Due to technical difficulties, parts of this past weekend’s episode of This American Life (Episode 478: Red State Blue State) were replaced with an older episode. Here’s what you missed.
And here’s a summary of the show:
Prologue: Ira Glass rides around with a man in the man’s hometown…a man who doesn’t want us to say his name on the radio. Why? Because he’s secretly a Democrat, in a small town dominated by Republicans.
Act One: I Know You Are, But What Am I?
We surveyed hundreds of people around the country, from every part of the of political spectrum, about the ways in which politics are interfering with their friendships and families. Producer Lisa Pollak reports.
We collaborated with American Public Media’s Public Insight Network to find some of the interviewees for this story. Individual stories about how politics have affected personal relationships appear on their website.
Lisa also spoke with Phil Neisser and Jacob Hess, two political opposites and authors of You’re Not as Crazy as I Thought (But You’re Still Wrong), about their advice for how liberals and conservatives can have more productive conversations.
Act Two: Nothing in Moderation
A portrait of what it looks like when politics gets polarized, and how hard it is for people in the middle to hang on. Producer Sarah Koenig explains what happened when a wave of Republican politicians swept to power with a three-to-one majority in 2010. New Hampshire’s a small state, and the shift to a more divisive in-your-face kind of politics happened very quickly, so it’s possible to see exactly what’s gained and lost when that happens.