489: No Coincidence, No Story! - This American Life
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00:00 00:00 Transcript Share This American Life Life Partners How to Listen Episodes Recommended About Overview Staff Announcements Fellowships Jobs Music Make Radio On The Road FAQ Submissions Merch Contact Us Our Other Shows Merch Follow Us Life Partners Subscribe to our newsletter Full episode Toggle Audio and Transcript Sync Transcript | Episode #489 | October 16, 2026 489: No Coincidence, No Story!
00:00 00:00 文字记录 分享此 美国生活 生活伙伴 如何收听 剧集 推荐 关于 概述 员工公告 奖学金 工作 音乐 在路上制作电台 常见问题解答 提交 商品 联系我们 我们的其他节目 商品 关注我们 生活伙伴 订阅我们的时事通讯 整集 切换音频和文字记录同步 文字记录 | 内容第 489 集 | 2026 年 10 月 16 日 489：没有巧合，没有故事！
Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard.
注：《美国生活》是为耳朵而制作的，旨在让人们听到。
If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page.
如果可以的话，我们强烈建议您收听音频，其中包括页面上没有的情感和重点。
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
文字记录是使用语音识别软件和人工转录员结合生成的，可能包含错误。
Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
请在印刷版引用前检查相应的音频。
Prologue: Prologue Hannah Jacoby This is Hannah.
序言：序言 汉娜·雅各比 这是汉娜。
Oh, hi, Hannah.
哦，嗨，汉娜。
This is Sarah from This American Life.
这是《美国生活》中的莎拉。
Hi, how are you?
你好你好吗？
Sarah Koenig I'm good, thank you.
莎拉·柯尼格 我很好，谢谢你。
How are you?
你好吗？
Good.
好的。
Sarah Koenig Before we go any further, from WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life.
Sarah Koenig 在我们继续之前，来自芝加哥 WBEZ 的节目是《美国生活》。
I'm Sarah Koenig, sitting in for Ira Glass.
我是莎拉·科尼格 (Sarah Koenig)，代理艾拉·格拉斯 (Ira Glass)。
And you're about to hear this story the same way I did-- blind.
你将会像我一样听到这个故事——盲目。
All I know is that it's going to have a coincidence in it.
我只知道这其中会有巧合。
I have no idea what you're about to tell me, so lay it on me.
我不知道你要告诉我什么，所以就交给我吧。
So the story is, I was a freshman in high school at Bozeman High School--
故事是这样的，我当时是博兹曼高中的一名高中生——
Oh, in Montana.
哦，在蒙大拿州。
Hannah Jacoby Yes.
汉娜·雅各比 是的。
And I was in the orchestra.
我在管弦乐队里。
And it was early in my freshman year and I had made friends in high school, but didn't really have orchestra friends yet.
那是我大一的时候，我在高中就交过朋友，但还没有真正的管弦乐队朋友。
And we were taking an orchestra trip.
我们正在进行管弦乐队之旅。
So that was a little nerve-wracking.
所以这有点让人伤脑筋。
When you're a freshman, this qualifies as a demi-crisis.
当你还是一名新生时，这可以称为半危机。
A long bus ride to Seattle, sharing a hotel room with someone you don't know.
乘坐长途巴士前往西雅图，与一个不认识的人共用一个酒店房间。
But there's this one girl, Lindsay.
但有一个女孩，林赛。
She and Hannah have friends in common so they decide to pair up-- to room together, to ride the bus together, to be orchestra friends.
她和汉娜有共同的朋友，所以他们决定配对——一起住房间，一起乘公共汽车，成为管弦乐队的朋友。
So we go to Seattle and we're like, it's awkward because we're new friends, trying to get to know each other.
所以我们去了西雅图，感觉很尴尬，因为我们是新朋友，试图互相了解。
Right.
正确的。
Hannah Jacoby And on one of our free days they send us to the Space Needle and I don't know if you've ever been to the Space Needle--
汉娜·雅各比（Hannah Jacoby） 在我们空闲的一天，他们把我们送到太空针塔，我不知道你是否去过太空针塔——
I have.
