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726
December 11, 2020

Twenty-Five

To commemorate our show’s 25th year, we have a program about people who were born the year our show went on the air.

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  • Transcript

Alvaro Dominguez

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

Prologue

Host Ira Glass plays a recording of a rookie, try-hard, 25-year-old radio reporter. Himself. (7 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

25 vs. 19

We send one of the youngest people on our staff, 26-year-old Noor Gill, to report on a 25-year-old whose job took over her life earlier this year. Here’s the original article that Noor read about Stephanie Giordano. (12 minutes)

By

Noor Gill
Act Two

Buy Like a Butterfly

An incredibly accomplished 25-year-old, two-time Olympic boxing gold medalist Claressa Shields, achieved a big dream of hers this year. A dream that had nothing to do with her sport. Sue Jaye Johnson explains. (9 minutes)

Sue made a film about Claressa's first Olympic challenge called T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold, as well as a Radio Diaries story.

By

Sue Jaye Johnson
Act Three

The Rest of His Life

Mitchell S. Jackson profiles Ahmaud Arbery, who was 25 years old when he was shot to death by three white men in Georgia earlier this year. This essay was adapted from an essay in Runner’s World. (16 minutes)

By

Mitchell S. Jackson

Song:

“Make It Home” by Tobe Nwigwe
Act Four

Bachelorette in Arlington

Turning 25 has always been a very specific deadline for Linah Mohammad: a deadline to get married. Single and facing down this birthday, she gets help from the last place she usually would go — her parents. (10 minutes) 

By

Linah Mohammad

Song:

“25” by Robby Grote, performed by The Districts with Katherine Lample

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Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.

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

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