288
May 6, 2005

Not What I Meant

Stories about how easy it is for communication to go awry, and what the consequences can be after it does.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks to film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader about an anonymous love letter that turned out to be very different than it seemed. (5 minutes)

Act One

Froggy Goes A-courtin'

The story of a series of misunderstandings with very dire consequences. Shaheen was stopped by the police, who looked at what was in his car and before Shaheen knew it, he'd come to the attention of some of the highest ranking officials in the Defense Department. Gabrielle Galanek talked to Shaheen and his girlfriend Molly about what happened. (35 minutes)
Act Three

Romance Languages

Ben Karlin talks about how a foreign language can come in handy when it comes to smoothing over potentially ugly misunderstandings. When he was a student in Italy, he signed up to coach basketball in hopes of making friends with some Italians. But when he gets to practice, he discovers the team wants something very different from him. And then there was the time he accidentally insulted his Italian girlfriend in a Christmas card. Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show and a co-author of the book America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. (11 minutes)