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70: Other People's Mail
Act Four

Golden Rule

Sarah Vowell puts her foot down. She says that contrary to all the wide-eyed voyeurs we've heard up until this point in the program, reading other people's mail is wrong, simply wrong. To test her theory, she visits a world class collector of other people's mail and other stuff, who not only collects other people's mail, he also saves grocery lists he picks up off the ground, gum that's been chewed by minor celebrities, and those little pads of squiggles where you try out the pens in the art supply store. (9 minutes)

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Sarah Vowell

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716: Trail of Tears
Sept. 4, 2020

Act One

Sarah Vowell and her twin sister, Amy, retrace the Trail of Tears. They visit the town in Georgia that was the capital of the Cherokee Nation before the Cherokee were expelled. They enjoy a tourist trap hotel in Chattanooga. They go to Ross's Landing, the embarkment point for the water route of the Trail of Tears. (27 minutes)
716: Trail of Tears
Sept. 4, 2020

Act Two

Sarah Vowell's story continues. She and Amy visit the home of President Andrew Jackson, the villain in the Trail of Tears drama. They drive west to Cherokee graves in Kentucky and a commemorative marker that's been placed, oddly, at an Arkansas high school. They head into Oklahoma, where the Cherokee settled and where they were born. Sarah talks with her oldest living relative about the Trail. And she and Amy end their trip at the place where they first heard about the Trail of Tears: an amphitheater where every summer, they saw a dramatic two hour recreation of the Trail. (23 minutes)