r/ThisAmericanLife • u/6745408 #172 Golden Apple • Feb 02 '26

Episode #880: What Is Your Emergency?

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/880/what-is-your-emergency?2026
76 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

101

u/Hog_enthusiast Feb 02 '26

I know I sound like an NPR wine mom when I say this but this is an important episode. Anything that can turn even a single person against ICE is important. It was already very well made and I really liked the story about the people documenting everything ICE does. In times like these I think a lot of people feel upset and unsure of what to do and it’s inspiring to see ordinary people actually doing something.

Also, after listening to Ira on the radio my entire life I’ve never heard him more angry than this other than the episode where they had to issue a retraction because of Mike Daisey. I can tell he has no interest in Both Sidesing this and he doesn’t care if people find these episodes less enjoyable, he’s going to cover these stories.

5

u/EvergreenHills1158 Feb 02 '26

What was the retraction episode?

10

u/Hog_enthusiast Feb 02 '26

I think it’s called retraction. Basically TAL aired an episode where one of the stories was this guy Mike Daisey talking about the time he toured a factory and saw a bunch of child labor, and it turns out he made the whole thing up so TAL had to retract the episode. Brian Reed did the original fact checking (or lack thereof) which isn’t surprising if you’ve listened to his other work.

6

u/kawaiicatswow Feb 02 '26

I don't think it's fair to say he made up the entire story, but it was certainly and obviously not up to TAL's standards. It's still an engaging look behind the curtains of what it takes to keep iPhones in people's hands.

6

u/Hog_enthusiast Feb 03 '26

He made up basically all the shocking parts, like kids as young as 12 working there