DiscoverThis American Life553: Stuck in the Middle
553: Stuck in the Middle

553: Stuck in the Middle

Update: 2024-09-2951
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Description

People caught in limbo, using ingenuity and guile to try to get themselves out.

  • Prologue: Rachel has two kids. Elias, age seven, is a vegetarian. Theo, age five, is not. But Elias wants Theo, and everyone else in the house, to be vegetarian too. So Rachel and her husband are in the middle of negotiating the desires of two very strong willed kids. (12 minutes)
  • Act One: Sara Corbett's father-in-law Dick is 81. And he's become obsessed with a limbo most of us hate – the music he hears whenever he's on hold. (14 minutes)
  • Act Two: Mark Oppenheimer reports on agunah in the Orthodox Jewish community. An agunah is a woman whose husband refuses to give her a divorce – in Hebrew it means "chained wife." If you're an Orthodox Jew, strictly following Jewish law, the only real way to get divorced is if your husband agrees to hand you a piece of paper called a get. Without the get, women who want out of their marriages can stay chained to their husbands for years. In New York, a couple of rabbis were recently accused of using violence to force men to give their wives a get. (17 minutes)
  • Act Three: Brett Martin documents a previously unnoticed human phenomenon, one that involves airplanes, crying, and Reese Witherspoon. (11 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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Comments (10)

New Jawn

If I were the owner of This American Life, I would fire Ira, Diane, David, Zoe, Miki, and the gang and bring in fresh, creative talent. The show is so stale and predictable, so many reruns, and after hearing Ira's voice for so many years, a total revamp is needed.

Oct 6th
Reply

Gabriella Arroyo

as soon i heard her hum it i realized I've heard that hold music lmaooo

Oct 9th
Reply

Open Your Eyes

is Joe Lieden even among the concious anymore? His babysitters wheel him out occasionally only after hours and hours of prep to answer carefully curated questions, and he still screws it all up. He can't go 3 minutes without lying about how secure the southern border is, about what his generals told him about his disasterous decision to pull out of Afghanistan in the way he ordered it, about how his astonishingly high proposed spending plan will actually cost nothing, or without threatening US Border Patrol agents. Save America from Lieden and his lying, demented ilk. Vote Republican in 2022 and again in 2024.

Sep 30th
Reply (3)

Drew Anderson

wow what a surprise, another bunch of reruns 🙄 some of these are well over a decade old

Sep 27th
Reply (3)
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553: Stuck in the Middle

553: Stuck in the Middle

This American Life