I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help

#266 - 4 June 2004

Today's show is devoted to just one story. Contributing editor Nancy Updike went to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.

Fake Science

#265 - 21 May 2004

Stories of people trying to drag science where it doesn't belong.

Special Treatment

#264 - 7 May 2004

We love it when we get it, but is it ever really fair? A defense of special treatment, by people who receive it and people who give it.

Desperate Measures

#263 - 16 April 2004

Stories of people stuck in unfixable situations who try desperate measures. Sometimes these are inventive, sometimes they're ingenious, sometimes they even work.

Miracle Cures

#262 - 2 April 2004

People looking for miracle cures, some from above, others from abroad. A son tries to help his mom in a faraway place defy the laws of medical science. A daughter tries to help her dad by going to a faraway place to defy the laws of the United States of America.

The Sanctity of Marriage

#261 - 26 March 2004

Stories trying to understand what actually happens in marriages during this time when the definition of marriage is up in the air. Music throughout the hour by a real wedding band, a good one: The Doug Lawrence Orchestra.

The Facts Don't Matter

#260 - 12 March 2004

There's what happened, and there's the story that gets told about what happened. Sometimes the two things don't match up very well. This week, two case examples—ripped, as they say, from today's headlines—of the story that's told becoming the truth, even though the facts don't back it up.

Promised Land

#259 - 20 February 2004

For millenia, people have tried to reach a spiritual promised land by fasting. Jesus did it. The Buddha did it. Monks and saints and new age gurus have done it. And now, on the radio, This American Life contributor David Rakoff tries it. He does a 20-day fast, to find out if it brings him any form of enlightenment.

Leaving the Fold

#258 - 30 January 2004

A popular, progressive politician becomes...a talk show host. One you've probably heard of. A group of nuns leave the Catholic Church...only to find themselves essentially, remaining nuns. These and other stories of people leaving the situation they're used to—and striking off for something less familiar.

What I Should've Said

#257 - 16 January 2004

People return to the scene of the crime where they should have spoken clearly, plainly, forcefully...to review what the hell went wrong, and in a few cases, to fix it. Jonathan Goldstein tries to stop time. Charles Monroe tries to figure out how to teach a lesson to the President of the United States.