17
March 21, 1996

Name Change / No Theme

Our first show as This American Life.
Act One

Pier Pressure

Navy Pier's renovation was presented as a success in last week's show, but recent press reveals that the pier is bleeding money. WBEZ personality Aaron Freeman and his kids take Ira on a tour of the pier, looking at it from a child's perspective. (11 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act Two

Fan Dance

Barbara Adams, a former member of the Whitewater trial jury, showed up for jury duty wearing a full-scale costume from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ira dissects a discussion on an Internet mailing list about fandom, inspired by Adams' celebrity. Also: Temple University professor Cindy Patton's childhood infatuation with G.I. Joe dolls concerned her mother, who wanted her daughter doing more traditionally "girly" things. As an adult, she decided she wanted her toys back. Her parents were reluctant to give them back to her. She discusses her struggle to recover her "childhood as a boy." (21 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Baby, Won't You Please Come Home” by Louis Prima and Keely Smith
Act Three

Fan, Not Fan

The first in a series of pieces in the coming months on This American Life: Non-journalists covering aspects of the Presidential campaign. First up: Chicago playwright David Isaacson presents a piece on Pat Buchanan. (13 minutes)

By

David Isaacson

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81: Guns
Oct. 24, 1997

Act Two: Fists And Guns

Geoffrey Canada, author of the book Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America, talks about what it's like to carry a gun. He also talks about what poor neighborhoods in New York were like before the proliferation of handguns among young people.  When he grew up in the South Bronx, kids had fistfights in a very formal arrangement with formal rules that everyone lived by.

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