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74
August 29, 1997

Conventions

What happens when people with one common interest gather in monstrous, fluorescent-lit halls for the weekend? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.

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Elan Ruskin

Convention worker

Andrea worked at a bakery under a convention hotel in Chicago. The conventioneers used to drive her crazy because people act so different when they're in a crowd of their own kind. (3 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Dark Shadows

John Connors has very mixed emotions about attending a convention for viewers of the TV program Dark Shadows. (18 minutes)

By

John Connors

John Connors at the 1997 Dark Shadows convention, wearing a red burgundy crushed velvet Pierre Cardin jacket and rhinestone brooch. Courtesy John Connors.

Act Two

Dish Out Of Water

Dishwasher Pete, author of the book Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States, went to the National Restaurant Association convention on assignment from This American Life. (15 minutes)

By

Dishwasher Pete

Song:

“Born to Do Dishes” by The Queers
Act Three

When Worlds Collide

John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former rancher and Grateful Dead lyricist, on an experience that began at the boundary of two conventions. (20 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Black-Throated Wind” by The Grateful Dead

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Act Three: Radio On The Tv

Ira says a few words about what he learned from working on a television show himself and about what it's like to hear your name mentioned casually by a fictional character on a prime time drama.
50: Shoulda Been Dead
Jan. 17, 1997

Act Five: On the Edge of the World

The day Matthew Goulish saw Brigid.
638: Rom-Com
Feb. 9, 2018

Act Two: The Obstacle

Elna Baker interviews comedian Michelle Buteau about one of her first big romantic challenges.

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Dec. 13, 1996

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A family where the father was one kind of sissy and the son was another kind, and how the family was destroyed despite the fact that no one wanted it to be.

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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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