822: The Words to Say It

01/28/24 • 58 min

13 Listeners

This American Life

What it means to have words—and to lose them.

Prologue: Sometimes we don’t want to say what’s going on because putting it into words would make it real. At other times, words don’t seem to capture the weight of what we want to say. Susanna Fogel talks about her friend Margaret Riley, who died earlier this week. (6 minutes)
Act One: The story of a woman from Gaza City who ran out of words. Seventy-two days into the war, Youmna stopped talking. (27 minutes)
Act Two: For years there was a word that Val’s mother did not want to use. Val sets out to figure out why. (22 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

What it means to have words—and to lose them.

Prologue: Sometimes we don’t want to say what’s going on because putting it into words would make it real. At other times, words don’t seem to capture the weight of what we want to say. Susanna Fogel talks about her friend Margaret Riley, who died earlier this week. (6 minutes)
Act One: The story of a woman from Gaza City who ran out of words. Seventy-two days into the war, Youmna stopped talking. (27 minutes)
Act Two: For years there was a word that Val’s mother did not want to use. Val sets out to figure out why. (22 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

Previous Episode

821: Embrace the Suck

1 Recommendations

People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.

Prologue: A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated. The strange thing is, it helps her. (9 minutes)
Act One: Two college friends try to stop Donald Trump’s primary season momentum by convincing New Hampshire voters to vote against everything they care about. Producer Zoe Chace follows along. (22 minutes)
Act Two: When producer Ike Sriskandarajah tries to sleep-train his baby, a neighbor decides to call the police. Later, Ike thinks, "I can work with that." (9 minutes)
Act Three: A story by producer Boen Wang about how to get through a summer of bad days. (9 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

Next Episode

791: Math or Magic?

1 Recommendations

When it comes to finding love, there seems to be two schools of thought on the best way to go about it. One says, wait for that lightning-strike magic. The other says, make a calculation and choose the best option available. Who has it right?

Prologue: When guest host Tobin Low was looking for a husband, he got opposing advice from two of the most important people in his life, his mom and his best friend. (8 minutes)
Act One: Zarna Garg had a clear plan for how she was going to find a husband. Things did not go as she expected. (17 minutes)
Act Two: People who fall in love at first sight often describe it as a kind of magic. One of our producers, Aviva DeKornfeld, is skeptical of these sorts of claims. And also a little envious. (10 minutes)
Act Three: Calvin is an 11 year old who is learning what love is all about, the hard way. (7 minutes)
Act Four: Writer Marie Phillips believes that magic is not just reserved for the beginning of a relationship. In fact, she says the real magic can be found in the end, once you decide to finally leave. (8 minutes)
Coda: Tobin Low tells us which camp he falls in — math or magic. (2 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org