Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I feel like I've said it before on the pod,

but I'll say it again. Being a teenager sucks. You're anxious and angry and horny and scared and sad seemingly

all the time, and it's just a rough way to transition into being an adult.

And that's if you're lucky enough to deal with all of those things without also having to deal with gangs, drugs, and gun violence, which we know is the reality for lots of kids,

which is what we're going to hear about today.

Sudhir Venkatesh is a sociologist who spent decades studying and

embedding in Chicago's Southside. And he's written this book called The Tomorrow Game about these

rival teenagers who, you know, as teens tend to do, talk trash, get their pride dinged, then talk more

trash until it escalates into this very dangerous thing.

And Venkatesh talks to NPR Susan Davis about how, if we're ever going to solve this problem

of gun violence in America, we've got to get buy-in from these kids and actually listen to them.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors. On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant

events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or

wherever you get your podcasts. It could have just been a teenage spat, an after-school fight between

two boys, hurt feelings, ding pride, move on. But in their Chicago neighborhood where support

systems have been eroded by poverty and drug use and guns abound, their encounter is supercharged into an all-encompassing and life-threatening standoff.

This story is told in the Tomorrow Game, the new book from Sudhir Venkatesh, who's a professor of sociology and African-American Studies at Columbia University, and he joins me now. Welcome to the program.

Thank you for inviting me. So introduce us to the two young men at the center of the story,

Marshall and Frankie. Marshall and Frankie are two teenagers living in Chicago's south side, predominantly

African-American, low-income region of the city. Frankie starts to harass Marshall.

...