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Full episode
351: Return to Childhood
Act One

Ich... bin... ein... mophead.

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Alex Blumberg sets out to find a woman named Susan Jordan, who babysat him and his sister for a year when he was nine. He discovers that each of them remembered something about the other that the other would just as soon forget. (20 minutes)

By

Alex Blumberg

Song:

“Brooklyn Roads” by Neil Diamond

More in Childhood

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851: Try a Little Tenderness
Jan. 10, 2025

Act Three: You’ll Spank Me Later For This

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828: Minor Crimes Division
Apr. 5, 2024

Act One: Harriot Vs Harriot

Writer Michael Harriot reexamines the DIY criminal justice system his mom invented to deal with his bad behavior as a child. (20 minutes)
827: All the King's Horses
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Act One: Toy R Us

A teenage whiz kid invents a new toy for Milton Bradley.

More by Alex Blumberg

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714: Day at the Beach
Aug. 14, 2020

Act Two: Beach Doctor

Alex Blumberg talks to Shane Dubow about a time decades ago, when Shane went sea kayaking and camping with his friends on the beach in Baja California, Mexico.
605: Kid Logic
Dec. 16, 2016

Act Four: When Small Thoughts Meet Big Brains

Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: Children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong.
527: 180 Degrees
June 13, 2014

Act One: Seeing the Forrest For the Little Trees

Alex Blumberg takes us to an American classroom where students are reading a classic, The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter.
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