853: Groundhog Day

This American Life

Society & Culture, News, Politics, Arts

4.6 • 88.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People stuck in a loop, trying to find their way out.

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Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks to B.A. Parker about her birthday tradition. (6 minutes)
Act One: Producer Aviva DeKornfeld speaks with a father and daughter who have been playing the same game for 25 years. (9 minutes)
Act Two: Talia Augustidis asks a single question over and over. (5 minutes)
Act Three: Editor David Kestenbaum speaks with Jeff Permar, who is trapped in a Groundhog Day situation — with an actual groundhog! (9 minutes)
Act Four: Parking in a big city can be a real pain. Producer Valerie Kipnis speaks with a man who has taken it upon himself to try to mitigate the weekly hassle. (14 minutes)
Act Five: Short fiction from Bess Kalb about a groundhog named Susan, who has her own opinions about the holiday named after her species. (7 minutes)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Ira here with a quick message.
0:03.8	The other day, two colleagues and I went into the studio
0:06.3	when we listened to the very first pilot episode
0:09.9	from This American Life.
0:11.2	This is a reel-to-reel tape.
0:13.5	Oh, my God.
0:14.1	I hadn't heard it actually since 1995.
0:16.8	We had no idea what to expect.
0:18.4	And it kind of blew our minds, just how weird it was.
0:22.6	There were found tapes.
0:24.5	I don't want to see you cut your toenails.
0:27.8	For God's sake, shut up, little man.
0:30.7	And performance art.
0:37.0	And just some very bizarre pacing.
0:39.6	But like how many minutes are we in to the story?
0:41.9	We're 16 and a quarter minutes.
0:43.5	That's unbelievable.
0:46.4	I was really surprised what this pilot was like.
0:49.3	Very avant-garde.
0:50.7	Okay, well, let's find out what's going to happen.
0:55.7	And I mention all this because if you sign up as a life partner,
0:58.9	you can hear this bonus episode and many, many more that we've made,
	...

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