Act One: Let Them Eat Cake, Wedding Cake
The story from the prologue continues, with the groom who refused to be a groom, and the one person who'll probably remember the fake wedding, namely, the fake bride.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass explains that when you name names, when you whistleblow, when you tell on someone, you often do it anonymously. We hear from one anonymous squealer, who was done wrong by her doctor—he messed up a procedure and then refused to fix it.
Act Three: The Artist Formerly Known As Dr. Sarkin
What happens when you want your dad to change—and he wants to change, too—but there's literally nothing that can be done to change him. Jon Sarkin was a chiropractor with workaholic tendencies.
Prologue
Medical Examiner L.J. Dragovic, in Pontiac, Michigan, explains how every crime scene is like a novel.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass talks with people who've been hit by lightning. They describe what happened at the moment the bolt struck ... and how they came to view it later.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass talks with Robert Lipsyte, author of In the Country of Illness, who tells a story of how one lady in New York won the hospital staff over to her side with one conversation.
Act Two: Unto The Uttermost Part Of The Earth
The teenagers arrive in West Virginia and take a look around.
Prologue
When Brigid starting going blind, she tried to hire someone to drive her around. Only problem was, the guy she hired wanted to carry her groceries, hold her arm as she walked to the curb...he tried to help her in too many ways.
Prologue
The story of a White House scandal from the year 1881. President James Garfield lay dying of a gunshot wound during that summer.
Act Two: Stuck As A Teenager
A former addict and a former prisoner discuss the developmental retardation their experiences caused.
Prologue
Host Ira Glass with Walt Strommer, on Dreams of Disabled People.
Prologue
Julie throws up.
Act Two: The Forbidden Zone
Michael Lesy reads.
Prologue
Ira Glass's grandmother.
Act Three
Claudia Perez talks about how her 21-year-old brother was shot and the family thought he'd die.
Act Four: South African Chicken Blood
Michael Stumm on the uses of chickens in South African sangoma (witch doctor) culture.
Act Three: From The Audience Seats
Mark O'Brien is in an iron lung and comes out for short periods of time. What does he do with those precious moments free of the machinery that keeps him alive? He goes to the theater.
Prologue
Ira talks about the adage "Comedy equals tragedy plus time." Usually it's true, he says, though today's show is devoted to someone who decided to go on stage the same week she was experiencing some horrible things — and talk about those things.