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I'm David Maher, host of Late Night Live on Radio National, where nothing's off-limits.

You know, part of being an adult is dealing with discomfort.

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Let me take you to 1950s, New York City.

The town is being terrorized by a so-called mad bomber who's setting off explosives up and down Manhattan.

He was setting the bombs off in subways, in a phone booth in the New York Public Library,

in department stores.

He placed one in the Empire State Building, which has never been found.

So in theory, it's still there somewhere.

Yikes.

Okay, good to know. But casting back to the 1950s, this mad bomber, he hasn't

killed anyone yet. But a bunch of people have been injured and many more are terrified

of going out in case they become a victim. You know, as it approached the holiday season,

the police realized that they had a very serious problem on their hands

because New York, of course, was flooded with people during the holiday season.

And so they were desperate to catch him before he killed anybody.

This is Michael Cannell, nonfiction author, journalist, and former editor of the New York Times.

I can tell you that I was not born, but my older brothers were born.

And my own mother said that she would not take my brothers outside at the height of this bombing campaign.

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