Stories for the stultifying, torpor-inducing, hottest heat of summer.
-
Download Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
- Transcript
Prologue
Host Ira Glass reports from Holstein Park Pool in Chicago. (3 minutes)
Act One
Just Three Thousand More Miles To The Beach
Like many summer stories, this one from Scott Carrier begins with a whim and ends with a whimper. He travels cross-country without air conditioning, during weather in which it's too hot to stay in the car and too hot to get out. (29 minutes)
Song:
“Summer in the City” by Barry Morrow
Act Two
It's Not The Heat, It's The Humility
Jonathan Goldstein heads into an environment that's so hot that they people there believe that sweating—simply sweating—is getting something accomplished. Life in the Division Street Russian Bath turns out to follow a different—and superior—set of rules to life elsewhere. Jonathan's the author of the novels Lenny Bruce is Dead and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!. (14 minutes)
Act Three
You Can Have Your Cave And Eat It Too
Sarah Vowell brings us the story of a national dispute involving Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, a sandwich, park rangers, scientists, and the United States Congress. (14 minutes)
Scott Carrier and Sarah Vowell's stories were produced with help from HearingVoices.com, with funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Scott Carrier and Sarah Vowell's stories were produced with help from HearingVoices.com, with funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Related
If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
Act One: My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult
The story of someone trying and trying to get close to The Real Thing, and why it was so difficult.
Act Two: Phone Home
Seth Freed Wessler reports on people going the opposite direction over the US/Mexico border.
Act Three: The Geography Of Childhood
In the early 1970s, a geographer named Roger Hart did a study of exactly where it is that children go during the daytime.
Staff Recommendations
Three Miles
What happens when of a group of public school students in the Bronx goes to visit an elite private school three miles away.
The Sanctity of Marriage
A generation of researchers has revolutionized the way we see marriage.