894: I Couldn't Help but Notice
This This American Life episode features three stories of people who witness troubling changes in their communities and choose to resist or document them: a California councilman who broadcasts information about military exercises despite being told not to, a rural Maine doctor who performs an emergency C-section at home after her hospital's OB unit closes, and a Russian filmmaker who documents his school's adoption of nationalist propaganda after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Summary
The episode opens with Rick Cole, a Pasadena city councilman, receiving a text about military exercises at a hospital with instructions not to reveal the location. Against instructions, he posts the location on Instagram and later live-streams from the scene during the exercises, reaching nearly 8 million people with information about what was happening in his community. He frames this as a matter of treating residents with respect and keeping them informed.
Act One tells the story of Dr. Rose Fuchs, a rural Maine family doctor and former midwife, who must manage a prolapsed umbilical cord emergency at home when her patient Katie Gowell goes into labor. This occurs just 29 days after the local hospital's labor and delivery unit closed. With the baby's cord protruding and life-threatening, Dr. Fuchs physically holds the baby's head back in the birth canal for nearly 90 minutes while being transported to the hospital, performing a physically excruciating maneuver in an ambulance over bumpy roads. At Holton Regional Hospital's ER, Dr. Monica Shearhart makes the decision to perform the C-section on-site rather than transfer Katie by helicopter. The surgery succeeds with Dr. Fuchs still physically involved, her body serving as the surgical table. The story illustrates how the closure of rural obstetric units creates life-threatening gaps in healthcare that are filled by individual heroism rather than systemic solutions.
Act Two features Valerie Kipnis discussing the Oscar-winning documentary "Mr. Nobody Against Putin," which follows Pasha Tolankin, a videographer and teacher at a Russian school, as the Ministry of Education implements a nationalist propaganda curriculum following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The new curriculum includes mandatory patriotic lessons called "Conversations About Important Things," paramilitary training, approved history textbooks, and required documentation of compliance. Pasha initially documents these changes while subtly resisting—leaving portions of videos blank, displaying anti-war symbols, and playing Lady Gaga instead of the Russian national anthem during flag assemblies. However, his resistance gradually isolates him as an "advisor on student affairs" discourages students from visiting his office. He describes his situation using the metaphor of Ilya Repin's painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga," where most men pull the boat in exhaustion while one younger man looks upward and questions the work. Pasha eventually flees Russia. The segment concludes with Pasha's insight that propaganda's power lies not in whether people believe it but in the routine of saying it, which eventually becomes normalized culture and then an inescapable cage.
About this episode
People dealing with new, glaring, massive changes happening right where they live. Visit <a href="https://thisamericanlife.supercast.com?utm_id=lifepartners&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=shownotes" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners</a> to sign up for our premium subscription.<ul><li>Prologue: Rick Cole, a city councilmember in Pasadena, CA, talks to Ira about how he responded to a surprise nighttime military exercise in his neighborhood this June – complete with helicopters, gunfire, and flash bangs. (5 minutes)</li><li>Act One: A doctor trained as a midwife tells the eye-popping story of how she and others came together to save a baby during a birth that suddenly went wrong, in a part of rural Maine where the local labor and delivery unit had closed less than a month before. (26 minutes)</li><li>Act Two: Producer Valerie Kipnis never felt like an insider in the jokes and stories her family told about growing up in the Soviet Union until she saw this year's Oscar-winning documentary, "Mr. Nobody Against Putin." The film follows the changes unfolding in one school as Russia rolled out a nationwide propaganda push after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Valerie interviewed the young teacher at the center of the documentary and learned things that never made it into the film. (21 minutes)</li></ul>Transcripts are available at <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">thisamericanlife.org</a><a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/page/privacy-policy" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">This American Life privacy policy.</a><br /><a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Learn more about sponsor message choices.</a><br /><br />🎬 SEE THE STORY UNFOLD:<br />Want to see the original photos, documents, and the faces behind this week's acts?<br />👇 View the visual archive for this episode here:<br /><b><a href="https://goo.su/XwNQm" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://goo.su/XwNQm</a></b><br />(Updated for each story)
Key Insights
- Rick Cole believed that citizens deserve to know where military exercises are happening in their neighborhoods, regardless of official instructions to conceal the location.
- Dr. Rose Fuchs physically prevented the ambulance crew from moving Katie to follow standard emergency protocols because she judged that the paramedics lacked adequate knowledge of the prolapsed cord situation.
- The closure of a rural hospital's obstetric unit created a situation where a surgical emergency that once had clear procedures became chaotic, with confusion over which facility should handle the case and whether transfer was necessary.
- Dr. Monica Shearhart realized that Holton Regional Hospital still had the capability to perform the C-section but nobody had considered using it as an option until she specifically advocated for it.
- Pasha Tolankin observed that people around him adapted to the new nationalist curriculum and propaganda without the shock he felt, because he had grown up in a post-Soviet window when schools were relatively free from state control.
- Pasha explained that propaganda's effectiveness depends not on whether people believe the message but on the routinization of saying it, which gradually becomes normalized culture and eventually an inescapable cage.
- As Pasha resisted the propaganda at his school, his social status shifted from that of a tolerated 'holy fool' to a persona non grata, resulting in isolation as colleagues and students were discouraged from associating with him.
- An unmarked vehicle appeared outside Pasha's home, causing him to flee Russia without telling anyone where he was going, forcing him into permanent exile from his country.
Topics
Transcript
A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeaped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Back in June, Rick Cole was sitting in a meeting of the Pasadena Municipal Services Committee in City Hall there. That's about as dull a sentence as you could start a podcast with. But then things happen. Rick's a council member. start a podcast with. But then things happen. Briggs is a council member. And I get a text that I glance at from the police chief to the city council that says, at 5.30, we're making a public announcement that there will be military exercises in Northeast Pasadena. They…
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