Give and take
This Is Uncomfortable
Marketplace
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much generosity is too much? Would you pay for your friend’s lunch every week? Or risk falling behind on bills to pay for a Christmas gift? And what does it take to ask strangers to be generous with you? We tend to think of generosity as a good thing, but it can also get… complicated. This week: three stories about giving and receiving generosity, and how it changes our relationships and ourselves.
This episode was reported by Reema Khrais, produced by Alice Wilder with support from Camila Kerwin, edited by Karen Duffin and engineered by Drew Jostad.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When my friend Yazid Ibrahim was 16 years old, he moved from the Middle East, from Jordan, |
| 0:08.6 | to city and central California. |
| 0:10.9 | The first few weeks of high school were nerve-wracking. |
| 0:13.7 | I remember my very first lunch with my very first American friends. |
| 0:21.0 | They were like, hey, you want to grab lunch together and I was really happy. |
| 0:26.6 | These are the first couple of friends I've made in the US. |
| 0:32.2 | They'd grab lunch at the school's cafeteria. |
| 0:34.4 | Yazid and his two new friends moved through the line and ordered their meals. |
| 0:38.4 | And then it was my turn and I ordered a burger and then I said, I will cover it for everyone. |
| 0:47.5 | I got you guys don't worry about it. |
| 0:50.1 | His two friends looked at him like, oh, amazing. |
| 0:53.6 | They were like, sure, wow, that's so nice of you. |
| 0:56.6 | I was a little bit surprised too that they didn't really push back at all. |
| 1:03.5 | Then the next day he and his high school friends are back in the lunch line and again they |
| 1:07.0 | ordered, he ordered. |
| 1:08.8 | And then I said, no worries guys, I got you. |
| 1:12.6 | Part of me was hoping for some push back. |
| 1:17.4 | This is the second day. |
| 1:19.9 | But instead they just were like, oh man, |
| 1:23.3 | thanks. |
| 1:24.3 | That's so nice of you. |
| 1:25.3 | You appreciate it. |
... |
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