Infidelity
4/19/20261 hr
Stories of cheating, cheaters, and the cheated.
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Prologue: Ira talks with Jessica Pressler about a phenomenon she noticed in the wedding notices in The New York Times. Couples were cheerfully telling—as part of their "meet cute" stories—how their relationships began with one of them cheating on a spouse or long-time partner. (4 minutes)Act One: From England, Ruby Wright has a story of an affair where—even years after it ended—it wasn't much discussed. (14 minutes)Act Two: Ira reviews some infidelity stats from his mothe...
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsIra Glass· Host0:00
To make our newest bonus episode of This American Life, Ira Glass went digging.
Speaker 10:05
Okay, we're in.
Ira Glass· Host0:06
Digging for an old recording in a storage space with 70 boxes of old tapes.
Speaker 10:11
[laughs] Oh, my God.
Ira Glass· Host0:13
And as luck would have it- I can't believe it.
Speaker 10:15
This is the one, two, three. This is the fourth box I'm opening, and literally right here, I think this is exactly what I was looking for. I can- To hear what he found, plus dozens of other exclusive bonus episodes, and most importantly, to help us keep making the show, subscribe at thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners. Okay, I really am stunned.
Ira Glass· Host0:36
That link is also in the show notes of this episode. Thanks.
Dani Shapiro· Soundbite0:40
First floor.
Speaker 10:42
It was a while ago, the spring of 2009, that a writer named Jessica Pressler noticed a small cultural shift going on in the wedding pages of The New York Times, a section that the paper calls The Vows section. The shift, it happened at a time when, I don't know, for whatever reason, there was a rush of news stories about famous and powerful people cheating on their partners. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford publicly confessed that his soulmate was a woman in Argentina who was not his wife. Nevada Senator John Ensign admitted paying $96,000 in cash to his former mistress and her husband. Reality TV stars, Jon and Kate had just split after reports that he'd had an affair. And so it was in the middle