我有。
Hannah Jacoby But there's that carnival area all around it.
汉娜·雅各比 但周围都是嘉年华区。
And we are playing the little games all around there and we won Poopatroopers.
我们在那里玩一些小游戏，我们赢得了 Poopatroopers。
Do you know what those are?
你知道那些是什么吗？
No. Hannah Jacoby OK.
不，汉娜·雅各比，好的。
They're the little plastic soldiers that have a plastic parachute.
他们是带着塑料降落伞的塑料小士兵。
You're supposed to drop them from somewhere and the plastic parachute expands and--
你应该把它们从某个地方扔下来，然后塑料降落伞就会膨胀——
Oh, what did you call them?
哦，你叫他们什么？
Hannah Jacoby Poopatroopers?
汉娜·雅各比 便便部队？
Really?
真的吗？
I didn't quite believe Hannah about this, but she looked it up.
我不太相信汉娜的说法，但她查了一下。
It's true.
这是真的。
Poopatroopers.
便便部队。
I just did a Google image search for Poopatroopers and I'm seeing images of the little guys.
我刚刚在谷歌上搜索了 Poopatroopers 的图片，我看到了这些小家伙的图片。
But wait.
但是等等。
Is it a generic name or is it the brand name?
它是通用名称还是品牌名称？
I think it's a brand name.
我认为这是一个品牌名称。
I think, from what I'm seeing here, Imperial Poopatroopers, maybe?
我想，从我在这里看到的情况来看，也许是帝国便便部队？
[SARAH LAUGHS] Sarah Koenig His Highness?
[莎拉笑]莎拉·柯尼格殿下？
Four star general Poopatrooper?
四星将军便便士兵？
Yes.
是的。
Exactly.
确切地。
Sarah Koenig Back to the plot here.
莎拉·柯尼格 回到这里的情节。
Hannah and her new friend Lindsay go to the top of the Seattle Space Needle to try out their prizes.
汉娜和她的新朋友林赛前往西雅图太空针塔顶部尝试他们的奖品。
So we got in the little elevator and ran to the top and ran to the edge and threw the Poopatroopers over the edge.
于是我们钻进小电梯，跑到顶层，跑到边缘，把便便警察扔到了边缘。
Because there's nothing to stop you, really.
因为真的没有什么可以阻止你。
And we were just in peals of laughter and it was-- we thought it was so hilarious.
我们笑得很开心，我们觉得这太搞笑了。
And it sort of broke the ice in our friendship.
这在某种程度上打破了我们友谊的坚冰。
Lindsay and Hannah become best friends all through high school.
林赛和汉娜在高中时期成为最好的朋友。
Cut to senior year-- four years later-- another orchestra trip.
镜头转到四年级——四年后——另一场管弦乐队之旅。
This time to Reno, Nevada.
这次是去内华达州里诺。
Hannah and Lindsay are in their hotel room studying.
汉娜和林赛正在酒店房间里学习。
And so Lindsay and I were both sitting at the desk in this hotel room in Reno, Nevada and a Poopatrooper comes flying out of the sky and lands on the windowsill of our hotel room where we are-- and we both-- we couldn't believe it.
于是，林赛和我都坐在内华达州里诺市这家酒店房间的办公桌前，一只便便警察从天而降，落在我们酒店房间的窗台上，我们都不敢相信。
We opened the window and we grabbed the Poopatrooper.
我们打开窗户，抓住了便便警察。
And we ran into the hall to try to find other people in our orchestra.
我们跑进大厅试图找到我们管弦乐队中的其他人。
We thought someone had been playing a trick on us.
我们以为有人在捉弄我们。
But no one knew what we were talking about.
但没有人知道我们在说什么。
No one even remembered the thing in Seattle.
甚至没有人记得西雅图的那件事。
And so I, still to this day, don't know why that happened.
所以直到今天我仍然不知道为什么会发生这种事。
Every once in a while, we get pitches like this at the radio show-- coincidence stories.
