802: Father's Day

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ira's own father, Barry Glass, co-hosts this special Father's Day show.

Prologue: Ira talks with his father and co-host for this show, Barry Glass, about his own early days working in radio. (3 minutes)
Act One: LA writer/performer Sandra Tsing Loh discovers that a local rock band has recorded a song about her own father, wildly misinterpreting who he is. They think he’s a free spirit; she believes he’s a worried, miserly grump. She invites the band and her father into the studio to discuss it. (10 minutes)
Act Two: Ian Brown explains the lengths a normal dad will go to give his daughter a memorable birthday party, including a birthday stunt so crass that he and his wife shocked all of their friends. (12 minutes)
Act Three: Audio artist Jay Allison and writer Dan Robb present an audio montage on the moment Robb’s parents divorced. (11 minutes)
Act Four: Chicago playwright Beau O’Reilly talks about how he reconciled with his estranged father years ago by becoming an alcoholic just like him. (14 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dad, now what we're going to do is we're going to go through this thing and they'll be stopping and starting.
0:04.0	Hello?
0:05.0	Yeah, I'm here.
0:06.0	Okay, hi.
0:07.0	Hi.
0:08.0	They'll be stopping and starting.
0:09.0	And, uh...
0:11.0	If, basically, if you feel like saying anything you want over the course of this, it'll be better if you just jump in and say it.
0:17.0	Okay?
0:18.0	For Father's Day this year, it seemed fun to rerun this episode from the earliest days of our radio show.
0:22.0	This is an episode that I co-hosted with my dad.
0:25.0	And this was made so long ago that my father in this recording...
0:29.0	He's the same age that I am right now in 2023, as I'm saying these words to you.
0:35.0	Okay, so Dad, so you have the script?
0:37.0	I have the script.
0:39.0	And have you been practicing?
0:41.0	Like crazy.
0:43.0	Can I hear just a little sample if you're reading something?
0:46.0	Sure.
0:47.0	From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life, the Father's Day edition.
0:52.0	Dad, you are such a pearl.
0:55.0	I haven't done this in 40 years.
	...

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