If you could to create your own music band, whom would you put in it?
Submitted by Jack Yan.
I'd have Watt on the bass and George Hurley on drums. Rhythm sections don't get any better than that.
This week's assignment:
Two foreigners try to make sense of life in the U.S. in the aftermath of two very different wars. A young Iraqi ends up in America after fleeing Iraq and goes on a road trip full of questions for Americans about the War. And a Bulgarian man in Rhode Island realizes that an ongoing argument with his American wife has to do with the life he left behind 20 years ago, on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Here's a clip from Act One, wherein Americans can "Talk to an Iraqi:"
The second season of This American Life began with episode one's theme, "Escape." Has there been a great escape you've made, be it as simple as going on a memorable vacation or a more elaborate prevention of harm?
This Week's Assignment:
This Week's Assignment:
Do you think real love can last throughout any distance, or will long distance end most relationships?
Submitted by Miss Joy.
There are no absolutes when it comes to matters of the heart, as what works for one couple could be a deal-breaker for the next. But when it comes to long distance relationships, I would say it helps if the relationship starts as a long distance situation.
That's how it was for me and Benitha; because talking was (mostly) all we could do, being so far apart, we got to know each other well fairly quickly (even though we would both say that this is a process that never really stops) and we kinda cut out all the usual relationship bullshit from the start.
It definitely makes a difference; if we had started off as a more 'conventional' couple, I don't know if either of us could have handled being 5,000 miles apart for most of the last four-and-a-half years.
But looking back over that time now, just a few days ahead of Benitha and I moving into our first place together, it really doesn't feel like the almost half-a-decade it has been. I think that's a good thing.
