215: Ask An Expert
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Tom, are you there? - Yeah. - Are you there? - Yes indeed. - Okay, so repeat after me from WBEZ Chicago. - From WBEZ Chicago. - And Public Radio International. - And Public Radio International. - It's this American life. You wanna say, we'll do that in unison. - Okay. - It is this American life. - What pros you are? (upbeat music) - Okay, here's the setup. In a studio in Boston, the hosts of NPR's Car Talk, Tom and Ray Malleazzi, experts in car repair and owners of their own car repair garage in Cambridge. In the This American Life Studio in Chicago, me, and in a studio in New York City, a former employee of the Car Guys radio show, Joe Richmond. It once turned to these national experts for help with his own car. But as we all know, sometimes the experts screw up. Joe, what was your exact job at Car Talk? - I edited the show. They would do the show live in Boston and then I would kind of package it from the national show. - No, I do remember, I have this image of you, Joe, sitting there on the other side of the glass, looking very studied like you were concentrating on the parts that you'd have to cut out, making mental notes as you went along. Oh, that won't joke. - No, that's gonna go, that's gonna have to go, Joe. (upbeat music) - When I was living in Boston, I had this 72 Plymouth Valiant. Slant 600. It was red with a black top. - Now Joe, now your mother had a special feeling about this particular car. - Well, okay, I guess the thing was, my mom kept saying that I wasn't gonna find a girlfriend until I got rid of the car. I'm not sure, I think she felt that there was a little too much obsession with the car. The car was just too big a part of my life.
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