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284
March 11, 2005

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Stories about people teetering on the edge of this question: Should they stay or go? A software writer loses his job, but refuses to go away. He continues to show up at work, sneaking in the door each day and putting in long hours on a project the company canceled. A student from Pakistan finishes four years of college in Philadelphia and has to decide whether to move back home. And other stories.
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Jacob Enos

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks to Bobby Morris about his decision to quit baseball's minor leagues after nine years and pretty good stats all the way. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

The Karachi Kid

When Muhammad Kamran's Pakistani parents sent him off to college in Philadelphia, it was understood that he'd come back to Karachi after four years. But now that graduation is almost here, Muhammad thinks he might want to stay in America. On the other hand, he also misses his family terribly, and knows his parents will be heartbroken if he stays. He takes a trip home—his first since he left—knowing his family will do everything possible to convince him to return home permanently. He gets lectured by his relatives, goes to parties, gets introduced to marriageable women. Muhammad took a tape recorder with him to Karachi and recorded what happened. (22 minutes)

By

Muhammad Kamran
Act Two

Not Far From The Tree

Amy O'Leary tells the story of a software writer at Apple Computer whose job contract ends, but he refuses to go away. He continues to show up at work every day, sneaking in the front door, hiding out in empty offices, and putting in long hours on a project the company canceled. There were no meetings, no office politics, no managers interfering with his work. Soon, he had written a perfect piece of software. His final problem is figuring out how to secretly install it in Apple's new computers without anyone noticing. (12 minutes)

By

Amy O'Leary

Song:

“Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Picketts
Act Three

Because I'm The Mommy, That's Why

One day Virginia Holman's mother announced she was taking Virginia and her little sister to their cottage at the beach. At the time, Virginia didn't realize they were being kidnapped—that they'd be held for months, hostage to her mother's mental illness. Actress Catherine Keener reads this excerpt from Virginia Holman's memoir Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories from a Decade Gone Mad. (18 minutes)

By

Virginia Holman
Catherine Keener

Related

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688: The Out Crowd
Nov. 15, 2019

Act One: Goodbye, Stranger

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly O’Toole talks to U.S. asylum officers—the people who end up sending migrants back to Mexico.
467: Americans in China
June 22, 2012

Act Two: Beautiful Downtown Wasteland

There are so few farmers in the United States that in 1993, the census stopped counting the number of Americans who live on farms at the time.
256: Living Without (2004)
Jan. 9, 2004

Act Four: Tin Man

Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you're doing something of your own choice or because someone wants you to do it.

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429
Mar. 11, 2011

Will They Know Me Back Home?

Stories of people who've grown so accustomed to wartime that the lives they've left behind no longer make sense.

46
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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