Ira visits an 83-year-old man named Dick Paterniti who’s been waging a long and lonely war against a woodpecker. (5 minutes)
More in Animals
Act Four: Resurrection
Writer Brady Udall with another story about what animals can take the place of, in our lives and in our homes—this one involving an armadillo.
Act One: The Youth In Asia
When a pet dies, to what degree can it be replaced by another? And to what degree can pets replace people in our lives? David Sedaris tells this story of cats and dogs and other animals.
Act Two: Polly Wants More Than A Cracker
Veronica Chater explains the conflict in her house between her love for her pet macaw—a kind of parrot—and her love for her husband and three kids.
More by Ira Glass
Act Four: Let’s Do the Numbers
One of the things we were excited to investigate when we went to Alabama was to answer the question at the heart of the immigration debate: what does it cost taxpayers when we let in millions of immigrants, documented and undocumented? In Albertville, how much was it? We asked economist Kim Rueben and her colleague Erin Huffer to run the numbers.
Act Five: Today
In 2012, the fever broke, and the Albertville city council stopped targeting Latino residents.
Act Three: Backlash
Suddenly realizing just how many Latinos had moved to town, longtime residents jumped into action, fueled by a wave of national and statewide anti-immigration fever.