There's a tourist monument called Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet. In this episode, we try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners, in four different states across the nation.
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Act One
History
Sarah Vowell has a theory that you can tell the entire history of the United States by standing on one street corner—specifically at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive in Chicago—and describing all the events that happened within eyeshot of the corner. She covers three centuries of history, from Louis Joliet to Keanu Reeves. (21 minutes)
Correction: In this story Sarah Vowell references The Jungle and mistakenly cites the author as Sinclair Lewis. The correct author is Upton Sinclair.Act Two
Act Three
Neighbors
Writer Mike Paterniti tells a story of dogs and a community of dogwalkers that formed on the grounds of an old cemetery at the corner of Vaughn and Clifford in Portland, Maine. (14 minutes)
Act Four
How To Become An American
Writer Achy Obejas reads a piece of short fiction from her book, We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? (11 minutes)
Chocolate Box Of Love Stories
We collaborated with Google on the Valentine's Day Google Doodle.
Related
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Act One: Code Red
The story from the prologue continues.
Act Four: A Girl's Guide To Mending The Unmendable
Susan Burton tells the story of how she used a clever scheme to get over a broken heart.
Act One
Two brothers set out with a friend to cross America on horseback.
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