4.2 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2021
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Most of us hate the photos our parents take of us. But what happens when one goes viral?
Zoë Roth was 4 years old when her dad took a photo of her smiling mischievously in front of a burning house. That photo would later spread like wildfire as the internet meme "Disaster Girl."
In this bonus episode of our meme series, we hear more about how the photo came to be, how it just might help Zoë pay off her student loans, and who really started that fire.
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0:00.0 | WBWR's last scene is back with surprising news stories about people, places, and things |
0:06.1 | that have gone missing, all told by tenacious public radio storytellers who refuse to |
0:11.4 | let mysteries go unsolved. |
0:13.7 | Don't miss season 3, out now. |
0:16.2 | Follow last scene wherever you listen to podcasts. |
0:21.4 | At WBWR Boston. |
0:36.7 | Or, hey, cool it on the avocado toast, will you skip the Starbucks, make your coffee at |
0:53.4 | home? |
0:54.4 | Oh man. |
0:55.4 | Yeah, the advice is kind of ridiculous, obviously. |
0:58.4 | Like, get in a freak accident and use the money from your legal settlement to pay off |
1:03.4 | Freddie Mac. |
1:04.5 | Or be born to very wealthy parents. |
1:07.2 | That always works. |
1:08.2 | Yeah, that's a good move. |
1:09.8 | Well, a woman named Zoe Roth is about to pay off her student loans at the age of 21. |
1:15.6 | Yeah, I'm thinking about moving to Hawaii or something for like a few months. |
1:19.5 | She graduated from a public in-state school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, |
1:24.2 | in the same town where she went to elementary and high school. |
1:27.6 | She shaved off a whole year of that sweet in-state tuition by graduating in three years instead |
1:32.5 | of four and she kept a job at a restaurant. |
1:35.6 | And she studied Chinese, so she has some actual marketable skills. |
... |
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