851: Try a Little Tenderness

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the new year, stories of people trying a radical approach to solving their problems.

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Prologue: Ira meets two sisters who got into a fight, and then learned a lesson in turning the other cheek. (8 minutes)
Act One: A hardened PI works the toughest case of his very young life. (18 minutes)
Act Two: Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talks to a man who finds himself the target of vengeful crows. (8 minutes)
Act Three: Comedian Josh Johnson wonders if some people should’ve been spanked as kids. (10 minutes)
Act Four: Writer Etgar Keret reads his story about a bus driver who refuses to open the doors for late passengers. (9 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	May 6 years old in first grade.
0:04.4	She's the kind of forthright kid who, when we sit down for an interview,
0:07.5	for I can get to any of the things that I want to ask her.
0:10.1	She launches into a few get-to-know-you questions of her own.
0:13.4	Hi, May.
0:14.6	What's your favorite color?
0:16.5	We discuss favorite colors, and then she moves on to...
0:19.4	What's your middle name?
0:21.1	I'm glad you're asking me that.
0:23.0	My middle name is...
0:23.6	We move on to last names, and soon she's instructed me on the pronunciation of her last name.
0:28.2	Can you say Zmeu Jensky?
0:30.6	That's how you say it.
0:32.0	Smeil Jensky.
0:34.9	Z-M-U-D-C-Z-M-U-D-C-Z-Y-N-S-K-I.
0:39.3	The story I was there to talk to Ms. Mugensky about happened this fall, at the beginning of the school year.
0:44.3	In St. Louis, where she lives, it was hot out.
0:47.3	It's sort of a funny story, so my sister told me to wear long sleeves, I mean short sleeves because it was like summer.
0:56.7	Mm-hmm.
0:57.3	So, and I wanted to wear long sleeves.
1:00.4	And I just got mad.
1:03.2	Yeah.
	...

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