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What Does It Mean to Change Your Name?

Stories of people changing their name, an excerpt from This American Life by Ira Glass, produced at WBEZ. Glass tells the story of his grandmother: when she was in her 30's, she was very ill and everyone thought she was going to die. So they changed her name. It was an old Jewish custom, to confuse the Angel of Death. And Margy Rochlin on the place you go to in Los Angeles if you want to change your name. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to change

08:52
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Other segments from the episode on March 17, 1997

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, March 17, 1997: Interview with Kate Bornstein; Commentary on name changes; Review of the television shows "Daria," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Spy Game."
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36:45

Performance Artist and Author Kate Bornstein on Rejecting the Gender Binary

In her books and plays Bornstein, a transgender activist, argues the need for the acceptance of nontraditional gender roles, meaning those not defined as either male of female. In her book "Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us," she writes about her sex-change experience and her view of society's conceptions of gender. She has also written the novel (with co-author Caitlin Sullivan) "Nearly Roadkill."

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A Journalist on His Child Acting Career That Never Was

We feature a special radio documentary about one guy's infatuation with what might have been. As a child, Dan Gediman was chosen to be one of the "Zoom" kids on the 1970s public television show "Zoom." But the deal fell through. As an adult Gediman went to find and interview the kids who were on the show to see what he missed. This segment can also be heard on the next edition of the Public Radio International program This American Life, from WBEZ.

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How Jared Kushner is mixing U.S. diplomacy with his billion-dollar business

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