It wasn't much fun. And they say, "You know, actually we reconsidered and you got first place." And OK, one last part here and I'll swear I'll stop. She also occasionally works on stories for the radio show. located in the basement by the Swarovski store. And there's really, really, really terrible things happening to me and my family. Lina came to This American Life after making The Last Days of August and The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson. Miki Meek interned and freelanced for the show before joining the staff in December 2012. And the older brother went on about how my team was going to slaughter his brother's, which was kind of him. I thought of putting tissue in my ear so they can't bother me as much. A week or two after this story first aired on our show a year ago, the landlord of 349 Saint John's Place hired a new exterminator who now treats the building regularly. A few years ago to save it from the bed bugs, Stephanie's husband replaced the foam and reupholstered it himself. A few years ago Stephanie decided to do an experiment to see how long the bed bugs could live without food, without feeding on her family. And so I knew exactly what it was when I felt it. I was afraid of my father having a heart attack because his father had died of a heart attack when he was a kid and had been buried in the cemetery across the street from his house. And the moment my brother opened the door, the questions and shouting and occasional furniture-toppling fistfight would erupt. It lasted for, I don't know, maybe 30 seconds to a minute. Denise. My parents-- you know, my dad's a doctor. Stowe joined This American Life in 2018. But says we might find a stray in the couch she's sitting on. And they're like, oh no. Listen to what happened to this woman. Oh. No. Everyone sleeps alone. I couldn't turn my head. I couldn't move my arms or my legs. No little tiny one. Stephanie says her apartment has been bug free since. She handles film and television adaptations, and rights, for the show. Sona is a CFA charterholder and received a B.A. He is also co-creator of the improvised science fiction podcast Mission to Zyxx. I was afraid of the Pawnic twins, with their fantastic breasts and the way they sat on the jungle gym smoking their parents' cigarettes. And I actually paid for the window like any good window jumper would. And it was like every day was this relief. And I was staying at a hotel called on La Quinta Inn. I mean to everyone else and throughout your growing up, I mean you were to all outward appearances a really joyful, happy child, really loving. See a doctor. They bought their own pesticides. This began when I was six. It was a big one. And it was sort of a story about war and something very chaotic. What happened to me? [MUSIC - "TO GET TO SLEEP" BY BRITISH SEA POWER]. You're a trapped animal who's like sweating and waiting for its head to be chopped off. Well, that is probably about as good an introduction as you could get for this first story from Mike Birbiglia. Yeah. And I land on the floor, hard, on top of our Tivo. Because that seems more convenient. from the University of Chicago, where she also ran cross country and track. We are not done with the critters that make people scared to climb inside their own beds. I didn't like it. And a website with all kinds of stories like the one you just heard. Susan Burton came to This American Life as a producer in 1999 and rejoined the show in 2016. And thinking these people were crazy. Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape. I need to hold this. Do you remember me watching that with you? But I did purchase a book by a doctor named Dr. Dement, which is not the most calming name for a sleep doctor. As her accent suggests, she is British. Lina also makes Oh, Hello: The P'dcast with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. He also, questionably, won a James Beard Award for this story. And I would have these recurring dreams that there was a hovering insect-like jackal in our bedroom. This is where like to-- but it's on this side. I'm the Hulk. But then as the day went on, I would start to feel this dread because I knew I was going to have to go to sleep. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Tivo pieces. I started thinking of home, wondering if my parents were awake and if my brother was still out. Then rode with my father to the parking lot outside Perkins Pancake House, where I boarded our bus and sat as far away from Pops as possible. There's a poem by Raymond Carver that goes, "I woke up with a spot of blood over my eye. She said, "There's not a jackal in the room. The mother wants to save you, but can't. He also mixed and sound designed the third season of Serial. And I was afraid that when my father died of his heart attack, it would be on a night when my older brother didn't come home until very late, which was happening more and more. It's this and similar questions I'm trying to answer this morning, as I study my face in the window.". A warning before we start this story to sensitive listeners that this story acknowledges the existence of sex and sexual feelings. Before that, she covered education at NBC News and was a photo editor at National Geographic. He just kind of jumps through stuff. But I would get this sort of dread as the day went on. Like Miss M, she asked that we not give her real name. I zinged him. And one had got in my boyfriend's ear. The mice in Miss M's apartment have abated temporarily this week for some reason, which has left the gluey mouse traps free for armies of roaches to get stuck on. The first and maybe the biggest came at the end of our PeeWee football season in the fall of 1977. It was hard. It's neat. And there's no way you can win. Nadia Reiman has been making radio since 