This American Life

From left: Ira Glass, unidentified kid, Michael Jackson. August, 1972.

Ira writes:

I gave a six-minute talk at the Academy of Arts and Letters last week, when they gave me a medal. A section of the talk concerns the photo above, of me and Michael Jackson.. The Academy is supposedly made up of the 250 greatest writers, composers, artists and architects in the country. One has to die for another to join. It's been around since 1898. Its membership is a hilariously intimidating list of writers you read in school and iconic cultural figures you'd never think you could meet: Joan Didion, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, E.L. Doctorow, Paul Auster, Toni Morrison, Robert Coover, Elie Wiesel, Don DeLillo, Tom Wolfe, David McCullough, W.S. Merwin, Claus Oldenburg, I.M. Pei, Richard Serra, Chuck Close, Michael Graves, Red Grooms, Tony Kushner, Maya Lin, David Mamet. The medal I received — for Spoken Language — has these previous winners: Bill Clinton, Mario Cuomo, Paul Robeson, Claude Raines (you know, from Casablanca). Crazy, right? They award the thing on the stage of the vast clubhouse they have in New York, a building the size and general vibe of a museum. There's a room that looks like something from Hogwarts School where members meet, and I was told that each chair has little nameplates with the names of the members who'd been assigned that chair. One of the members said Mark Twain's chair is there. Anyway here's the video. Calvin Trillin, whose writing I’ve always loved, gives the award.

Broadcast May 18 to May 20

Broadcast May 18 to May 20

Sarah Koenig here. After our show "Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde" aired, we got some emails from people about the way I discussed Huntington's Disease in the story. Just to remind you: The story was about a beloved family doctor, Vince Gilmer, who brutally killed his own father. By the end of the story — spoiler coming now — we figure out that Vince has Huntington's Disease, a genetic disorder that can cause physical and psychological symptoms.

The emails pointed out that a listener could walk away from the story believing that Huntington’s Disease led to Vince Gilmer’s violent behavior — that it contributed to the murder. We did not intend to draw that connection. Because I can't say for certain how, or if, Huntington's was affecting Vince at the time.

Michelle Meyer, a fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, wrote to us: "Although the occasional incidents involving people with HD [Huntington’s Disease] who kill themselves or others make for splashy news and riveting human interest stories, the fact is that the vast majority of people with HD are not dangerous to themselves or others."

It’s a sensitive topic, listeners pointed out, because of the history of discrimination against people with the disease. Meyer continued:

"People with HD are instead much more likely to be the victims of violence. They were burned at the stake as witches in Salem and sent to the gas chambers during the Holocaust, for instance. Less dramatically, they are routinely turned away from public accommodations or arrested because their chorea is mistaken for drunkenness. Many who are at risk for HD choose not to be tested, not only because they don't want to know, but also, in many cases, because they fear the consequences of an HD diagnosis for their employment and insurance status … on top of the risk that others will respond to them with irrational fears and prejudices."

So to repeat: I did not mean to imply that Huntington's is what made Vince do this violent thing. Or to imply that he’s not responsible for what he did, because of Huntington's. I regret that I didn't make that clearer in the story. If we rebroadcast the story, we'll correct that.

Sarah Koenig here. After our show "Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde" aired, we got some emails about the way I discussed Huntington's Disease in the story. Just to remind you: The story was about a beloved family doctor, Vince Gilmer, who brutally killed his own father. By the end of the story — spoiler coming now — we figure out that Vince has Huntington's Disease, a genetic disorder that can cause physical and psychological symptoms.

The emails pointed out that a listener could walk away from the story believing that Huntington’s Disease led to Vince Gilmer’s violent behavior — that it contributed to the murder. We did not intend to draw that connection. Because I can't say for certain how, or if, Huntington's was affecting Vince at the time.

Michelle Meyer, a fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, wrote to us: "Although the occasional incidents involving people with HD [Huntington’s Disease] who kill themselves or others make for splashy news and riveting human interest stories, the fact is that the vast majority of people with HD are not dangerous to themselves or others."

It’s a sensitive topic, listeners pointed out, because of the history of discrimination against people with the disease. Meyer continued:

"People with HD are instead much more likely to be the victims of violence. They were burned at the stake as witches in Salem and sent to the gas chambers during the Holocaust, for instance. Less dramatically, they are routinely turned away from public accommodations or arrested because their chorea is mistaken for drunkenness. Many who are at risk for HD choose not to be tested, not only because they don't want to know, but also, in many cases, because they fear the consequences of an HD diagnosis for their employment and insurance status … on top of the risk that others will respond to them with irrational fears and prejudices."

So to repeat: I did not mean to imply that Huntington's is what made Vince do this violent thing. Or to imply that he’s not responsible for what he did, because of Huntington's. I regret that I didn't make that clearer in the story. If we rebroadcast the story, we'll correct that.

Ira here. I'm hosting an event in New York for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum this coming Wednesday, May 22nd. Tickets are pricey — they're raising money — but they have me interviewing some incredible people onstage. Eugenie Mukeshimana is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide; Thomas Buergenthal was in Auschwitz as a boy; with a remarkable lack of bitterness about the past, he went on to become a judge at the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague. Funds raised will support the Museum's Center for the Prevention of Genocide.

Broadcast May 11 to May 13