Serial S01 - Ep. 1: The Alibi

[Music] this is a global tail link prepaid call [Music] from an inmate at a Maryland Correctional Facility it's from This American Life in wbe Chicago it's serial one story told week by week I'm Sarah [Music] kanig for the last year I've spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for an hour after

school one day in 1999 or if you want to get technical about it and apparently I do where a high school kid was for 21 minutes after school one day in 1999 this search sometimes feels undignified on my part I've had to ask about teenagers sex lives where how often with whom about notes they passed

in class about their drug habits their relationships with their parents and I am not a detective or a private investigator not even a crime reporter but yes every every day this year I've tried to figure out The Alibi of a 17-year-old boy before I get into why I've been doing this I just want to

point out something I'd never really thought about before I started working on this story and that is it's really hard to account for your time in a detailed way I mean how'd you get to work last Wednesday for instance Drive walk bike was it raining are you sure did you go to any stores that day if so

what did you buy who did you talk to the entire day name every person you talk to it's hard now imagine you have to account for a day that happened 6 weeks back cuz that's a situation in the story I'm working on in which a bunch of teenagers had to recall a day 6 weeks

earlier and it was 1999 so they had to do it without the benefit of texts or Facebook or Instagram just for a lark I asked some teenagers to try it do you remember what you did on that Friday no not not at all I can't remember anything Wait nothing no I can't remember anything that far back