每隔一段时间，我们就会在广播节目中听到这样的宣传——巧合故事。
Since they don't really fit into our usual every week we bring you a theme format, we've been setting them aside wondering what to do with them.
由于它们不太适合我们平常每周都会为您带来的主题格式，因此我们一直将它们放在一边，想知道如何处理它们。
They mean so much to people.
它们对人们来说意义重大。
I don't know.
我不知道。
It felt like it was about our friendship.
感觉就像是关于我们的友谊。
It felt-- I'm not someone that believes in God, really, but it felt a little bit like an act of God or something just cosmic and larger than us.
感觉——我真的不是一个相信上帝的人，但这感觉有点像上帝的行为，或者是比我们更大的宇宙之物。
Finally, it hit us.
最后，它击中了我们。
If we got enough of them, we could put them on the radio as their own thing.
如果我们得到足够多的东西，我们就可以将它们作为自己的东西放在广播中。
So we put out a call to listeners-- send us your coincidence stories.
因此，我们向听众发出呼吁——请将您的巧合故事发送给我们。
And you did.
你做到了。
Hundreds and hundreds of you did.
成百上千的你们都这么做了。
We read at least 1,300 coincidence stories, interviewed dozens of people.
我们阅读了至少 1,300 个巧合故事，采访了数十人。
Here are just a few things we've learned.
以下是我们了解到的一些内容。
You're most prone to coincidences when you're young-- teens or 20s.
当你年轻时——十几岁或二十几岁——你最容易遇到巧合。
Lots of coincidences involve your grandmother.
很多巧合都与你的祖母有关。
You're likely to experience a coincidence if you're in or near the Netherlands.
如果您在荷兰或其附近，您可能会遇到巧合。
Coincidences also happen to you in or near airplanes or on Craigslist.
在飞机内、飞机附近或 Craigslist 上也会发生巧合。
For many of you, coincidences were the answer to your prayers or helped you find your missing bike.
对于你们中的许多人来说，巧合是你们祈祷的答案，或者帮助你们找到丢失的自行车。
Also, there are coincidences hidden in your name, your keys, your clothes, your address.
此外，你的名字、你的钥匙、你的衣服、你的地址中都隐藏着巧合。
Like when Flora and Ragaciano Pena first started dating.
就像弗洛拉和拉加西亚诺·佩纳第一次开始约会时一样。
When we met, he said that he was born in [INAUDIBLE].
当我们见面时，他说他出生于[听不清]。
And I said, well, I was, too.
我说，好吧，我也是。
And then when we were going to get married and we needed our birth certificates, we compared them and it was the same building.
然后当我们要结婚并需要出生证明时，我们将它们进行比较，发现是同一栋楼。
We heard stories about a lost roll of film discovered, coincidentally, in the stomach of a decomposing hyena.
我们听说过这样的故事：在一只正在腐烂的鬣狗的胃里，巧合地发现了一卷丢失的胶卷。
About the man who got his favorite t-shirt back from a stranger's knapsack in Slovakia.
关于一个男人在斯洛伐克从陌生人的背包里拿回他最喜欢的 T 恤的故事。
About the woman who was dating not one, but two Mark Steven Andersons at the same time.
关于一位同时与马克·史蒂文·安德森约会的女人，而不是一个，而是两个。
About the student whose car broke down in rush hour on a busy highway and the one person who just happens to stop who comes to her rescue-- it's her dad who lives four hours away.
一名学生的车在高峰时段在繁忙的高速公路上抛锚，而恰好停下来救了她的人是她的父亲，他住在四个小时之外。
And one of my favorites, from a woman named Jill Peterson, who felt nauseated on the subway in New York City.
我最喜欢的一个来自一位名叫吉尔·彼得森的女士，她在纽约市的地铁上感到恶心。
As they pull into the Second Avenue stop, there's a garbage can, perfectly positioned to help her out.
当他们驶入第二大道车站时，有一个垃圾桶，位置非常好，可以帮助她摆脱困境。
So the train doors open and I'm beelining it for this can.
火车门打开了，我径直走向这个罐头。
And as I get there, out of the corner of my eye, I see another person heading my direction-- going for the can, too.
