388: Rest Stop

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nine radio reporters. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. Stories of people who are just passing through, and the ones who can’t leave, because this is where their jobs are.

Act One: Host Ira Glass describes scenes from a rest stop on the New York State Thruway, the Plattekill Travel Plaza, and the kind of people you might meet if you ever stayed long enough to talk with them. These include Robert Woodhill, the general manager, who needs a good sales day so he can beat his friend Andy, who manages a rest stop in Maine, in their weekly competition. Ira hangs out with a group of foreign students who’ve landed in Plattekill on a summer work program, and reporter Lisa Pollak gets travel tips from Lenny Wheat, who works at the rest stop’s information booth. Reporter Jonathan Goldstein spends a few hours in the rest stop parking lot. (30 minutes)
Act Two: More stories of travelers and workers at a highway rest stop. The competition between Plattekill and Maine continues. Reporter Sean Cole observes the lunch rush at the rest stop’s busiest restaurant and stumbles into a behind-the-scenes romance. Reporter Gregory Warner watches a cashier at the Travel Mart deal with an angry customer. Reporters Nancy Updike and Jay Allison hang out for the graveyard shift – midnight to 8 a.m. – and find a surprising amount of romance at the rest stop. (26 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Some kids are to rest up parking lot in the middle of August waiting to get
0:04.2	back in the car. Logan William and Kiran a reporter approaches them. I couldn't
0:09.1	help but notice that there's three of you guys so the first question that
0:12.2	pops into my head is who's gonna have to ride in the middle. Unfortunately me.
0:17.2	And how come you're the guy who has to ride in the two? I'm basically I don't
0:23.6	know they fight when they're in the middle he doesn't even want to sit next to
0:26.7	them out. Stop that. He's pinching your cheek right now. Pressure pointing
0:31.1	actually. So do you feel like like you this is gonna be this is always gonna be
0:35.9	your job as you guys get older you're always gonna be the the brother sitting in
0:39.3	the middle brokering the piece. Yeah and basically I'm the mediator. How do you
0:45.2	mean? I'm not sure what you're talking about. How do you mean you're the
0:50.2	mediator? I'm actually not sure what mediator mean I just felt like saying it
0:55.7	I think I think it means a guy who keeps peace. I keep them from killing each
1:01.6	other. He can use a guy like you in the Middle East maybe. One of the little
1:05.5	brothers signals for the microphone. Get it Middle East because he's in the
1:10.1	middle and he's in and he's out East. Get it Middle East.
1:23.9	There's nothing particularly notable about this rest stop. It's one of
1:27.1	thousands all over the country. It's kind of a place where you'd stop for 10
1:29.8	minutes on a holiday weekend. Run inside, use the restroom, buy a burger or a
1:33.5	coffee, head back out on the road. But if you stayed for more than 10 minutes
1:37.3	you may end up talking to one of these kids or to one of the couples who are
1:40.8	dropping off children at college like this reporter did. Last kid off the school
	...

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