852: Pivot Point

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People living in that in-between moment before everything changes.

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Prologue: Kirk Johnson tells Ira about a strange choice he made during his family’s evacuation from the Sunset Fire in Los Angeles. (5 minutes)
Act One: Editor Nancy Updike tries to make sense of this current moment by talking to a master of dark comedy, Armando Ianucci. (19 minutes)
Act Two: As President Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office, producer Valerie Kipnis talks to Ukrainian soldiers on the front line who wonder about what his administration could mean for them. (14 minutes)
Act Three: Editor Susan Burton reflects on the ramp-up to an era that comes for so many of us. (9 minutes)
Act Four: In the wake of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, producer Miki Meek talks to a woman on a very particular mission. (6 minutes)

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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.
0:06.0	If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
0:12.5	When Kirk and his wife MJ evacuated their house in LA on the second day of the fires,
0:17.1	they could see the flames at the hill from their backyard, they packed their car full,
0:20.7	got their seven and eight-year-old kids inside with a family cat, hit the road.
0:25.7	And Kirk started recording.
0:28.5	Okay, now I know it's scary.
0:31.2	This happened when mommy or daddy was little.
0:36.1	He records his kids a lot and just had a feeling like this is an important moment.
0:41.5	Can you just turn on to like a song like by the Beatles?
0:44.2	Not rock band, okay?
0:46.1	Sure.
0:46.6	Like, not like we're the kings.
0:48.9	I don't really want to listen to rock.
0:50.7	Okay, but let me, can I just say something?
0:52.7	I don't really want to listen to rock music when our house is going to be
0:58.7	Kirk is Kirk Johnson he's been on our show before talking about his experiences in the
1:04.8	Iraq war among other things he thinks of himself as somebody you can usually handle a moment
1:09.6	of crisis but he admits he made mistakes in the car.
1:13.6	He didn't bring the family tortoise.
1:15.6	An animal he says his kids have ignored for over a year.
1:18.6	He lives in a giant crate outside the house.
	...

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