2024-12-23
1 小时 5 分钟The tiny thing that unravels your world. Prologue: Ira talks to Chris Benderev, whose high school years were completely upended by an impromptu thing his teacher said. (8 minutes) Act One: For Producer Lilly Sullivan, there’s one story about her parents that defines how she sees them, their family, and their history. She finds out it might be wrong. (27 minutes) Act Two: For years, Mike Comite has replayed in his head the moment when he and his bandmate blew their shot of making it as musicians. He sets out to uncover how it all went awry. (13 minutes) Act Three: Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war. A few weeks ago, one woman watched from afar as everything in her home country changed forever – again. (9 minutes)
A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version,
you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.
This is not a setting where Chris was used to learning anything important,
much less having his whole world rocked by something somebody said.
He was 15 in health class in San Juan Capistrano, California.
As Chris remembers it, it was the beginning of the period.
Class was just beginning to settle down.
The teacher was also the school's basketball coach.
You know, in my memory, he's sort of the standard issue,
I don't know, tallish, white guy,
coach with, like, neatly parted brown hair.
And, you know, the bell rings,
class is supposed to start, and we're all just,
you know, talking over him, not listening,
and he's trying to get class started.
And I think he's getting, understandably, a little annoyed.
And then at one point, one of the girls said loudly,
like, we're all gonna be friends forever.