2005, when she started covering Capitol Hill with a minidisc recorder and no journalism experience for a small Spanish-language politics show. Or that it's the result of watching TV or using a computer right before I go to bed. I mean it's about being afraid when I was a kid. We weren't going to bunk together in motel rooms, which would have been bad enough. Your cornered. Because I remember that was right when I sat down and that happened. She also works as a producer on Serial. “I believe that growing up in Shaker gave me a tremendous advantage in life. When the bugs arrived, Stephanie's daughter was just two. And his older brother spoke only when he wanted to mock the two of us. I'm at La Kinta Inn in Vwalla Vwalla Washington and I fell asleep watching the news. And then I started wondering if the mother here in this house would check on us. I'll probably go and get the pesticide that we have just so these guys don't get dinner tonight. And I'm running and I'm slowly realizing I'm on the front lawn of La Kinta Inn in Vwalla Vwalla, Washington in my underwear, bleeding. Somehow every night all the adults, all my relatives, every teacher, everybody who I'd ever heard of headed off for bed like this was no big deal. And they drove her crazy. Why on earth would a man raise his hand against himself, even in sleep. I didn't think that anyone could help. And I move over to the first place podium and it starts wobbling. Notre Dame posters all over the bedroom that the brothers shared. By mistake. No. Even their ice cubes had a weird smell to them. Complete annihilation. He was a reporter and producer on the team that created our "Harper High School" episodes, which won a Peabody Award. Specifically when I was 11 years old, the year I trained myself not to sleep. You know something biting me. I've definitely avoided taking naps, no matter how tired I was. And I jumped up and I started screaming. Like, they don't know how busy I am. Noor is a journalist with a background in video production and editing. And just describe, you would be lying there trying to fall asleep? Lilly joined the show in 2015. Rae has a background in sound for film, live audio, and documentary editing. I checked myself into the emergency room. Like you wake up and your hands are around the throat of the person who you love. The Diary of Simeon Perkins is an invaluable tool for understanding life in rural Nova Scotia during the 18th and 19th centuries. Then there's Ron Vagley. We were going to stay with the families of players on the opposing team. When not doing audio things, she loves riding her bike. And then I would kind of come out of it. They have a free podcast-- free. Or it seems comforting. In part because of garden variety anxiety, and in part because I worried about what might happen in my own house if I wasn't there. And sometimes they're mad at her. ?]. But I always complained to my wife, look at this. What could be more frightening? It's not fair for me to expect that someone had to have the same relationship to it as me, feeling like I kind of lived inside of it in a really terrible way. No big deal. And it's sentimental to Stephanie and her husband, the first piece of furniture they bought when they moved in together. And then I'm just going to pick up in the middle of this, where he describes what he sees. The kids can play outside. Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard. So there's a little burgeoning bed bug colony. The message of the movie is no one's going to help you little kid. And I felt this, like, weight on my chest. He stuck this thing in my ear about this long. The Bitter Fruits of Wakefulness. My, my [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. It sucks. And I think that's why it got so far under my skin. And Abby woke me up in the morning and she said, "Michael, what happened to the Tivo?" It cost about $165 to get it out. Nadia was also the Senior Editor at NPR's Latino USA, where her work received the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Ñ Award, among others. The house is tidy, but it's public housing and it has serious multiple infestations. Yeah. She’s completed three NYC marathons and the Boston Marathon. [11], Semien and collaborators on the "Harper High School" episode won a Peabody Award, with judges calling the work "vivid, unblinking, poignant and sometimes gut-wrenching”;[12] the Dart Center prize for journalism and trauma (“profoundly moving” and “extraordinarily comprehensive and compassionate"); the Jack R. Howard Award for Radio In-Depth coverage;[13] an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award[14] ("truly immersive, and intercut with lively use of sound[; t]hese elements offered valuable insights");[15] the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association;[16] and the Third Coast International Audio Festival's Gold Award for best documentary. We talked for a few minutes about the game the next day. And I was on the couch because all the rooms was full. Thank you very much. And she got so used to it, she could talk me down while remaining asleep. He was 17 years old, a senior in high school, and something bad had come undone in him. Semien worked as an editor and producer of film and television, including as an associate editor on the first season of This American Life's television documentary series with Showtime, and then as a producer on the second season in 2008. She provides strategic and financial guidance to start-up and high-growth businesses as Founder of Banker Financial Consulting. It's like oh, hey look. But once I realized that there are these little white things and I was sleeping on white sheets with little blue dots. Before joining the show, he worked primarily as a theatrical sound designer, specializing in new and devised plays.