This American Life: Retraction – Mike Daisey’s Foxconn Labour Fabrications

In this week’s episode of This American Life (Episode 460: Retraction), Ira begins with telling the listeners that he has to say something that he’s never had to say before. My initial thoughts was that This American Life had money issues due to a lack of donations…but it ended up being something completely different.

Two months ago, there was a very touching episode about Mike Daisy’s journey in interviewing Foxconn employees about their labour issues. After that episode, I was really feeling bad about my Apple products because the stories he told were very depressing. Despite those stories being somewhat true, he did not first hand experience all those issues and he made up a lot of it.

This week, Ira grills Mike Daisy for his lies…it feels like an episode of WTF with Marc Maron.

The media is going crazy over this story and I do feel bad for Mike…although I do feel Ira’s pain of not fact checking the story, resulting in a public apology and a hurt reputation. Regardless of this incident, I don’t doubt This American Life’s credibility and I will continue being a devoted listener.

The Moth – Mike Birbiglia: There’s Something in my Bladder

In this week’s episode of the Moth, Mike Birbiglia talks about how he deals with his bladder cancer.

For such a dark topic, Mike does an excellent job in making it funny. His interaction with his doctor is priceless, including how he deals with a cystoscopy.

Continue reading “The Moth – Mike Birbiglia: There’s Something in my Bladder” »

Radiolab: How Isaac Newton Spent His Summer…

In Radiolab’s Escape! episode, Jad and Robert discover what Isaac Newton had done over the summer when he was 21 or 22. The story begins around the 27 min mark, or by finding the story “Is There an Edge to the Heavens?” from the episode page.

Edward Dolnick discusses Newton’s summer vacation, where he locks himself in his room with textbooks. On his own, he decides to master all the sciences and then plunge ahead of everyone.

How Jad responds is exactly my thoughts:

Jad: He just went into his room and came out with…what we’re about to talk about
Ed: He came out with how gravity works, how light works, how rainbows work, and how the how tides work, and then having…
Jad: In a *****ing summer he did all this?!

Oh boy, I’m a slacker

This American Life – Held Hostage by Narcolepsy with Cataplexy

In a rerun episode of This American Life, the tragic story of Matt Frerking is told once again. I’ve heard of cruel disorders before, but narcolepsy with cataplexy, is one of the most unique and tragic ones of all.

Matt Frerking has a rare disorder known as narcolepsy with cataplexy, where he is literally paralyzed when he gets strong emotions. The tragic part, is this includes happiness. Whenever he’s happy, he will get paralyzed, as he describes in a few sad stories.

There is no cure except for his solution of trying to enjoy life less. It wasn’t a disorder he’s had from birth. Matt developed it after he got married and undoubtedly, as he had expressed it, affected his marriage profoundly. His wife says that it’s difficult that she’s unable to share her life with him and their social and love life have suffered.

Luckily, their marriage is strong and they’ve stayed together despite these challenges…even if they can’t hold hands.

What would you do if you had this disorder? I would have to get away from everyone I cared about, which would probably mean I’d constantly be unhappy.

You can read more about this disorder on the cateplxy wiki page, which does mention other emotions like anger, fear, embarrassment, and laughter. This episode also reminded me about the Fainting Goats video, which seems to have similar symptoms.

This American Life – Wife Lessons: A Husband Deals with Asperger Syndrome

In episode 458 of This American Life, there is an interesting story of how Dave Finch deals with Asperger Syndrome in his marriage.

His wife Kristen, discovers that he really does have Asperger Syndrome. Symptoms of Asperger include: emotionally distant, inflexibility, and missing social cues. She jokes that whenever any wife hears about Aspergers the first time, she believes her husband has it.

When Dave finally takes an Asperger quiz, they realize that he does have Aspergers. In a courageous and encouraging effort to save his marriage, he decides to write down a “Journal of Best Practice”, so he knows how he can act with his wife. By taking notes about what bothers her and copying other people on how to act socially, he eventually saves his marriage. Ira does talk about how spouses often have a way they want their spouse to react when they say or do something…often even telling them directly. Sometimes a spouse just wants someone to listen, not give solutions.

Personally, it was great to hear about how a couple worked through this tough time, and really inspires me to not be a husband who will be emotionally distant, inflexible, and missing social cues.

You can also find the Asperger quiz that was mentioned in the program via this link (which is mentioned in the show notes).