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This American Life

567: What’s Going On In There?

This American Life

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.688.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Often we see someone’s situation from the outside and think we know exactly what’s going on. This week, we get inside and find out just how much more interesting the reality of it is.

  • A mysterious tunnel is found in a forest in Toronto. Public speculation is all over the place and totally wrong. Nick Kohler tells Ira the story behind the tunnel. (10 minutes)
  • Act One: A teenager reports what it is like to be inside an abusive relationship with an older man. (29 minutes)
  • Act Two: Larry speaks English. His dad speaks Chinese. They grew up in the same house but Larry could never speak to his dad. After 20 years, with the help of filmmaker Bianca Giaever, he and his dad have their first conversation. (16 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

Transcript

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0:00.0

A little while back a tunnel was discovered in Toronto, a secret tunnel, basically a

0:05.5

conservation official was walking through a rooted ravine in the city and stumbled

0:09.4

upon this thing. It was described as sophisticated by police.

0:13.0

Tall enough to stand in 33 feet long, with support beams, a plywood ceiling and walls, water-resistant lighting,

0:20.0

a generator in some pump to pump out groundwater,

0:23.5

and at the end of the tunnel, two little rooms

0:25.5

were still under construction.

0:27.4

Intrigingly, nailed to a wall was a rosary

0:30.6

and a plastic red poppy. Canadians use the poppy to commemorate fallen soldiers and remembrance day up there.

0:36.0

Here in the States all this got a little bit of coverage, but in Canada it was big news.

0:40.0

No one knows who dug the 30 foot long tunnel near the site of this year's Pan American Games in Toronto.

0:46.5

A bizarre tunnel found near one of the venues for the upcoming Pan Am Games has sparked fears of an imminent terror attack.

0:52.0

Rarely has a dirt tunnel received so much attention.

0:54.9

No one knows why it was created.

0:56.7

Do you think someone told their kid to dig to China

0:59.0

and the kid actually tried?

1:00.8

It's not just a sophistication that police say is troubling, but the lack of suspects or a motive.

1:06.0

When something unexplained like this happens, of course people go nuts, speculating about what it could be.

1:11.0

That's actually what our program is about today. In this case the media pondered whether the tunnel would be

1:17.5

used to plant a bomb at the upcoming Pan-An games nearby. The Pan-M games

1:21.6

are like an Olympics for North and South and Central America.

1:25.0

Maybe somebody was going to build a meth lab in the tunnel or an operation to grow marijuana,

...

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