I'm Eric Glass. On this American life, we tell real-life stories. Really good ones.

My mother said, I'm sorry you weren't here because Father Sager was here visiting, and he found a very nice orphanage for you.

And I said, but I'm not an orphan, ma.

Surprising stories every week, This American Life.

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Okay, so the other day, I'm avoiding life, doom scrolling.

I'm part of the problem.

Mindless.

And I don't know how, but the algorithm, the digital overlord, it knows me.

It sees me, plays me, makes two kinds of things pop up my phone.

The first, I, ads from companies selling stuff to men with oversized heads. How does this thing know? It's always the same pitch.

Is your head too damn big?

Well, we've got a hat that can fit even your watermelon-sized naga.

And no one else sees this ad on their phones.

You don't see it on yours, I've checked.

Now the other thing that pops up for me are videos of fathers doing their thing, catching babies as they fall from windows, snatching the toddler up from being run down by a runaway Camero, not spilling a single drop of beer in the burly, tattooed bearded man, wearing a tutu and tiara at the recital dancing with his little

daughter. I'm all choked up watching the same videos over and over on my phone. It's beautiful.

They're beautiful. And did you know that Mother's Day is the busiest restaurant day of the year?

And Father's Day barely registers in the top ten.

I'm sure that is as it should be.

This is not a competition.

In fact, we here at Snap, we have made Mother's Day episodes of this show, a few of them.

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