Modern Jackass - This American Life

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Stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little.

Prologue.

Host Ira Glass describes the thing that we all do at some point: talk expertly about something we don't actually know anything about. It's so common, explains This American Life contributing editor Nancy Updike, that some friends of hers invented an imaginary magazine devoted to such blathering. It's called "Modern Jackass." (4-1/2 minutes)

Act One. Small Thoughts in Big Brains.

This American Life producer Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong. Includes the tale of a girl who received a tissue box for Christmas, alledgedly painted by trained monkeys. (13 minutes)

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1090

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1. Haven't heard that one yet.

But it sounds good.

Those This American Life archives are a thing of beauty.

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2. I had forgotten Act 2, which is also a riot

Act Two. And Daddy Makes Three.

Six-year-old DJ has two dads, Dan Savage and Terry Miller. DJ is being raised by two gay men, but he has a preschooler's understanding of what gay means. Which is to say, he doesn't understand it at all. Though he does oppose gay marriage. Dan, the author of the syndicated column and book Savage Love, tells the story. His latest book is Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America. (11 minutes)