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162
June 23, 2000

Moving

Stories of people who did not want to move but circumstance forced their hands, and so they tried to move without really moving.
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Randy Reichardt

Prologue

Ben Schrank describes what it's like to work as a professional mover. He says that people often go sort of nuts when they see all their worldly possessions—all the stuff that defines them as people—packed into a van. It's a humbling experience for people, and just one of the reasons people hate to move. The other reasons: It's hard starting in a new place; it's dreadful leaving an old place; and the process of moving itself is a hardship. So today...we have stories of people who were forced to move—but who did not want to and tried to thwart it. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Sleeping In Mommy And Daddy's Room

This is a story of people wanting to change and not wanting to change at all. A Minnesota family builds the same 1970s-era suburban house three times, and moves it once, just so they don't have to live in a house that's different than the house that contains all their memories. Susan Burton reports. (22 minutes)

By

Susan Burton

Song:

“You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To” by The Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Quintet
Act Two

Deal Of A Lifetime

Sarah Koenig tells the story of how her stepsister Rue bought a house and moved in—but the former owner did not move out. And won't move out, until he dies. (16 minutes)

By

Sarah Koenig

Song:

“Love Nest” by Hi Los
Act Three

To A De-luxe Apartment In The Sky

Producer Blue Chevigny used to have a job that was all about Moving Day—and people who didn't want to move. She worked for an agency in New York called Project Reachout, part of Goddard Riverside Community Center, that moved homeless, mentally ill people into their own homes. She tells the story of one of her favorite clients, George, and how it took him eight years to get off the streets and into his own place. Blue records his moving day. (12 minutes)

By

Blue Chevigny

Related

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69: Dream House
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A family dreams of life in rural Maine, moves there, and then things get really complicated.
319: And the Call Was Coming from the Basement
Oct. 27, 2006

Act Four: Graveyard Shift

One Halloween, David Sedaris decides to skip all the fake monsters and ghosts and zombies and visit the real thing: dead people, in a morgue. (14 minutes)David’s latest book is Happy-Go-Lucky.
173: Three Kinds of Deception
Dec. 15, 2000

Act One: Self-Deception

Producer Alex Blumberg tells the story of an ex-con-turned-actor named Richie Castellano.

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