Welcome to Home of the Brave. I'm Scott Carrier. I don't know about you, but the thought of

Donald Trump actually being the President of the United States makes me feel like I'm crazy.

And I think a lot of other people are feeling the same way.

So today I'm going to play a story about mental illness,

mainly my own mental illness, a my own mental illness a long time ago in the 1990s when I was both

depressed and into demolition, which is a bad combination.

It's probably the most popular story I've ever done. It's called The Test, and this is how it aired on This American Life in 1996. Act 2, the test. I was hired to interview men and women in the state of Utah who receive Medicaid support for treatment of mental illnesses generally diagnosed as schizophrenia.

Scott Carrier has had an on-againoff-again career as a radio reporter.

He was hired for this interviewing job because the director of the research project heard some of

his radio stories and thought he was a good interviewer, somebody who knew how to listen.

They taught Scott to administer this test that measured mental health.

It was a hundred questions, each of which was scored on a scale of one to seven.

It took an hour to give the test.

Scott was paid $30 for each test he gave.

The people he gave the test too got $5.

I had little understanding of schizophrenia before I began,

and I have little more understanding now.

I took the job because I had no other.

I took the job because I just quit my steady job, my professional job, after realizing that what I wanted more than anything

was to put my boss on the floor and stand on his throat and watch him gag.

Then my wife moved out, took the kids and everything.

She said,

...