808: The Rest of the Story

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2023

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey had a popular show called “The Rest of the Story.” Today on our show, we do just that. We hear from people who, whether they want to or not, find themselves face-to-face with the rest of their stories.

Prologue: Legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey had one of the most popular radio shows of all time. For 35 years he served up big twists and jaw dropping reveals all with his one-of-a-kind delivery. (7 minutes)
Act One: Psychiatry used to be all talk. Then came a patient named Ray Osheroff. Producer Chris Benderev tells us what became of the man who changed therapy. (26 minutes)
Act Two: Contributor Samuel James thought he knew what happened to his mother. But he was wrong. Then he was wrong again. (9 minutes)
Act Three: A new resident in Berlin is greeted like a minor celebrity wherever she goes. The perks are nice, but does she really want to know why? Producer Bim Adewunmi has the rest of the story. (14 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeaped in today's episode of the show.
0:05.4	If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
0:11.9	For over 30 years, five days a week, there was this thing on the radio called The Rest
0:15.9	of the Story, just three and a half, four minutes long, around all over the country.
0:21.7	Paul Harvey was the announcer.
0:23.3	He did two other daily broadcasts, and if you ever heard them, you will never forget them.
0:27.8	The way he wrote, the way he sounded.
0:30.2	Hello, Americans, this is Paul Harvey.
0:32.8	Stand by for news.
0:35.0	My first job in Chicago, making stories from PR at my windows at the MPR Chicago Bureau
0:39.5	got over a section of East Wackard Drive that was called Paul Harvey Drive, which I loved.
0:45.8	Thinking that somewhere not far from where I was sitting, Paul Harvey had been up since
0:49.8	3.30 in the morning, pounding out his scripts on an electric typewriter.
0:54.5	That is height.
0:55.5	It was on over 1,200 radio stations, which by the way is more stations that MPR has, just
1:00.0	a massive audience, 24 million.
1:03.5	His daily show, Paul Harvey News and Comment, was the day's news delivered like brisk radio
1:08.4	poetry, with some folks of humor or some conservative opinion.
1:12.2	But to show the rest of the story is what I want to talk about today.
1:16.8	Typical episode just jumps into the action.
1:19.4	Now was the winter of Ted's discontent.
1:22.0	You can see the frustration, even the anger in his face, and in his gate, as he stalked
	...

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