A father recounts his experience with a child welfare check after a neighbor reported his loud baby's crying as potential child endangerment. Despite initial panic and the fear of escalation, the father handled the situation calmly by showing the officers his peaceful, well-cared-for baby, even while the officers demanded to see the child and inspect the living conditions. Ultimately, the officers acknowledged the difficulty of sleep training and left without further incident.
People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.
- Prologue: A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated. The strange thing is, it helps her. (9 minutes)
- Act One: Two college friends try to stop Donald Trump’s primary season momentum by convincing New Hampshire voters to vote against everything they care about. Producer Zoe Chace follows along. (22 minutes)
- Act Two: When producer Ike Sriskandarajah tries to sleep-train his baby, a neighbor decides to call the police. Later, Ike thinks, "I can work with that." (9 minutes)
- Act Three: A story by producer Boen Wang about how to get through a summer of bad days. (9 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org