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Full episode
347: Matchmakers
Act One

A Good Year For Grand Gestures

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Miriam and her husband were development workers in Afghanistan. They'd had a whirlwind romance themselves, so when they heard that their driver was in love, but didn't have enough money to propose to the girl, they made a grand romantic gesture: They gave him $10,000 to pay for the dowry and the wedding. It was a move they probably should have known wouldn't work out so well. Gregory Warner reports. (16 minutes)

By

Greg Warner

Song:

“Matchmaker, Matchmaker” by Wes Montgomery

More in Afghanistan

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592: Are We There Yet?
July 29, 2016

Act One: Field of Interrupted Dreams

One good place to see how this ad hoc response is working is at an abandoned baseball stadium in Athens.
572: Transformers
Nov. 6, 2015

Act Two: Streetwise

Most big grand transformations we go through really come down to a hundred little things that we change about ourselves.
484: Doppelgängers
Jan. 11, 2013

Act Two: In Country, In City

For decades, the writer Alex Kotlowitz has been writing about the inner cities and the toll of violence on young people.

More by Greg Warner

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388: Rest Stop
Sept. 4, 2009

Act Two

More stories of travelers and workers at a highway rest stop.
369: Poultry Slam 2008
Nov. 28, 2008

Act One: You Gotta Ask Yourself One Question: Do You Feel Clucky? Well...do Ya, Punk?

Greg Warner was living in Pakistan, on the border of Afghanistan, when he met a man—a tough guy, former smuggler—who wanted to break his friend out of prison.
264: Special Treatment
May 7, 2004

Act Two: Except For That One Problem, It's Perfect

Gregory Warner reports on a program that solves a problem that's been plaguing prisons for years.
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