875: I Hate Mysteries
This American Life
This American Life
4.6 • 88.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What’s in the box? What’s in the $%&ing box?!?
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- Prologue: A class of second graders is handed a sealed box with a mystery object inside. They are supposed to guess what it is, but the lesson goes off the rails. (8 minutes)
- Act One: A man is hired along with a crew to dig a mysterious hole on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. The hole goes sixty feet down. But what are they looking for? (24 minutes)
- Act Two: A sparkly mystery. One woman hopes the military-industrial complex is involved. (4 minutes)
- Act Three: What happens when the full force of the federal government arrives on your block? (14 minutes)
- Act Four: A comedian finds himself trapped in an uncomfortable mystery in the backseat of a cab. (4 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. |
| 0:05.3 | If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. |
| 0:11.6 | From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ike Sris Kandaraja, filling in for Ira Glass. |
| 0:18.5 | Calm bodies, calm voices, calm minds. |
| 0:22.4 | It's calm for now. |
| 0:23.8 | In the second grade classroom in Cold Spring, New York, |
| 0:27.7 | there are about a dozen kids sitting close around a rug, knees touching. |
| 0:32.4 | Let's listen to the sound of the bell. |
| 0:35.7 | These kids are getting ready for a very particular lesson. |
| 0:39.7 | It's one that I heard about for my co-worker, Nadia. |
| 0:42.8 | I asked my wife, who's a teacher, and she knew about it too. |
| 0:46.3 | And a friend of mine says he still remembers this lesson from when he was in third grade. |
| 0:52.3 | It stuck with him. |
| 0:54.0 | And I wanted to see this rite of passage play out for myself. from when he was in third grade. It stuck with him. |
| 0:57.8 | And I wanted to see this rite of passage play out for myself. |
| 1:03.0 | All right, so the game we're going to play today is called What's in the Box. |
| 1:04.7 | Have you played this game before? |
| 1:05.5 | Yes. |
| 1:08.1 | It's a guessing game that's kind of famous here. |
| 1:11.6 | Miss Maria, the director of the Manitou School, |
| 1:16.0 | holds up a white cardboard box about the size of a shoe box. |
| 1:18.4 | So I have put something in this box, |
... |
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