The Sunday Read: 'This Tom Hanks Story Will Make You Feel Less Bad'

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A magazine writer for The Times reflects on her experience interviewing Tom Hanks last fall — and on the generosity he showed her in a difficult personal moment. In this time of collective stress, we wanted to bring the story to you in audio as a reminder that “contagion is real, but it doesn’t just work for viruses,” our writer said. “It works for kind words and generous thoughts, and acts of selflessness and honesty.” This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Taffy, Brutessor, Ackner, a feature writer here at the Times.
0:04.9	Michael Barbaro handed me his show today so that I could tell you a little bit about a profile
0:11.6	I wrote a few months ago about Tom Hanks.
0:14.5	Okay, I'll just go ahead.
0:18.8	I'm right here.
0:20.8	Thank you.
0:21.8	When I interviewed him, I was not myself.
0:25.8	I was really sad from missing my kids.
0:29.4	I was sick.
0:31.6	And though I tried to be a real professional in this interview, I fell apart a little bit
0:37.2	and Tom Hanks comforted me.
0:39.4	It's good to cry.
0:40.4	It's good to talk.
0:41.4	I don't know.
0:42.4	This is about me.
0:43.4	I know exactly what you're talking about.
0:48.5	And I realize now that we know that he and his wife, Frida Wilson, are in quarantine in
0:56.9	Australia with the coronavirus.
0:59.4	I'm thinking a lot about contagion, but I'm also thinking a lot about him and other things
1:04.9	that are contagious in our world, like kindness and consideration.
1:12.0	There's so much panic and worry out there.
1:14.8	I hope you listen to the story, which will be read to you by Samantha Des.
	...

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