Fun
Three Miles and Angel
Dear Ann,
Getting my hair cut the other day, I asked my longtime stylist, Astrid, if she listens to podcasts, and if so, to lay a good one on me because I had a Knit to This to write. Astrid is the only person who knows my true hair color (even I do not, it’s better than way), and she takes her mission (maintaining a plausible shade of “natural” “blonde”) very seriously. It is a sacred trust. So naturally, I will listen to any podcast that Astrid recommends.
First Astrid sent me to This American Life, a trove of stories that should last us all to the end of our born days. Looking for the one she recommended, I ran into a story called Three Miles. It’s about a pen pal and exchange program between two high schools in the Bronx, one public and the other private, that are separated by three miles. I thought it would be heartwarming. It’s not. It has a wrenching twist, right at the beginning, and you never quite recover. I understand why it’s high on the list of most-listened-to TAL episodes.
I couldn’t leave Knit to This in a place of despair. Come on, Astrid, give me some strength to carry on! I looked up her second recommendation, a 12-minute episode of The Moth. She went all dewy in the eyes when she told me about it, and it did not disappoint: Darryl “DMC” McDaniels’s story, Angel.
Love,
Kay
I’m a HUGE fan of Ira Glass’ This American Life and The Moth. Thanks for your recommendation and endorsement,
I don’t know the 3 miles story, but I heard angel years ago and it has stuck with me.
I look forward to hearing Angel – 3 Miles makes me weep just to think of.
“The Moth” is great and I listen to the radio show in WNYC … but not all of the stories on the radio show are podcast-able. I still remember a hysterical one about “Kennedy sighting” on the Cape; and a very sad one about a father loosing his daughter to illness, it had me weeping while folding laundry. One day I will get my guts up and try to pitch a story about being caught in a riot in India ….
“This American Life” is an institution … wrote the woman currently listening to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” (RIP Carl Kassel).
Not at all the same genre, BBCA (BBC-America) has a great MI6 Show – 2 woman star — it’s called Killing Eve, because of course a spy intrigue starring women had to kill one in the title, at least. How come none of the others say that when it’s men? Sandra Oh is MI6.
I’m really glad you recommended this. I’m a big This American Life fan, but I had studiously avoided listening to Three Miles, because I feared the sense of despairing futility I knew it would produce. I live here in NYC, and I am already familiar with the locations and the characters. But this morning I decided to woman up, and I listened to it. It was staggeringly good, a brilliant piece of reporting and editing, such an assured use of the medium. I don’t want to give out any spoilers. Just listen to it. Then I sought out her other pieces and listened to the one about sexual harassment, Five Women, a recent episode with a #MeToo tie-in. Chana Joffe-Walt is a treasure.
I listened to the DMC story and Sarah M’s “Angel”. WOW! Thanks for sharing. I am sharing “these gifts” with a friend who gave her daughter up for adoption. Her daughter just found her but is struggling with her unspoken feelings. Maybe you shared this for an unforeseen reason! As the storytell said “Everything happens for a reason!”
Three miles is not an encouraging episode – but it sure is thought provoking and memorable. I listened to it when it first came out, and can still remember it. The recent episode, Damned if you do. . . is also worth a listen. Both are relevant to my work, but worth all our attention (the part of Damned about the woman in the refugee camp is heartbreaking).
I am a long time fan of This American Life. Favorite episodes include “Act V”, “Fiasco”, and “Music Lessons”.
As a companion piece to “Three Miles”, you might like the portraits of students from the two schools published in the NYT magazine at the time the show was first aired: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/04/magazine/tale-of-two-schools.html
Yes, that TAL is so hard to listen to and gets right at so many issues in American society. I love the work Ira and his team do to bring us face to face with our true selves and help us see others with such clarity.