Stories of people stuck in unfixable situations who try desperate measures. Sometimes these are inventive, sometimes they're ingenious, sometimes they even work.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass visits the Richard E. Byrd Community Academy, a public elementary school in Chicago in need of repair. The principal of the school has tried everything. And now, the fifth grade class in Room 405 has taken matters into their own hands. (5 minutes)
Hasta La Vista, Arnie
Therapist Scott Miller tells the story of a patient who thought he was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Solving the problem required unusual treatment. Miller is co-director of the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change and co-author of The Heart and Soul of Change and other books. This story shows up in the book The Mummy at the Dining Room Table: Eminent Therapists Reveal their Most Unusual Cases, by Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson. (10 minutes)
We Built This City On Rock And Coal
The Router Less Taken
The Rocks At Rock Bottom
Hillary Frank speaks with a man who figured out how to get over heartbreak, using only your throwing arm. She's the author of Better Than Running at Night and I Can't Tell You. (9 minutes)
Related
Act Three: Educated Guess
Act One: The Collapse Of The Us Banking System Explained In Just 39 Minutes
Act Two: Santaland Diaries
Staff Recommendations
Harper High School - Part One
We spent five months at a high school in Chicago where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.
Harper High School - Part Two
Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.