739: Sisters
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From WVEZ Chicago, it's this American life. I'm Bim Adiwoman, sitting in for Ira Glass. Not too long ago, a few of us here on the show were talking about families and how everybody has a role to play in theirs. And whatever your role is, it sort of becomes your identity. Like this one's insular and really into books, or that one's the sensitive one who's quick to anger, or the little one's the sweetheart, that sort of thing. And the longer we talked about it, the more we began to notice a pattern. Sisters in particular often have very specific, very pithy elevator pitches about themselves and each other. Like my colleague on the show, Emmanuel Berry. Okay, so I have three sisters. My oldest sister is Danielle. She's like the rabble. She's a sister who moved out when she was a teenager. Then we have Elena, and she's like, I guess you could say like the diva. And then my youngest sister, Kiana, who's sort of like the wants to have fun all the time, like a little like wild, but not like too wild. She's fun. She's the fun one, I guess. Yeah. And when it came to Emmanuelle's role, she said this thing, partly being funny, but also sort of seriously. I'm the favorite. Yeah, I'm the favorite sister. The best. Okay. And that's, that's over-confident right there. I was so sure that the story that my sisters tell about me is that I'm their favorite sister. I'm like, it is so clear to me that I am each of their favorite sisters. Okay. And I know it sounds like unbelievably cocky, but I, but I really don't think it's coming from a place of cockiness so much as like in terms of our like personalities, I'm the personality that like can, can be the favorite. Nothing you're saying is making it better. No, I say that because I think I'm, I'm like the peacekeeper. So like I'm the one that gets a long easiest with each of my sisters. Yeah. You're like the character in the teen movie, whose friends with the jogs and the nerves and the hipsters and the cool black girls and all that stuff. That's you. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. So Emmanuelle, I have to ask in the interest of journalistic integrity, would your sisters corroborate the very specific idea that you have that you are their favorites? I mean, yeah, I think, I mean, I thought that then I called my sisters when I describe you to others. Yeah. Like, is there a story that you tell about me or is there like a manual is always like
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