13
February 7, 1996

Love

Explorations of the dream of true love and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass explores a self-help cassette tape that promises to bring the listener peace about being single. The only problem is that it achieves this by having you envision your perfect romantic partner. (13 minutes)

Act One

Yearning

Artist Julie Laffin talks about the inspiration for her "kissing projects." Jessica Yu's film Breathing Lessons is about Mark O'Brien, a man using an "iron lung." In this excerpt, Mark talks about the yearning he tries to quell through the use of sex surrogates. Poet Luis Rodriguez reads his poem "Waiting." Writer Dolores Wilbur tells a story of wanting love. (20 minutes)

Act Three

A Wedding

Ira describes a wedding held in the dingy basement room of the City of Chicago's Marriage Court. (10 minutes)