Prologue
Ira Glass introduces Nancy Updike, one of This American Life's founding producers.
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Act One: Chief Lewis Adds It Up
The police chief in Muskegon conducts his own personal investigation into Officer Anderson’s interactions with Black people on the job. He doesn’t like what he discovers.
Prologue
Tobin Low tells Ira about Paul, who intended to have an anonymous, romantic rendezvous but instead wound up having to decide whether or not to clear up a big misunderstanding.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass looks into what’s going on behind the scenes of this year’s midterm election.
Act Five: Officer Anderson On the Job
An example of how this officer could be on the job.
Act Four: People Who Got the Short End of Anderson’s Deal
Duke Stalling, whose mother’s birthday party was pepper sprayed by Officer Anderson when he showed up on a noise complaint, reacts to the city’s deal with Anderson.
Act Two: Jews for Jesus, for Just One Day
Alex Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Boston. But one year, unexpectedly, his family decided to celebrate Christmas – for what he says are very Jewish reasons.
Coda
Ira and Ben consider how officers could be flagged for bad policing in a more systematic way, rather than the freak occurrence of a couple walking into an officer’s home and finding a KKK application up on his wall.
Act Two: Spring Awakening
Clay Elder grew up Mormon, with a fear of outsiders. That changed on a visit to New York City.
Act Two: Welcome to Illinois—Abortion Oasis
Our producer Zoe Chace goes to Fairview Heights, Illinois, where Planned Parenthood has opened a massive new abortion clinic just across the river from Missouri. Abortion is banned in Missouri and lots of the surrounding states now that Roe has been overturned.
Act Three: One Last Thing After I Go
Producer Aviva DeKornfeld tells the story of Bill Edgar, who accidentally ended up helping people have a say at a moment when most people don’t get to say anything at all.
Act Two: The Farce Awakens
After the murder of George Floyd, sales of books by Black authors skyrocketed. Now, there are efforts to ban many of the same books.
Roberta Drury
She was the first person and the youngest person killed. She’s described in a lot of stories as vibrant, funny, joyful. Damon Young was struck by another particular detail.
Act Three: We Did Start the Fire
Sometimes even when you live through something, it can be hard to see it for what it is. Reporter Katie Worth has a story about a 7th-grader in that position.
Act One: Exit Strategy
Amy Bloom tells the story of her husband, Brian, getting Alzheimer's and wanting assisted suicide. Her search to find a way to do that led her to Dignitas, in Switzerland.
Prologue
Ira summarizes part one of our story.
Act Three: Stations of the Double Cross
Michelle Navarro attended a Catholic youth group retreat when she was thirteen.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass reminds us that, before they change the country, all major Supreme Court cases start with just a person, in a place. (3 minutes)
Geraldine Chapman Talley
Writer Kiese Laymon wanted to talk through one fact in particular about Geraldine Chapman Talley’s life: her move from Alabama to Buffalo.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass zooms in on five surreal minutes of Hungary’s opposition campaign. (5 minutes)
Act Two: The Great Lie-Gration
Jahmal Williams stumbles on a clue about his grandmother’s history that answers a question he’s always had. (11 minutes) Video: The Williams family gets on the bus for their trip north in 1962. WJAR-TV Collection © Rhode Island Historical Society. Archival audio in the story: WPRI-TV Collection ©1962 WPRI-12, Nexstar Media Inc. Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society.More from Gabrielle Emanuel on the Reverse Freedom Rides: The Cruel Story Behind the Reverse Freedom Rides The Long Journey North
Prologue
Elna Baker tells Ira about two detectives who solved a murder remarkably quickly, especially considering that they were still in middle school.