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 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 received Medicaid support for treatment of mental illnesses, generally diagnosed as schizophrenia.

Scott Carrier has had an on-again, off-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 100 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 a 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, I've thought about it and I really think it's the best thing for me at this

time in my life.

And so I took the job interviewing schizophrenics because it was offered to me and because it was all there seemed to be. And it seemed somehow predestined, a carmic response that could not be avoided.

It would only be temporary, something to get through the summer,

and I was told that they needed someone willing to drive around the state through the small towns,

...