This American Life 207: Special Ed
This program is composed of stories about people who were told that they're different. Some of them were comfortable with it. Some didn't understand it. And some understood, but didn't like it. Act one is a series of interviews with three of the people involved in making the documentary How’s Your News?, about a team of developmentally disabled people who travel across the country doing man-on-the-street interviews. The interviewer talks to two of the developmentally disabled reporters, Susan Harrington and Joe Simon, and to the film's non-disabled director, Arthur Bradford. Act two we hear from a mother and her son. By age seven, he'd had heart failure and been diagnosed as bipolar. And then—after a period as the world's youngest Stephen Hawking fan—he got better. In the third act a woman tells the story of her developmentally disabled brother Vincent, who one day quit his job and then quit everything else, mystifying everyone in his life.

Questions to Consider:

1. Can you find the three elements of deviance in any of these stories?
2. Explain the function of labels in these stories.
3. Are there examples of the medicalization of deviance in these stories? What are they?

356: The Prosecutor
A lawyer in the Justice Department gets the professional opportunity of a lifetime: to be the lead prosecutor in one of the first high-profile terrorist cases since 9/11. But things go badly for him. His convictions get overturned, he loses his job, and he ends up on trial himself, in federal court.

Questions to Consider:

1. How does an absolutist definition compare to a relativist definition of terrorism and how does that fit into this episode?
2. How do labels affect Rick Convertino’s perceptions of the terrorists and how does that play out in the story?
3. Explain the social reality of crime in this episode.

Digital Music Sampling: Creativity Or Criminality?
This program explores the practice of “sampling”—using a snippet of another person’s recording, often a drumbeat or hook, as an element in the creation of a new piece of music. Sampling is integral to hip hop and rap music, but many consider it a criminal activity. This segment considers how we define the activity: is it collaboration or theft?

Questions to Consider:

1. What is “fair use”?
2. If the practice of sampling is limited or banned outright, how might this impede creativity and the production of new music? If musicians and DJs are allowed to engage in sampling without getting the permission of artists or compensating the artists, how might this hamper creativity or the production of new music?
3. Note the different terms used in the segment: sampling, collaboration, control, artist, original artist, copyright owner, etc. How do the words we use influence how we define of the activity?
4. Analyze the social and legal issues surrounding sampling from a conflict perspective. How would a structural-functionalist analysis differ from this? Which perspective do you find more useful?

College and Partying (Think with Krys Boyd)
Sociologist Thomas Vander Ven talks with Krys Boyd about the reasons college students drink.

Questions to Consider:

1. Vander Ven says that most research on students and drinking has been of a particular type. What is that? How is his work different?
2. What does Vander Ven say about the relationship between drinking and identity?
3. What is a “drinking family”? What does a drinking family do for individual members?
4. What were the social consequences of abstinence observed by Vander?
5. What is “drunk support”? How is it “gendered”?
6. Are his findings consistent with what you have observed on campus? Elaborate on your answer.