From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life.
I'm Chana Jafi Walt sitting in for Ira Glass.
This all started with a phone call,
a call that eventually led to this episode.
So that's where I'm going to start.
I was talking to a journalist in Gaza on the phone.
Hello.
Hi, this is Ana.
Hi, how are you?
This was back in April.
I'd been speaking to people in Gaza for months by then,
but nobody where.
Meram was in the middle area.
Der Bala Meram Humaid.
She's a reporter for Al Jazeera.
English.
We were chatting.
I was asking some pretty basic questions
about what she was experiencing,
what she was seeing, what the day had been like.