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
75
September 12, 1997

Kindness of Strangers

Stories of the kindness of strangers and where it leads. Also, the unkindness of strangers and where that can lead. All of today's stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.

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

Jonathan Camuzo

Prologue

Brett Leveridge was standing on the subway. A guy comes walking down the platform, stopping in front of each passenger and delivering a quiet verdict: "You're in. You're out. You, you can stay. You — gotta go." Most people ignored the guy. But Brett found himself, against his will, hoping the guy would give him the thumbs up, and when the guy does, it's thrilling in a very small way: a tiny kindness from a stranger. Brett's story also appears on his website Brettnews, and you can see a graphic recreation of it in our comic book How to Make Radio. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Tarzan Finds A Mate

New York City locksmith Joel Kostman tells the story of an act of kindness he committed, hoping for a small reward. From his book: Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith. (13 minutes)

By

Joel Kostman

Song:

“Bolt” by Ben Lee
Act Two

Runaway

In 1940, Jack Geiger, at the age of fourteen, left his middle-class Jewish home and knocked on the door of a black actor named Canada Lee. He asked Lee if he could move in with him. Lee said yes, and in Lee's Harlem apartment, Geiger spent a year with many of the great figures of the Harlem renaissance: Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, Adam Clayton Powell. This is what Geiger ended up doing because of that experience.

A side note: It turns out there's a movie in which Canada Lee takes a white teenager under his wing and counsels him, as he did for Jack Geiger in real life. The film is called Lost Boundaries. (11 minutes)

By

Jack Geiger
Act Three

Unkindness Of Strangers

How two next-door neighbors start treating each other badly, and how, once they start, they become obsessed with each other. Paul Tough reports. (14 minutes)

By

Paul Tough

Song:

“Love to Annoy” by Julie Doiron
Act Four

Chairman Of The Block

An odd occurrence at 124 East Fourth Street in Manhattan's East Village. For the last five weeks, a singer named Nick Drakides has stood on the stoop singing Sinatra songs late at night to the delight of his neighbors. The cops don't bust them; the crowds behave. It's his gift to New York. Blake Eskin tells the story. (12 minutes)

By

Blake Eskin

Song:

“Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
818: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Dec. 15, 2023

Act Two: 150 Days of Bummer

Producer Diane Wu talks to an asylum seeker trying to hustle his way through bureaucratic limbo. (11 minutes)
5: Anger and Forgiveness
Dec. 15, 1995

Act Two

Performance artists Iris Moore and Larry Steeger provide monologues on forgiveness.
95: Monogamy
Mar. 6, 1998

Act Three: Istanbul

Ian Brown of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on the normal struggle most people experience when they try to stay monogamous.

Staff Recommendations

View all
218
Aug. 9, 2002

Act V

A group of inmates at a high-security prison stage a production of the last act of Hamlet.

241
July 11, 2003

20 Acts in 60 Minutes

All kinds of little stories that we ordinarily can't use on the radio show because they are just too short.

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