The Secret of My Death
This American Life

The Secret of My Death

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 14, 20261 hr 7 min
  • Documentary

Cryptic messages on a cell phone and a teeter-totter at a construction site: these are clues people found, trying to make sense of a death. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. (00:00:00) Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks to a guy about a crazy experiment he devised when he was a kid. It almost killed him. (5 minutes) (00:06:45) Act One: We begin with a woman whose sister has died. She has questions. Her name is Nadia Bowers, and she wrote this to someone she thinks might be of help. (17 minutes) ...

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0:00

A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Graham grew up in a working class town north of England. And when he was 11 or 12, his family moved into one of the first houses in a new development

0:19

that was being built. It was kind of hitting the jackpot for him at that age, because all around, everywhere were homes under construction, which I remember this from construction sites in our neighborhood when I was a kid was so incredibly fun.

0:32

This became my new playground. This is Graham. So I would climb on the scaffolding, do a bit of amateur gymnastics, but also build stuff.

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