A Couple Walk Into A House
Like all good mysteries, this real-life story starts simple enough.
Rob and Reyna Mathis walk into a house they want to buy. It happens to be owned by a police officer.
What they find inside will turn their city upside down.
The first part of this story told here in this episode of This American Life chronicles the first moments where the couple is confronted with a past that so many Americans are convinced has died and has zero effect on us anymore.
I don’t like mysteries with ghosts. But this one, in a way, has one in the form of a secret allegiance that haunts everyone involved.
I hope you will give this episode a listen for a couple of reasons.
1: This popular show hosted by Ira Glass is very good at taking a large issue or complex concept that has national implications for us all and making it small, captivating, and personal as a human story. As a country, we keep going in circles because we can’t seem to grasp that White Supremacy blasted a hole into us that got infected and is still killing us. Sometimes you have to make a big story small.
2: It shows in a realistic manner what Florida legislators (and others across the country) are so intent on convincing us isn’t real: The biased systemic and systematic working of institutions we rely on to enjoy free, prosperous lives. To understand this true, documented reality is not blasphemy, but the kind of cool-eyed realism these men claim they want to see the world with but ultimately don’t have the stomach to do so.
I hope you enjoy this recommendation while cooking, cleaning, or relaxing. The editing and sound quality of This American Life is superb.
I never thought we still be talking about racism. It's heartbreaking what has come to the world. I ended a friendship with a best friend earlier this week. I had met her through a friend's page. She had reached out to me wanting to be my friend. We would hang out every Monday night's, doing art/theater exercises. But, everytime I would call out a racist on social media she would be upset about it. She got heavily upset at me for calling out a racist. I ended the friendship. She's from India. The friend she met me through, my best friend Inga, lives in Australia. I'm born, raised, and living in New York City. Gentrification (racism) has ruined NYC big time. I never encountered racism in NYC during the pre-gentrified years (my childhood and teen years). When NYC became gentrified, the racism slowly flooded in, like a virus, like a spreading cancer. I was harassed by racist individuals within the art, film, theater, and production communities. I had alot of tearful nights, sometimes I still do.