Ira Glass

Well, Alison Gopnik studies how children think.

And she says, of course, it's logical for a seven-year-old to conclude that her own dad might be the tooth fairy.

There's a certain kind of story that kids tell, like the Ronnie Oberfeld story, where they look at something going on around them, observe it carefully, think about it logically, how one thing connects to the next thing to the next, and then come to conclusions that are completely incorrect.

Therapist Aileen Goldman in Texas tells this story about a little girl on an airplane.

These stories are like jokes, and they're also like poems.

I think because there's this aha quality to them.

Some connection is made between things.

A surprising connection.

A wrong connection, actually.

Well, we at This American Life love these stories.

And so today we bring you a full hour of them.

From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life.

I'm Ira Glass.

Today on our program, Kid Logic, our show in four acts.

Act one, baby scientists with faulty data.

Act two, werewolves and their youth.

That story from Michael Chabon.

Act three, the gay man over to the fatso man sings.

Act four, when small thoughts meet big brains.

Today's program is a rerun, a good one.