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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

What Next - From a Texas Bus to the New York Subway

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past year, a growing number of women and children started appearing on New York City subway platforms and trains, selling candy. Their stories illuminate a country in turmoil a continent away—and an ongoing migrant crisis at home.


Guest: Jordan Salama, author of “The Candy Sellers: The lives and livelihoods of some of the city’s newest migrant children” for New York magazine.


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Transcript

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0:50.5

and go to Slate.com-slash-whatnext-plus. Again, that's Slate.com-slash-whatnext-plus. Alright,

0:57.2

on with a show.

1:04.8

Writer Jordan Salama got the idea for his latest story, the way lots of good reporters do,

1:10.2

by observing life around him. In this case, it was life underground,

1:14.5

in the New York City subway system. There were a lot of kids selling candy on the subway over the

1:19.2

last six to eight months or so, and it was something the people were noticing.

1:27.6

Something that started as a quiet trend that has grown to be much more obvious,

1:34.0

to city commuters at least. And the more you exist in the city, especially on certain lines

1:40.1

of the subway, the more you'll notice it day after day. And when you see a small girl or a small boy

1:47.8

who can't be more than eight years old walking alone through lurching subway cars,

1:53.2

it becomes to be something where they're like, well, what's going on here?

1:56.7

Which is saying something, because people are always hustling in the New York City subways.

2:01.9

Singers, dancers, people selling fruit, selling their own art. And now, in that mix,

...

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