We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
627
October 6, 2017

Suitable for Children (2017)

Who thought that would be good for a kid?

  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript

The Tire Zoo

Prologue

Ira remembers the time when his older sister, Randi, asked his mother where babies come from. (3 minutes)
Act One

Stars & Bars & Bars

Producer Neil Drumming talks with the rapper Breeze Brewin about a toy car they both loved playing with as kids: The General Lee from the hit TV show The Dukes of Hazzard. Breeze went on to record a song called “Generally” about The General Lee with his group the Juggaknots. (11 minutes)

By

Neil Drumming

Song:

“Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” by Dean Martin
Act Two

History is Not a Toy

There’s a museum in Baltimore that was created to memorialize the Black experience in America. It’s called The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Our producer B.A. Parker went there as a kid, and its straightforward and sometimes disturbing look at history stuck with her. So she went back. (14 minutes)

By

B.A. Parker
Act Three

The Questionnaire

Over the last few years, there’s been a flood of kids from Central America who’ve arrived in the United States by themselves. With no adults. And often, they have to navigate the immigration system on their own. One of the people who’s helped them is the writer Valeria Luiselli. She worked as a translator in immigration court, where her job was to ask children a series of forty questions. Her story is excerpted from her book Tell Me How It Ends. (17 minutes)

Act Four

Rocket Boy

Paul Zimmer is eighty-three years old now, and he’s still haunted by something he saw in his teens. Something very few Americans have ever seen: The explosion of an atomic bomb. Paul’s essay originally appeared in The Georgia Review. It is read by actor John Conlee. (6 minutes)

Song:

“Kids” by Mikky Ekko

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
104: Music Lessons
June 5, 1998

Act Two: Toccata and Fugue In Me, a Minor

As a teenager, Sarah Vowell was not casual about music lessons — music became her life.
214: Family Physics
May 31, 2002

Act One: Occam's Razor

In Los Angeles, Cris Beam reports on a family named the Paladinos that had a theory that explained their lives.
633: Our Town - Part Two
Dec. 15, 2017

Act Two: The March

Latino residents decided to organize a peaceful march in support of a path to legal status, and their white neighbors were shocked when 5,000 people poured into the streets.

Staff Recommendations

View all
744
Aug. 13, 2021

Essential

The pandemic forced jobs to change, but then the workers changed, too.

192
Aug. 31, 2001

Meet the Pros

The story of one man's journey from obscurity to international professional celebrity.

This American Life

This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email