当我到达那里时，我用眼角的余光看到另一个人朝我的方向走去——也要去拿罐头。
And it's all coming up and I'm throwing up.
这一切都发生了，我要吐了。
And as I'm throwing up in this can, this person who's coming towards me starts throwing up in the can, too.
当我吐在这个罐子里时，这个朝我走过来的人也开始吐在罐子里。
And we're both simultaneously barfing into this can in the subway station.
我们俩同时在地铁站里吐进这个罐子里。
And we look at each other like, whoa.
我们互相看着对方，哇哦。
I don't know.
我不知道。
How are you feeling?
你感觉怎么样？
She's like, oh, I'm feeling a little bit better now.
她说，哦，我现在感觉好一点了。
I'm like, me, too.
我也这样，我也是。
What's the only way to survive throwing up in front of a subway car full of strangers?
在挤满陌生人的地铁车厢前呕吐，唯一的生存之道是什么？
Have a nice girl your age do it with you.
让一个和你同龄的好女孩和你一起做。
And numbers-- so many coincidences with numbers.
还有数字——数字有很多巧合。
One woman told us how she was at Thanksgiving with her extended family and they suddenly realized that six of them had the exact same number of letters in their names-- 23 letters.
一位女士告诉我们她和她的大家庭一起过感恩节，他们突然意识到其中六个人的名字中的字母数量完全相同——23 个字母。
Michael Arthur van de Putte, Mary Elizabeth van de Putte, William Arthur van de Putte--
迈克尔·阿瑟·范德普特、玛丽·伊丽莎白·范德普特、威廉·阿瑟·范德普特——
There was the guy at the mall doing surveys who had to ask people their phone number.
商场里有一个人在做调查，他必须询问人们的电话号码。
It's obvious the guy he's surveying starts to make up a number.
很明显，他正在调查的那个人开始编造一个数字。
He says, 933- 45-- 6--
他说，933- 45-- 6--
When he read out that last number, he said, 8?
当他读出最后一个数字时，他说，8？
And I stepped back for a second, but I was cool.
我后退了一会儿，但我很冷静。
And I said, no, sir.
我说，不，先生。
I'm sorry.
对不起。
That's not your phone number.
那不是你的电话号码。
And he said, why isn't that my phone number?
他说，为什么那不是我的电话号码？
And I said, because that's my phone number.
我说，因为那是我的电话号码。
That's my phone number.
那是我的电话号码。
The phone number that you just made up is actually my phone number.
你刚才编的电话号码实际上是我的电话号码。
These stories reminded me of an old Chinese saying I once heard.
这些故事让我想起了曾经听过的一句中国古话。
Actually, I learned it a couple of weeks ago and I have no idea how old it is.
事实上，我几周前就学会了它，但我不知道它有多大了。
But it goes like this.
但事情是这样的。
[SPEAKING MANDARIN] Sarah Koenig That's my friend, Yuen Yuen Di.
[普通话] Sarah Koenig 这是我的朋友，Yuen Yuen Di。
[SPEAKING MANDARIN] Sarah Koenig And what does it mean?
[说普通话] Sarah Koenig 这是什么意思？
If there's no coincidence, there won't be stories.
如果没有巧合，就不会有故事。
No coincidence, no story.
没有巧合，没有故事。
Yuen Yuen Di To imply that of course, lives are all-- I don't know-- developed in ways that we can't predict.
元元迪 意思是，当然，我不知道，生命的发展方式是我们无法预测的。
So is it like, if you heard a story with a coincidence, afterwards, you might be like, no coincidence, no story-- like that?
那么，如果你偶然听到一个故事，之后你可能会说，没有巧合，没有故事——就像这样吗？
That's right.
这是正确的。
Yes.
是的。
Just an expression you use that you quote.
只是您引用的一个表达方式。
Is it a corny thing to say?
这是老生常谈的话吗？
Yuen Yuen Di Mostly, I think no. It won't be a corny thing to say.
Yuen Yuen Di 大部分情况下，我认为不会。这不会是一句老生常谈的话。
Do you ever use it?
