Memo to the People of the Future

Host Ira Glass tells the story of a time capsule project designed to document our lives so that people a thousand years from now can know what we were like. Ira explains that when a friend of his got involved in the time capsule, Ira realized that he hates the people of the future. But lots of people don't. Lots of people worry about how they'll be remembered. This show is about that sad, sad lot. (4 minutes)

What if you're remembered in ways that you don't like? What if you're remembered for something someone else did? In this act, we consider the case of Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1965 she spent three days with reporter Jean Stafford, who wrote about Mrs. Oswald for McCall's magazine and later in a book called A Mother in History. This American Life producer Susan Burton tracked down the tapes of the interview to the University of Colorado in Boulder. According to the librarians in the Special Collections there, this is the first time the tapes have been played publicly—possibly the first time the tapes have ever been heard by anyone but Jean Stafford and Mrs. Oswald herself. On the tapes, Marguerite Oswald defends her parenting skills against the conclusions of the Warren Commission Report. (13 minutes)