161
June 2, 2000

Million Bubbles

Imagine that you could somehow look down from above, onto all the streets and avenues and country roads and highways of this nation...each car below its own tiny subculture on wheels...glass and steel worlds rolling down the street alongside each other. We hear what's going on inside some of these cars.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass explains the premise of the show, and we hear what's actually going on inside five of these cars. (7 minutes)
Act One

The Number 66 Bus

Linnel Peterson drives the Number 66 bus in Chicago, on Chicago Avenue. She grew up just blocks from the route, still lives near the route, and says it's strange whenever she drives her car on Chicago Avenue these days. She sees people waiting for the bus and momentarily heads over to pick them up. (5 minutes)

Song:

“Baby Are Yeng” by Nancy Jacobs & Her Sister
Act Three

Leased Volvo Sedan

Jay Allison and his 12-year-old daughter discuss what radio station to listen to. She wants music. He wants...public radio. She sighs in exasperation. And then—on public radio—comes a defense of everything she holds dear. Sort of. This story is one of Jay Allison's Life Stories series, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (9 minutes)

Act Four

Three More Bubbles

An '88 Grand Marquis that Senator Conrad Burns inherited from his mother; a New York taxicab whose driver, Jeff Perkins, tape-records his passengers to help pass the time; a 1980s-era BMW 5 series in which film producer Rob Levine had his first job as driver and assistant to movie producer Edgar Sherrick. (5 minutes)