Full episode
194: Before and After
Act Three

Notes From The Underground

In our search for events that might illuminate what we've seen in New York this week, we hear interviews with survivors of a terrorist attack that happened in a crowded city, during rush hour, just six years ago. On March 20, 1995, the Aum cult dropped plastic bags of poison gas on the Tokyo subway. Haruki Murakami interviewed dozens of survivors about what happened, and how they got on with their lives afterwards. The English edition of the book of interviews is called Underground: the Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, and he gave us permission to read portions of it here. (12 minutes)