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540
November 21, 2014

A Front

Stories about people and places that are fronting in order to hide the truth. We visit a bizarre store in Milwaukee called Fearless Distributing, government checkpoints scattered on highways out west, and a front in a doctor's office.

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Robert Trudell

Prologue

Ira talks to reporters John Diedrich and Raquel Rutlidge, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They got a call from a landlord who said agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had trashed his place. (9 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

WTF, ATF?

After John and Raquel published their story, the U.S. Congress got involved. And they found some very surprising things happening in other parts of the country. (10 minutes)

Act Two

The Border Between America and America

If you haven't spent much time in the southwest, you may not know about this, but there are these border patrol checkpoints that are just in the middle of interstate highways and other roads... not at the border. They're as far as a hundred miles away. Reporter Debbie Nathan used to go through these checkpoints regularly when she lived in El Paso in the '80s and '90s. But not long ago, she discovered something that made her see the checkpoints in a whole new way.

Debbie Nathan did another version of this story which broadcast on Latino USA. (25 minutes)

Song:

“Putting On an Act” by The Sharp Ease
Act Three

Ellis Island

Ayelet Waldman says her dad is a bookish man ... a very smart man ... but no man is everything his kids want him to be. (9 minutes)

Song:

“Frontin'” by Pharrell Williams featuring Jay-Z

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Act Three: Health

Deborah Lott comes from a family that obsesses over health.
539: The Leap
Nov. 7, 2014

Act One: Busman’s Holiday

Radio Diaries’ Joe Richman continues William Cimillo’s story and talks to his two sons about what it was like to have lived through the drama that ensued after their father’s big journey.

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