Ira Glass
Appearances
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
That is such... It's real. It's very true. But, like, what a funny thing to say to a bunch of kids.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
But then the teacher kept going. He wasn't done. He got very specific and said, OK, you might stay in touch with a few friends from high school.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
That is a very thorough and vivid and not inaccurate picture of the future that it's amazing that he went into that much detail.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Lily Sullivan is a producer on our show. Special thanks to Lily's sisters. This song is one of their dad's favorites. He used to play it for them on the piano when they were growing up.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Coming up, a one badly tuned instrument on one song at one concert can change your life. That's a minute with Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
This is American Life. I'm Eric Glass. Today's program, if you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away. We have stories about small moments between people that suddenly change how everything looks. We've arrived at Act 2 of our program. Act 2, what's with these homies dissing my girl? In his early 20s, Mike Comete wanted to be a professional musician.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Because he's actually one of the producers on our show, Chris Bedderev. And he says he remembers the other kids in class kind of shrugging this off. Like, yeah, whatever. But he couldn't. Did you think it was true?
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
He was trying his absolute hardest to make that happen until one day it all came undone. Weirdly, right in front of Weezer, Mike tells what happened.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Before this moment, Chris hadn't bothered picturing what the future was going to be like very much. He had a vague sense that things were going to get better and better. But now, thanks to this random speech by this otherwise forgotten teacher, he realized the future he was facing... It's going to get...
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
In fact, his senior year approached. His graduation day approached. Chris says that this tiny two-minute speech by this teacher totally colored how he was seeing it. He loved his friends.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Mike Kamate. He is one of the super skilled people who work here at the show doing audio mixes and adding music to our stories. Diane Wu produced this story. Here is Mike playing guitar and singing with Julia, whose full name, by the way, is Julia Nunes. This is a song they used to cover together years ago.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
In this last act, we turn from small personal moments to big news that the whole world experiences, but that hits some people very, very personally. You probably saw the headlines in reports that a couple weeks ago, after his family ruled Syria for over 50 years, the president-slash-dictator Bashar al-Assad was run out of his own country very suddenly.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Assad ran a government that did not tolerate dissent. He used chemical weapons against his own citizens. He spent much of the last 13 years brutally crushing an uprising. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians were killed, tortured, disappeared. More than half the population was displaced in that conflict. Six million Syrians fled the country.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
So when a rebel coalition forced Assad out two weeks ago, Syrians all over the globe had their world turned upside down. And a few of us here at the show called around to see what that's been like for them. Diane Wu put together this story.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Chris actually tracked down the health teacher recently. And of course, he had no memory of making that speech. Though he said it was exactly the kind of thing that he might have said. And in fact, he did remember saying it at some point to his own kids.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
This teacher said that he would like to believe that he meant it in a kind of nice, cherish these special times sort of way, and he was horrified at the thought that this made Chris or any other kid feel bad for the rest of high school. But it just goes to show you how somebody can say something off the cuff that can accidentally turn somebody else's world completely upside down.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
We asked listeners if they ever experienced this, and hundreds responded. Some of the sentences that were said casually to them, that later, alone, they obsessed over, It's not your glasses that aren't even. It's your face. You must have been surrounded by some pretty insensitive people growing up. No, no, you're the only circumcised one in the family.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Diane Wu is a producer on our show. This story was co-produced by Hany Hawasli.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Our program was produced today by Lily Sullivan. The people who put together today's show include Fia Bennett, Dana Chivas, Sean Cole, Cassie Halle, Hana Jaffe-Wald, Henry Larson, Seth Lynn, Catherine Raimondo, Stone Nelson, Nadia Raymond, Anthony Roman, Ryan Rumery, Alyssa Shipp, Lily Sullivan, Christopher Sertala, and Matt Tierney. Our managing editor is Sara Abdurrahman.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
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.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Our senior editor is David Kestenbaum. Our executive editor is Emmanuel Barry. Special thanks today to Natalie Sullivan, Kim Sullivan, Sarah Kim, Steve Sopcich, Erin Marie Kamate, Dave Burns, Todd Johnson, Leanne Victorine, Darian Woods, and Yezen Abu Ismail.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
To become a This American Life partner, which gets you bonus content, ad-free listening, and hundreds of our favorite episodes of the show right in your podcast feed, go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Thanks as always to our program's co-founder, Mr. Troy Malatia. You know, he invented this new appetizer where you put a hot dog in a handful of straw. What's he call it?
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
I'm a hurt glass. Back next week, more stories of This American Life.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
And one last one said by a childhood acquaintance at a funeral. Jenny, little Jenny, you're the one that nobody liked. In Chris's case, the teacher's comment obviously stayed with him. How old are you now? I am 38. And how many friends from high school are you in touch with?
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
So the guy was right?
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
These days, Chris is married. One child.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Yeah. And in fact, now that you are married and have children, is your life tedious and narrow and boring?
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
What a day on my program. If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away. We have stories about the things that people say that unravel your world, turn it upside down, shake it like a snow globe. Pick your own metaphor for this. Some of these offhand things that people say are completely accurate. Others are the exact opposite.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
And it can be really hard sometimes to tell which is which. We have real life case examples, including somebody who thinks his life was completely upended after a single brief real life encounter with Weezer. From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
Okay, so hey, this is Ira talking now in the break. And I'm here in the break to give you this little talk that I feel a little ashamed of, but I'm also going to do, which is to remind any last-minute shoppers out there that you can give a This American Life Partners subscription as a holiday gift. Bye. Bye. Bye.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
So if you know somebody who might like that and you need a last-minute present, sign them up at thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes. It is also a gift to us here at our show, of course, because all these subscriptions help us keep making the show. Okay, that's all I have to say about that. Back to today's episode. This American Life, Act 1.
This American Life
850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
The world has turned and left me here. So let's kick off this show about people saying things that unravel your picture of the world with this from Lily Sullivan.
This American Life
849: The Narrator
So what happens when Lily's mom tells her this story is not true? Next week on the podcast or on your local public radio station.
This American Life
849: The Narrator
Hey there, it's Ira here, in the break. A little embarrassed to be saying these next words, but I'm going to say them nonetheless. You can give a This American Life Partner subscription to anyone you want as a holiday gift. What that means is that your loved one will receive bonus episodes. We've been doing a new bonus episode every other week. They'll get the program without ads.
This American Life
849: The Narrator
In other words, without somebody interrupting the way I am right now. And your support allows us to keep making the show possible. If there's somebody in your life that that would be right for, go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes. Okay, back to the show. Here's Hannah.