This podcast dives into intriguing mind games where intentions often unravel. One story features Lori Gottlieb's tangled correspondence filled with white lies that leads to unexpected complications. Another tale follows Improv Everywhere as they orchestrate a ploy to boost a band's morale, only for both the band and the audience to misinterpret their heartfelt intentions. The chilling account of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping juxtaposes these lighter anecdotes, showcasing how normalcy can hide darker truths. Complex emotions and surprises abound!
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Unexpected No-Pants Subway Stunt
Several passengers board a subway car wearing no pants, creating a surreal scene.
A vendor then runs through the car selling pants, turning the stunt into a chaotic spectacle.
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Prologue: Host Ira Glass interviews Lori Gottlieb about the time she sent a letter to a writer in a magazine, a letter packed with white lies. (5 minutes)
Act One: Lori Gottlieb's story continues. One complication led to another, and before long, the writer seemed to be lying to her. Or maybe he wasn't. It was hard to tell. Years later, she still isn't sure what happened. (8 minutes)
Act Two: A group called Improv Everywhere decides that an unknown band, Ghosts of Pasha, playing their first ever tour in New York, ought to think they're a smash hit. So they study the band's music and then crowd the performance, pretending to be hard-core fans. Improv Everywhere just wants to make the band happy—to give them the best day of their lives. But the band doesn't see it that way. Nor does another subject of one of Improv Everywhere's "missions." (31 minutes)
Act Three: Scott Carrier and his family live in the same Salt Lake City neighborhood as Elizabeth Smart, the fourteen-year-old whose 2002 kidnapping made international news. Though Smart's picture was plastered everywhere throughout Salt Lake City and thousands of volunteers searched for her, her captors brazenly brought her back to the very neighborhood from which she'd been taken. They walked freely through the streets with her in broad daylight, yet no one recognized her. Scott talks with his neighbors and his son Milo—who had attended grade school with Smart—about what was going through their minds that prevented them from seeing what was right there in plain sight. (12 minutes)
This American Life