Dan Savage - This American Life - Return to the Scene of the Crime

Dan Savage points a finger at the Catholic Church for being the kind of criminal organization that drives him to atheism - despite the fact that he still wants to believe he'll see his mom in heaven someday.
In 2009, we performed an episode of This American Life onstage and sent it live in HD to 430 movie theaters across the country. Dan Savage, Mike Birbiglia, and Starlee Kine all performed, plus director Joss Whedon gave a rare musical performance.
A DVD of the show is available, with extras like audio commentary, behind the scenes photos, and the surprisingly popular pre-show puzzles. You can get it here: bit.ly/2jvwjqp

[@adriennetisme]

Dan Savage got me bawling. He's so good! ❤

[@trashleigh87]

A speech to go down in history. Perfectly worded and with just the right amount of humour. Dan Savage is a wonderful talent.

[@terricadutton8446]

This is such a sweet tribute. Love Dan Savage

[@angelicaeliza3266]

I listen to this about once a year and sob. It's so good and so sad..

[@yokie52]

First time I've heard him speak and didn't cringe, but I am in the same category of belief system as his mother. Tonight you will be "in my thoughts". God's peace, Daniel.

[@cindysemblante4411]

What an amazing story. Dan thankyou for sharing your journey with us. You brought me to tears. Im sending you good thoughts

[@veronicavarela2041]

Beautiful man, so sorry about your mom❤️❤️

[@siphillis]

The best segment of the best episode of TAL. Dan is staggeringly good in this.

[@playinthedark3054]

Dan Savage's utter honesty is so much a part of his beauty as a human being. Having lost my own mother in 1999, I wept through every word but lost it totally when his mother said to him, "Remember me." At the time of my own mother's passing, I had visited her in the assisted care facility where she and my dad then lived. It was over the Christmas holiday, and I hadn't seen my parents for a few months. My sister lived just 5 minutes away from the facility and saw my parents every day, but I was in another city. When I saw my mother during that holiday visit, I noticed that she had seriously gone downhill from the COPD and the emphysema, and noticed also that the oxygen generator--one of the rather large contraptions that you had to replenish every day with distilled water, continued to make what I felt was like a "breathing sound." I looked at the dial on the generator and saw that after years of being set at 2.5, it was now set at the maximum of 5.0. It was then that I realized that someone, probably my mother herself, had raised the oxygen levels because she needed more oxygen to breathe. I visited my mother and father every day during that holiday trip back home but then returned to Chicago, where I was living and working. During that week back in Chicago, I called my mother every night to check on her. Some of our phone conversations were lengthy, but as the week progressed, the conversations got shorter and shorter. I knew she was unable to maintain a lengthy conversation nor did she even want to given her medical state. On Saturday night of that week, January 2, 1999, I called my mother once again. It had been customary for many years that when I talked by phone to either/both of my parents, we always ended the conversation with "Love you." On this particular Saturday night, I once again ended the conversation by saying "Love you," to which my mother replied, "I love you forever and ever and ever." It was the only time that she put it quite that way, and I knew in my heart that it was to be the last time that I would ever hear her voice. Sunday morning came, and I honestly sat in my Chicago apartment, with my partner, and waited for the phone to ring. It was about 10:30am when the call came in from my sister. "Mom is gone" is all my sister said. Dan Savage is truly a man of my own heart and soul, and I can only thank you, Dan, for the courage that it must have taken you to recount this story for all of us. You are that rare individual who can be funny and heartbreaking at the same time, and I adore you for it. How lucky for both of us that we were blessed with such supportive and loving mothers. Per sempre.

[@healthyellowfish]

amazing poet/ story teller

[@ttrza1986]

that's quite a story. God bless ya and u gonna see mama again

[@Fuzzypotato2]

It’s a nice thought. But no.

[@dknapp64]

Based on what he says she believes, his mom sounds like a Lutheran!

[@blackrebelradio9879]

I wonder, stain glass. Where the design er stood. My .

[@blackrebelradio9879]

I put a microphone 🎙️ in the wall.