The episode I chose to listen to for this assignment was episode 340: The Devil In Me, originally aired September 7, 2007. The main topic of this discussion is best stated in the title. The discussion is made up of three acts each revolving around different people and different scenarios but all with some type of inner conscience or being inside them. The contents of the show consists of these different individual sharing not only their experiences with such an inner demon but their stories of trying to exorcize such a thing from themselves. The unsettling idea that an unwanted inner demon is looming inside these individuals makes for an intriguing and very controversial episode.
Prior to Act One the host prompts us with a little antidotal tale of troubles between him and his wife. He discusses his uncontrollable urge to cover up any mistake he makes with a lie no matter how big or small. He discusses that part of getting older is learning about this you do unknowingly that you're not necessarily proud of. Fighting little devils inside of us. This smoothly transitions us into the story of Iraqi War Veteran Sam Slaven. Sam is self admittedly hatefully racist toward all islamic people due to his experiences in the war. He talks about how his hate for Muslim people has gotten to an extent where even he feels its out of control, to a point where he can't control his intense emotions any longer. When he says hateful he really means it too, not just silly war jokes with his comrades but feelings of tension and anxiety that arise at the mere sight of a mosque or a turban. Feelings that become so overwhelming he begins to feel unwanted malicious emotions toward islamic people he comes across no matter what his run in with them may be. The remainder of the story discusses his meeting a young Iraqi man named Yusef and his road to healing these hateful feelings. He goes as far as to join a Muslim Students Association club, which while extremely uncomfortable for him ended up in an outcome of him being able to somewhat overcome his inner racist demon, he learned to enjoy Yusef's company and actually reach out to others in order to dispel muslim misconceptions, a massive transformation for Sam.
Act two was very brief and consisted of audio clips of different individuals explaining what their inner demons where that hassle them on a daily basis. This touches on the idea that sometimes your inner voice that is telling you to do the wrong thing actually sounds like a voice, a real entity that you must obey. This mainly talks to people about how these voices lead this people to go astray more often than not and how it seems impossible to defy them. The voices direct them to do anything and everything, from smoking, binging, purging, and popping acne to tardiness and even financial mistakes. The different individuals go as far as to describe the voice as "charming" and state that even when one tries to overcome it or counter it in anyway it always seems to win.
Act three was a short and more vivid recollection of a man run in with a potential demon in a college classroom. He discusses how the news of this medium being a guest in the classroom ahead of time made him so nervous he began a type of religious boot camp just to prepare for it. Come to find out that all his imaging of a battle with the devil, a demon like face off, it basically appeared to be a joke. He outwitted the so called "medium" with a scholarly question that truthfully only the demon could answer. In some terms he left the class room still felling like he had won, but in other terms he felt a sense of disbelief and foolery. This second guessing of the validity of such demons made him begin to question not only if demons were real, but then what about angels, and the Virgin birth. Such a religiously spoken man became worried and somewhat conflicted by his phony run in with the devil.
Although the second act was very brief, actually the shortest segment of the three I found it interestingly compelling. Out of the three this story seemed to me the most raw, dynamic and believable due to the approach taken to document these peoples stories. The central conflict was directly dealing with the idea of an inner demon controlling you. This is a very vivid and real concept to talk about so the reality of it made it that much more intriguing and effective. The characters were interesting because they were very well spoken yet very candid. The back to back to back accounts of their different experiences made for a collage type of feeling when piecing the story together. They were all very different demons but seemed to intertwine because they were all facing the same issue. The contrasting tonality in each of their voices made them engaging and interesting to listen to. Also the contrast of the audio quality added to the dynamism of the piece. The phone call like sound quality placed next to the crisp voice of the host made it seem like you were witnessing an interview or a live phone call of some type which gave it validity and ethos. I feel this act was the most engaging because it was fast paced, easy to relate to and had many different levels to it that acted to create a larger picture. Overall I found this entire episode of This American Life to be unique, not what I expected and very well executed.
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