Kindness of Strangers

February 9, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The Format: Narrative radio anthology show with hosted storytelling, blending first-person accounts, interviews, and dramatic readings—classic This American Life style from the 1990s rerun.
The Key Players:
- Host: Ira Glass, master storyteller weaving themes of human connection.
- Contributors: Joel Cossman (locksmith), Jack Geiger (runaway teen), Starlee Kine (neighbor feud), Blake Eskin (Sinatra street show narrator); guests like Brett (subway observer) add quirky intros.
The Vibe: Warmly entertaining and reflective—heartwarming kindness mixed with humor, frustration, and irony, all set in "unkindest city" New York.

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1 (00:00) **Prologue: Judgment from Strangers**
2 (05:02) **Act One: Tarzan Finds a Mate**
3 (20:26) **Act Two: Runaway**
4 (34:02) **Act Three: The Unkindness of Strangers**
5 (47:55) **Act Four: Chairman of the Block**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

An episode from our show's early days: Stories about what happens when strangers are kind — and when they're not.

Prologue: Brett Leveridge was standing on the subway platform when a man walked by, stopping in front of each passenger to deliver a quiet verdict: "You're in. You're out. You can stay. You—gotta go." Most people ignored him. But Brett found himself hoping for the thumbs up. (5 minutes)
Act One: New York City locksmith Joel Kostman tells the story of an act of kindness he committed, hoping for a small reward. (13 minutes)
Act Two: In 1940, Jack Geiger, at the age of fourteen, left his middle-class Jewish home and knocked on the door of a Black actor named Canada Lee. He asked Lee if he could move in with him. Lee said yes. In Lee's Harlem apartment, Geiger spent a year among many of the great figures of the Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, Adam Clayton Powell. (11 minutes)
Act Three: How two next-door neighbors start treating each other badly, and how their feud becomes an all-consuming obsession. Paul Tough reports. (14 minutes)
Act Four: For five weeks, a singer named Nick Drakides stood on a stoop in the East Village, singing Sinatra songs late at night to the delight of his neighbors. The cops didn't bust him; the crowds behaved. It was his gift to New York. Blake Eskin tells the story. (12 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org