Stories of people putting themselves in charge in very unlikely, unpromising circumstances.
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Prologue
Host Ira Glass talks with Alex Meyer, high school sophomore in Seattle and host of the Alex Meyer Show, which he produces in his bedroom, on a castoff home stereo of his dad's. When it became clear that no radio station would ever give him a job, he simply took charge and created his own show to learn what he needed to learn. (5 minutes)
Act One
It's Not Just The Aces That Are Wild
David Sedaris tells a story about how, as a teenager, he was scared of certain people...until he made them scared of him, one fateful night. Sedaris is the author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and other books. (17 minutes)
Act Two
Playing Clinton In The Bush Leagues
Katy Vine reports on yet another promising young person, Tye Thomas, and how he went through the rise and fall of a full political career, in just one year, at the age of 21, in the Texas town of Gun Barrel City. (15 minutes)
Act Three
You Talkin' To Me?
Adam Davidson reports from Baghdad on the charismatic, ambitious young Americans who want to bring freedom and hope to Iraq, if only the Iraqis would listen to them. There is a ominous information gap between the U.S. officials running the country and the Iraqi people being governed. (18 minutes)
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Act Two: And If That Diamond Ring Don't Shine
Ian Brown explains the lengths a normal dad will go to give his daughter a memorable birthday party, including a birthday stunt so crass that he and his wife shocked all their friends.
Act Five: Cairo, Egypt
It's been a tumultuous week of protests and demonstrations in Egypt.
Act Three: Pickens County
Allen Wigington, former Chief Deputy at the Pickens County Sheriff's department, now magistrate judge, tells the story a soldier killed in Iraq—Specialist David Collins—arriving back home in Georgia to be buried.
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