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August 26, 2016

Deep End of the Pool

What do you do when you're thrown into a situation you’re not prepared for? And while you’re flailing around—what happens to the people who depend on you? This week we present stories of people who find themselves in over their heads, including an attorney who knows little about criminal law assigned to defend a young man facing twenty years in prison.

Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks to Aaryn Zhou. When she was nine, her father threw her into the deep end of pool to teach her to swim. In this classic sink-or-swim scenario, she sank. (6 1/2 minutes)
Act Two

Mein Camp

Sometimes an entire government has to dive into the deep end of the pool and do something it’s never done before. One of our producers Karen Duffin has the story of the US government doing just that… in a high stakes sink or swim situation. Against a foe seeking global domination. Karen wrote a blog post elaborating on this story. (19 minutes)