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60
April 18, 1997

Business of Death

Usually we talk about death as a tragedy, a mystery, a hard-to-comprehend fact of life. But in addition to all that, for all sorts of people it's also ... a job. This week, stories of undertakers, homicide detectives, slaughterhouse workers, enunculators, autopsy pathologists, exterminators, and others. Does their contact with death teach them something we should learn?
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Scary Side of Earth

Kaddish

An Allen Ginsberg poem and Ira Glass. (2 minutes)

By

Allen Ginsberg
Ira Glass
Act One

The Undertaking

Thomas Lynch reads from his book The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade. (14 minutes)

By

Thomas Lynch
Act Two

The Forbidden Zone

Michael Lesy reads. (13 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Michael Lesy
Act Three

Fireman

Actor Michael Stumm reads from fireman and fiction writer Larry Brown's book On Fire. (4 minutes)

By

Larry Brown
Michael Stumm
Act Four

Smugglers

Writer David Sedaris on an unwelcome surprise in a toilet — a turd. (14 minutes)

By

David Sedaris
Act Five

The Happiest Death Worker

Meema Spadola with Lou Zeidberg. (10 minutes)

By

Meema Spadola

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Feb. 11, 2000

Act One: Kiss

So what if you held onto a high-school crush? Under what conditions would it never go away? Tobias Wolff reads a short story called "Kiss." (38 minutes)

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In Dog We Trust (2000)

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266
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I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help

Nancy Updike goes to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.

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