David Kestenbaum
Appearances
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
That's cool. You know what you should do? Before this conversation with Gary, Miles showed me this one kind of amazing drawing he'd done. It's a scene from a particular movie. He's drawn what looks like a black police car in the air, flying backward over a second car. Miles would tell you the second car is a Ford Binto.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Miles hasn't seen the actual movie this is from, just this scene, over and over.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
This is the thing he had questions about. The famous car chase at the end of the Blues Brothers. The whole thing is actually 11 minutes long.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
If you haven't seen the movie, it's a ridiculous, massive smash-up of cars. Miles had questions about how it was all done. And Gary Powell, world expert on car chases, said he was happy to help. Hey, Miles, should we just play through it? And whenever you have a question, you just say stop.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Aviva de Kornfeld is a producer on our show. Daniel Sloss' specials, including the one you just heard about, are at danielsloss.com slash streaming. Watch it if you dare. Coming up, let's do this one Jeopardy style. The answer is combine No More Tears baby shampoo and Vaseline into a paste. The question? That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
It's This American Life. I'm David Kestenbaum in for Ira Glass. Our show today, You've Come to the Right Person, stories about people finding very specific guides through life's great mysteries. We've arrived at act two, Ask Quenetta. So this story is about someone with very specialized knowledge, giving advice in a very specific place.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I'll just note, if you're listening with kids, this story includes some adult topics. It's an essay by Quenetta Harris. And to introduce it, one of our co-workers here, Diane Wu, called her up.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
All right, here we are, the final car chase scene in the Blues Brothers.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I'll marry it for you. It starts with the Blues Brothers, sunglasses, black suits, driving an old, beat-up black cop car that they bought used. It's their single car being pursued on the highway by a long line of police cars.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
He's talking here about members of the Illinois Nazi Party who joined the car chase in an orange Ford Pinto.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Dan Aykroyd drives right through a highway barrier and down the embankment. They continue okay, but the cop car behind them crashes, followed by the one behind them and the next one, some upside down. It goes on quite a while.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Almost all of Miles' questions were like this, about safety. Some version of, are those people I'm seeing in the movie okay? Like in this one scene where the Blues Brothers and their car go plowing through a mall, and all these people have to jump out of the way at the very last second.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm David Kestenbaum, sitting in for Ira Glass. And I'm just going to let my first two guests today introduce themselves.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
We continue. Miles shouts pause a couple more times. Wants to ask if Dan Aykroyd had to take special driving lessons. Answer, probably yes. Another time to ask if that car that goes flying through the air and sticks into the side of a truck is real? Answer, yes. And then we're at the climax of the chase, the one that Miles had drawn a picture of.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
The Blues Brothers are now being chased by just the Nazis, who are pursuing them ridiculously in the orange Ford Pinto. Blues Brothers gun it up an on-ramp to a highway. But oh wait, the highway hasn't been built yet. It's just a ramp into the air. Blues Brothers hit reverse, somehow flipped backward over the Nazi car behind them. But the Nazi car keeps going, off the ramp and into the air.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
It flies through the air, impossibly and comically far, and then there's a shot of it falling straight down a really long way. You see the Chicago skyline in the background, and the car smashes into the ground.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Well, our program today was produced by Tobin Lowe and edited by Ira Glass. The people who put together today's show include Our managing editor is Our executive editor is
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Special thanks today to Susanna Fogel, Susan Burton, Emily Nonko at Empowerment Avenue, David P. O'Neill, Thomas Reed, Evan Ferrante, Derek Campana, Dashka Slater, Jessica Peters, and thanks to all the people who spoke to us about their breakups caused by a comedian. One other quick note.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
We checked the police report about that car accident that Miles told me about at the beginning of the show involving, he said, a Kia Soul. Sorry, Miles. Turns out it was not a Kia Soul. The police report listed as a Chevy. I don't know make and model. We're going to try to find out for you. Our website, thisamericanlife.org.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
If you become a This American Life partner, you'll get bonus content, ad-free listening, and more. In our newest bonus episode, Ira plays two stories that never aired on the show. Not because they're bad, but for more interesting reasons, which he explains. To hear it, go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange. Special thanks, as always, to our program's co-founder, Mr. Torrey Malatia. He's seen Elon Musk's Roman salute and Steve Bannon's. Just has one question.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I'm David Kestenbaum. Back next week with more stories of This American Life.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Gary explains that the interior shot of the two people in the car while it's falling, that was done separately, safely on the ground. Miles nods. Miles is actually the son of one of our co-workers here at the show, Alyssa. She has a theory about Miles' interest in the Blues Brothers chase and all those questions about, are the people safe?
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Which is that some of it has to do with the thing that happened last summer. A girl Miles knows was in a pretty serious car accident. Miles told Gary about it.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Hey, Gary. How often when you're shooting like a car chase does somebody get hurt in the making of it?
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Now that you know how this stuff is done, do you think it's better to know how they did the stunts or better not to know?
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
It's nice when you get to talk to the exact right person. You get answers to the questions that have been circling in your head. And sometimes, reassurances you didn't even realize you were asking for. Nice to meet you, Miles. Hope it makes things better for you.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Well, today we have stories of very idiosyncratic experts, all of them with super specialized knowledge, giving life advice. We have one story about a comedian whose jokes have a strange power to change people's lives. Another story about a woman in prison who uses the skills she learned outside prison to make diverse solutions to all kinds of impossible problems.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Miles is seven. Well, almost seven. And we arranged for him to talk to Gary because he had some urgent questions about car chases from movies.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
And another where the expert's expertise includes the fact that she successfully had an affair. In each of these, you really think, who else could have helped them? From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. Stay with us.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
It's This American Life, Act One, Ask Daniel. This one starts with someone who gets some advice, though, interestingly, when it begins, they're not looking for advice. Aviva de Kornfeld has this one.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I did. A little background. Miles loves cars. His mom says that before he could read, he could tell you make and model and sometimes year of any of their friends' cars. He draws cars, makes cars out of Legos. He brought one with him, actually. And he and Gary quickly got down to talking shop.