你用过它吗？
Yuen Yuen Di When I'm corny, yes.
Yuen Yuen Di 当我老土时，是的。
At the risk of being corny, I'm going to say it.
冒着陈词滥调的风险，我还是要说出来。
Today's show-- no coincidence, no story.
今天的节目——不是巧合，也不是故事。
While the big man's away, we're going to sneak these coincidence stories onto the air.
当这位大人物不在时，我们将偷偷地将这些巧合故事传播到电视上。
All the stories you'll hear today first aired on our show in 2013.
今天您将听到的所有故事均于 2013 年在我们的节目中首次播出。
And they're all verified true stories that my colleagues hid from me until the actual interviews so it wouldn't spoil the surprise, which is also why there is so much unprofessional giggling this hour.
这些都是经过验证的真实故事，我的同事们在真正的采访之前都向我隐瞒了这些故事，这样就不会破坏惊喜，这也是为什么这个小时有这么多不专业的咯咯笑声。
And full disclosure, I came into this topic a coincidence skeptic, believing that a coincidence is just a coincidence-- nothing more.
坦白说，我以巧合怀疑论者的身份进入这个话题，相信巧合只是巧合——仅此而已。
I judged, I confronted weakness, I countered wide-eyed faith with statistical probability.
我做出判断，我直面弱点，我用统计概率来反击盲目的信念。
And by the end, well, stay with us.
最后，好吧，留在我们身边。
Act One: Grandmas Sarah Koenig Act One, Grandmas.
第一幕：祖母莎拉·柯尼格 第一幕，祖母。
Blake Oliver is living in Nicaragua right now.
布莱克·奥利弗现在住在尼加拉瓜。
We talked on Skype.
我们通过 Skype 交谈。
About four months ago, he was on the phone to his friend Camille, who goes by Cami.
大约四个月前，他给朋友卡米尔（卡米）通电话。
He mentioned to her that the screen saver on his iPhone had been the same picture for a long time-- that he wanted to change it.
他向她提到，他的 iPhone 上的屏幕保护程序很长一段时间都是同一张图片，他想更改它。
So I asked her to just send me a picture of something.
所以我让她给我发一张东西的照片。
And it was really funny.
这真的很有趣。
She ended up sending me this picture of her as a little kid as a joke.
她最终给我发了这张她小时候的照片作为一个笑话。
And I was like, oh, yeah.
我当时想，哦，是的。
That's kind of funny.
这有点好笑。
It was not what I was expecting, but that's funny.
这不是我所期待的，但这很有趣。
And then I glanced back at the picture and I saw my grandma walking through behind her.
然后我回头看了一眼照片，看到奶奶从她身后走过。
What?
什么？
Blake Oliver Yeah.
布莱克·奥利弗 是的。
How crazy is that, right?
这有多疯狂，对吧？
Very crazy.
非常疯狂。
The picture was taken about 18 years ago.
这张照片拍摄于大约18年前。
Oh, absolutely.
哦，绝对是。
There was no question that was Grandma Joyce.
毫无疑问那是乔伊斯奶奶。
It was, without question, Grandma Joyce.
毫无疑问，那就是乔伊斯奶奶。
Coincidences like this one usually have a dense nest of details to bolster the craziness.
像这样的巧合通常都有大量细节来助长疯狂。
Here goes.
就这样吧。
Blake is from Michigan.
布莱克来自密歇根州。
That's where he met Camille.
在那里他遇见了卡米尔。
But Camille's family isn't from Michigan at all.
但卡米尔的家人根本不是来自密歇根州。
They're originally from Utah-- Salt Lake City, Utah.
他们来自犹他州——犹他州盐湖城。
That's where she grew up.
那是她长大的地方。
Blake Oliver Yeah.
布莱克·奥利弗 是的。
That's where she grew up.
那是她长大的地方。
Was this photo from Utah?
这张照片是来自犹他州吗？
Blake Oliver No. And that's-- the funny thing is my grandma lives in Melbourne, Florida.
