This American Life: #554: Not It!

April 15, 2015 8:42 AM

Stories of people, cities, and commonwealths touching their noses and proclaiming "not it!" Including the story of how one city used a rocking chair to take retribution against a late night TV show host, and an island that takes people it doesn't want to deal with and ships them away.
posted by latkes (4 comments total)

A strong TAL featuring three stories I wouldn't have heard elsewhere, reasonably well-matched (some "themes" really are pretty tenuous, but this one held together OK), focused on important social issues without being overly “messagy”. I thought this was a good one.

The first story was great. I liked Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, a smart reporter I hope to hear more from. I didn’t know anything about this story before although it was like, “yeah, of course” after I heard it. More depressing than ever about how little meaningful drug treatment exists in this country anywhere.

I was pretty into learning about modern incineration. I had never heard of these supposedly high-efficiency incinerators – is there a dissenting environmental opinion, besides the “it makes people recycle less” angle that they featured? Zoe Chace is smart and funny. I can’t remember which other pieces she’s done, but I want to hear more.
posted by latkes at 8:48 AM on April 15, 2015

The "hey, wait, our town doesn't suck!" story was the best one for me. Reminds me of Gene Weingarten's article on Battle Mountain, Nevada.

It sure does seem like Kankakee's reputation is bad because well...there's less white people there and it's kinda sounding like Oakland, California.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:33 AM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yay! I get to hear the one and only Zoe Chace again!
posted by maudlin at 5:32 PM on April 15, 2015

I love her voice. So NYC.
posted by bq at 9:40 PM on April 15, 2015