and his visiting mother.
362: Got You Pegged
Aug. 22, 2008

Act One: The Fat Blue Line

While riding in a patrol car to research a novel, crime writer Richard Price witnessed a misunderstanding that for many people is pretty much accepted as an upsetting fact of life.

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

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