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811
September 29, 2023

The One Place I Can’t Go

Spots we’re avoiding in our private maps of the world.

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Ping Zhu

Prologue

Prologue

Guest host Bim Adewunmi talks to her cousin Kamyl about a funny thing Kamyl did when she was small, regarding a dog named Foxy. (4 minutes)

By Bim Adewunmi
Act One

I Coulda Grown Big in Japan

Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka moved suddenly from Japan to the U.S. when she was eight years old, and has long joked that it was because her grandmother kidnapped her from her dad. But she'd never talked to anyone in her family about what had actually happened. (31 minutes) 

Tickets for Atsuko’s comedy tour at atsukocomedy.com. Atsuko’s HBO Special is called “The Intruder.”

By Atsuko Okatsuka; Produced by Ira Glass, Miki Meek, and Diane Wu
Act Two

Killing Me Softly

Producer Emmanuel Dzotsi has a tale about something he avoids at all costs, even though it seems to follow him everywhere he goes. (8 minutes)

By Emmanuel Dzotsi
Act Three

Lost In Space

Writer Tamsyn Muir spent her childhood craving a world that she could not find on earth. So as an adult, she just created it. And it was perfect. Until she became the one person who couldn't go there. (12 minutes)

More about The Locked Tomb series at thelockedtomb.com.

By Lilly Sullivan

Song:

“Steering Clear” by Spider the Akronaut

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Act Four: When Businesses Act Like Humans

Then Chicago-radio-listener and writer Alex Blumberg (he's now one of our producers) tells the story of encountering a corporation on its first day.
195: War Stories
Sept. 28, 2001

Act Two: Letters To Home

One way to understand what war will be like is to understand what past wars were like.

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Dec. 13, 1996

Sissies

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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May 25, 2012

What Happened at Dos Erres

A Guatemalan immigrant living near Boston gets a phone call with some very strange news about his past.

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