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Michael Trotti History Department 412 Muller  (607)274-1591

Not Venture D

This is an exploration -- aural rather than visual -- into the experience of immigration and ethnicity in America. A Public Radio show, "This American Life," offers ranging content -- from politics to children's summer camps and everything in-between. It is often funny, and it is regularly eye-opening, showing a different side of American than we usually can see. Or, rather, hear. (should it be ear-opening??!)

1. Bring up This American Life webpage

2. Listen to one of these archived episodes. If you are in a lab, you can plug in ear phones. How do you navigate the "This American Life" site to get to these episodes?

1. Click on "On the Radio"
2. Enter the title (below) in the "Search" line, and search it.
3. On the right side will be a list of episodes; click on the one you want. It will give you a description.
4. Click on the speaker icon to hear it.

• "Welcome to America" (episode 124) -- taking the view of people coming to the country, and how they see things about America that we don't necessarily see.
• "Immigration" (episode 170) -- the whole hour is about recent changes in immigration law which unfairly jail immigrants. Even the INS opposes aspects of this law. [This search term brings up so many entries that it might be easier to look for the episode number -- it is in the year 2000 (on the left, you can search by year, scroll down to episode 170]
• "Barbara" (episode 142) -- tells the story of one African-American single mother in Chicago, breaking in the process some of our national stereotypes of people in her position.
• "Take a Negro Home Tonight" (episode 105) -- two stories of people crossing the color line -- one about interracial marriage, and the other about a black man trying to cope with life at an Ivy League University.
• "This American Wife," Act II of episode 353: The Audacity of Government. Investigates the practice of deporting spouses if American citizen spouse dies before naturalization.
• "The Role of a Lifetime" (episode 173, Act II -- about halfway through) -- a Manhattan attorney decides to become a busboy so as to gain access to the otherwise-white-only Greenwich Country Club.

3. After (or while) listening to an episode, think about the themes we have been discussing in class and make connections between them and the experiences rendered in this radio documentary.

4. Write a brief, informal response considering your thoughts and the program you listened to. This does not have to be a review and it does not have to be strictly analytical. But in a page or so, respond to this material, and make sure you touch upon specific moments of the episode and how it makes you think differently about a theme or themes that we discuss in class (or how it confirms your thoughts).

This website is occasionally maintained by Michael Trotti. (Last update: 22 April 2009).