This American Life: #542: Wait - Do You Have The Map?

December 16, 2014 2:10 PM

Stories about people feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead: two brothers take a doomed road trip through through Mexico and a couple from radically different backgrounds draw up a contract for their unlikely romance.
posted by ocherdraco (6 comments total)

The prison marriage story was nice: not too ambitious, touching without being manipulative, real. My favorite, favorite thing about TAL is that they consistently do pieces about prison, prisoners, and the incarceration system. No one as mainstream is talking so consistently about these invisible-ized people. On a broader level, I liked the exploration of what we seek in relationships as we age and our needs change.
posted by latkes at 8:43 PM on December 16, 2014 [4 favorites]

I was worried about where the prison marriage story was going to go, but it ended up sweet and realistic feeling, I liked it.

I loved the brother's road trip story -- my heart breaks for the producer who obviously still harbours so much guilt about events that he didn't handle well when he was NINE.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:59 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]

The last segment was just a horrible experience to listen to. Torture. I wish I hadn't heard it.
posted by bq at 8:32 AM on December 18, 2014

How come?
posted by latkes at 6:42 PM on December 18, 2014

I cried during the last segment.

Then I wanted to find their mother and shake her until her teeth fell out.

Which, sadly, she's probably already used to given how her husband treated her children. :|
posted by offalark at 11:43 PM on December 20, 2014

Because it was totally unrelenting misery. Asshole brother acts like a jerk to everyone then beats up his little brother - irredeemably breaking their relationship - story about child abuse - and now it's twenty years later and their relationship is still in the toilet. hooray!
posted by bq at 7:51 AM on December 27, 2014