339: Break-Up

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stories from the heart of heartbreak.

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Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks with Lauren Waterman, who's in the middle of a break-up right now and grappling with totally contradictory feelings. (5 minutes)
Act One: In the wake of a break-up, writer Starlee Kine finds so much comfort in break-up songs that she decides to try and write one herself—even though she has no musical ability whatsoever. For some help, she goes to a rather surprising expert on the subject: Phil Collins. (29 minutes)
Act Two: Eight-year-old Betsy Walter goes on a campaign to understand her parents' divorce — a campaign that takes her to school guidance counselors, children's book authors, and the mayor of New York City. (10 minutes)
Act Three: Ira talks with divorce mediator Barry Berkman about why it's bad when the justice system gets involved in a break-up. (8 minutes)
Act Four: What divorce looks like from the dog's point of view. (5 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American life.
0:04.2	It's so embarrassing. I don't want to get upset, but like, he's a car. So the last time I saw him
0:12.9	on purpose was just in the car in front of my house. And I don't know, it's just bad.
0:20.8	Bad, like when you walk out of your house you think
0:22.5	like there his car was yeah I still look for it it's crazy okay now we're about a block from your
0:32.3	house like on that in front of that building right there there. This like churchy-looking building.
0:39.4	It was where we were parked.
0:41.2	When we first had the conversation
0:42.5	where we decided we were going to be exclusive,
0:45.1	which was a joke.
0:46.1	Like, I don't really date around,
0:47.3	and I don't think he does either.
0:48.5	But, you know, it's kind of a big conversation.
0:51.9	But yeah, we were parked in the middle of that block,
0:53.8	right where that white car is.
0:56.0	And so every time you walk down the street, you'll think, like, oh, yeah, there's the spot?
1:00.0	I don't walk down the street.
1:02.0	I just don't.
1:04.0	I haven't even seen him for a month. You know what I mean?
1:08.0	When I walked around Lauren's neighborhood with her, it had been two months since her boyfriend
1:11.6	broke up with her.
1:12.6	They'd gone up for about ten months before that.
	...

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