Ira Glass
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Yes, a museum. One of the things that, you know, we've been talking about here on the staff, as you know, is it feels like there are so many things happening every day since President Trump took office, like federal agencies being gutted or, you know, a judge ordering the White House to turn some planes around and then...
Yes, a museum. One of the things that, you know, we've been talking about here on the staff, as you know, is it feels like there are so many things happening every day since President Trump took office, like federal agencies being gutted or, you know, a judge ordering the White House to turn some planes around and then...
seeming to ignore the court order or secret war planning being done on signal on people's phones and shared with a random reporter. Like there was so much happening so fast and you feel like, oh, did that really happen?
seeming to ignore the court order or secret war planning being done on signal on people's phones and shared with a random reporter. Like there was so much happening so fast and you feel like, oh, did that really happen?
And I don't know what our staff, we've been talking about how we just want to like grab a hold of these things and just put them in a place where we can look at them together, just preserve them like a museum, a museum of now.
And I don't know what our staff, we've been talking about how we just want to like grab a hold of these things and just put them in a place where we can look at them together, just preserve them like a museum, a museum of now.
Fine. Because today on our show, we have other historical artifacts of this exact moment we are living through. As you'll hear, the people in these stories, over and over, they seem sort of dumbfounded at what they're suddenly seeing and dealing with in America today. We were too. Stay with us.
Fine. Because today on our show, we have other historical artifacts of this exact moment we are living through. As you'll hear, the people in these stories, over and over, they seem sort of dumbfounded at what they're suddenly seeing and dealing with in America today. We were too. Stay with us.
It's It's American Life, today's show, The Museum of Now. And let's take a little stroll, shall we, through the museum? Watch out for the construction right there. There's some stuff. Yeah, we're just starting to build out our collection here. All right, let's begin with this exhibit, a multimedia exhibit.
It's It's American Life, today's show, The Museum of Now. And let's take a little stroll, shall we, through the museum? Watch out for the construction right there. There's some stuff. Yeah, we're just starting to build out our collection here. All right, let's begin with this exhibit, a multimedia exhibit.
This is actually the hold music that people all over the country are hearing when they try to reach the Social Security Administration. The agency sends out payments to some 70 million people every month. The agency says that it is getting way more calls than usual right now.
This is actually the hold music that people all over the country are hearing when they try to reach the Social Security Administration. The agency sends out payments to some 70 million people every month. The agency says that it is getting way more calls than usual right now.
Elon Musk and all the talk of rooting out fraud and kicking dead people off of the rolls seem to be freaking out millions of senior citizens. So more of them are calling. Audits, by the way, show that lots of dead people are not getting checks. That is not a thing. Wait times were long even before this. But right now, a fourth of the callers basically get a busy signal and have to try again.
Elon Musk and all the talk of rooting out fraud and kicking dead people off of the rolls seem to be freaking out millions of senior citizens. So more of them are calling. Audits, by the way, show that lots of dead people are not getting checks. That is not a thing. Wait times were long even before this. But right now, a fourth of the callers basically get a busy signal and have to try again.
If you call and you do get put on hold, there is a callback option. But one of our coworkers decided to stay on the line to see how long it would take.
If you call and you do get put on hold, there is a callback option. But one of our coworkers decided to stay on the line to see how long it would take.
Yeah, there's nowhere close to that. They finally picked up at one hour, 39 minutes.
Yeah, there's nowhere close to that. They finally picked up at one hour, 39 minutes.