Why We Revel In Others' 'Humiliation'
Interview with Wayne Koestenbaum about his book Humiliation and sociologist C.J. Pascoe, who has researched humiliation rituals among teenage boys.

Questions to Consider:

1. How is humiliation related to impression management?
2. Why was Koestebaum ashamed of his brother?
3. According to Pascoe, what are some of the ways humiliation has changed in recent years as result of technological innovations?
4. One caller spoke about the humiliation of being a registered sex offender. How would Erving Goffman explain why this humiliation differs from those described by other callers?

This American Life 121: Twentieth Century Man
One thing that makes our country different from most others is this idea that you can recreate yourself as someone you'd prefer to be: sell everything off, head out West, start a new life. But what happens if you're too good at it? Over the course of his life, Keith Aldrich was a child of the Depression in Oklahoma; a preacher-in-training in booming California; an aspiring Hollywood actor; in the 1950s, a self-styled Beat writer, and then a man in a gray flannel suit; in the 1960s, a member of the New York literati, and then a hippie; in the 1970s, a denizen of the suburbs with a partying life; and a born-again Christian when the Moral Majority helped put Ronald Reagan in office. The program is devoted to the story of Keith's life, as told by one of his nine children, Gillian Aldrich. Keith's life is not only a history of most of the major cultural shifts in the second half of the Twentieth Century. It's also a case study of the question, "What happens if you're too good at transforming yourself?"

Questions to Consider:

1. Detail the various presentations of self that Keith negotiates through his life.
2. Explain Keith’s life in dramaturgical terms. Describe his attempts at impression management in front and backstage regions.
3. Can you find examples of stigma and stigma management in this program?

This American Life 75: Kindness of Strangers
A significant portion of social life is influenced by the images we form of others and the images others form of us. This program presents stories of the kindness or unkindness of strangers, and where it leads. All of the stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.

Questions to Consider:

1. What do these stories tell us about how we form impressions of others?
2. Does Brett use any props to influence the decision the stranger will make about him?
3. How did image making play a part in the segments presented in this episode?