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This American Life

318: With Great Power

This American Life

This American Life

Arts, Society & Culture, News

4.591.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

People who end up with far more power than they bargained for, and everything that comes with it.

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  • Prologue: Ira tells the story of two friends who had this incredible power to save someone. And with that great power came great responsibility. (4 minutes)
  • Act One: Alex Kotlowitz reports on a woman with the power to change two people's lives — and at the height of her power, she doesn't even know she has it. (25 minutes)
  • Act Two: Ira Glass talks with a mother and daughter who spent years watching their neighbor do things they found shocking and felt powerless to stop. Then, suddenly, they get the power to decisively change things permanently. And they have to decide if they will. (14 minutes)
  • Act Three: When you're powerless, you spend a lot of time thinking about the people above you — what they want, why they do what they do, whether they'll ever come through. Shalom Auslander has a story about that relationship. (11 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Years ago, back when the movie, Shinduars List came out, I was friends with these two missionaries.

0:05.6

They worked with Chicago gang kids who they would meet in prison and try to bring to God.

0:10.1

Anyway, one day I got a call from them and they just had seen Shindler's List and they wanted to talk about it because, you know, call your Jewish friend.

0:17.7

They seen Shindu's List. I was a Jewish friend.

0:20.6

Anyway, so we got together and what they said was, first of all, we think we understand

0:25.8

you better now, thanks to Shindler's List.

0:29.5

And I think what that was about was they knew about the Holocaust, of course, before this.

0:36.1

But it was more of it as a kind of historical fact. Like you read about

0:39.9

in a book, the reality of what happened in the Holocaust, I don't think ever had really hit

0:44.4

them. You know, the emotional reality of it. It just hadn't hit them in the gut, all those people

0:49.0

dying. So we got together and we talked about it. and they said the scene that touched the most was

0:56.2

at the end of the film and maybe you've seen Schindler's list.

0:59.6

It's a scene after the war and it's this rich guy, Schindler, who had been using his

1:04.2

money during the war to save Jews from dying in the concentration camps and he realizes

1:08.8

that now that the war is over he could have saved so many more people.

1:13.0

You know, he still had money.

1:14.0

He hadn't used.

1:14.5

He could have saved more people.

1:15.8

And there's a scene where he goes from person to person saying stuff like, I could have sold this pin, you know, and saved two more Jews.

1:22.8

It's gold.

1:23.8

Or this car.

1:25.6

This car.

...

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