布莱克·奥利弗 不。有趣的是，我的祖母住在佛罗里达州墨尔本。
And I'm thinking, oh, she must have been in Utah and walked past it.
我在想，哦，她一定是在犹他州并且走过它。
Cami's like, no, no. That picture was taken in Parksville, Vancouver Island, in Canada.
卡米说，不，不。这张照片是在加拿大温哥华岛帕克斯维尔拍摄的。
Blake figured out that at the same time that Cami and her family were on vacation in Vancouver, Grandma Joyce had gone there to visit some of her husband's relatives.
布莱克发现，就在卡米和她的家人在温哥华度假的同时，乔伊斯奶奶也去那里拜访了她丈夫的一些亲戚。
What are the chances to think that not only did I meet Cami, but she sends me this picture of her in the background-- of my grandma?
有多大可能认为我不仅见到了卡米，而且她还给我发了这张她的照片——我奶奶的照片？
I don't know what the chances are.
我不知道机会有多大。
Minuscule.
微小的。
And not only-- I don't know if you've seen the picture.
不仅如此——我不知道你是否看过这张照片。
But not only just in the picture, but perfectly behind her.
但不仅是在照片中，而且在她的身后。
At that moment, a fellow producer emailed me the photo.
就在那时，一位制片人通过电子邮件将照片发送给了我。
And there it was-- cute, four-year-old Cami in the foreground, facing the camera.
就在那里——可爱的四岁小卡米在前景中，面对着镜头。
And not far behind her, a blonde woman walking past wearing blue shorts and a matching top.
在她身后不远处，一位身穿蓝色短裤和配套上衣的金发女郎走过。
Yeah.
是的。
And she has no idea that she's in the picture even.
她甚至不知道照片里有她。
Yeah, right.
是的，对。
It's not like-- yeah.
这不像——是的。
She doesn't seem aware.
她似乎并没有意识到。
But I have to say, it's a little-- it's not a very crisp photo.
但我不得不说，这不是一张非常清晰的照片。
I'm surprised you would recognize her right away.
我很惊讶你立刻就认出了她。
Well, yeah.
嗯，是的。
There's not a lot of-- it's my grandma.
没有很多——是我的奶奶。
I don't know.
我不知道。
It's like--
这就像——
20 years ago, for my first reporting job, I interviewed a woman who'd just turned 100 years old.
20 年前，在我的第一份报道工作中，我采访了一位刚满 100 岁的女士。
I asked her, admittedly, a rookie question-- what's the most amazing thing that's happened in your life?
诚然，我问了她一个新手问题——你一生中发生过的最奇妙的事情是什么？
She thought for a while and then she said, the most interesting thing that happened to me was that on my first day at Patrog School, the principal said to me, what's your name?
她想了想，然后说，发生在我身上最有趣的事情是，我第一天到帕特罗格学校，校长对我说，你叫什么名字？
I said, Esther Tuttle.
我说，埃丝特·塔特尔。
And he said, I have a friend in Shelter Island by that name.
他说，我在谢尔特岛有一个朋友叫这个名字。
I was 12, she said.
我当时12岁，她说。
And that, to me, was remarkable.
对我来说，这非常了不起。
This woman had seen the advent of cars and movies and computers and space travel, and this was her answer.
这位女士见证了汽车、电影、电脑和太空旅行的出现，这就是她的答案。
At the time, I thought it was lame-- that maybe Esther was losing it a little.
当时，我觉得这很蹩脚——也许埃斯特有点失去了它。
But since I started hearing all these coincidence stories the last couple of weeks, I've reconsidered.
但自从过去几周我开始听到所有这些巧合故事以来，我重新考虑了。
Coincidences feels so rare, and that sticks with you, even when the coincidence is barely a coincidence at all.
巧合感觉如此罕见，而且这种感觉一直伴随着你，即使巧合根本不是巧合。
An academic study of people's reactions to coincidence stories from the early 1980s found that we have an egocentric bias toward our own coincidences.
一项针对 20 世纪 80 年代初人们对巧合故事反应的学术研究发现，我们对自己的巧合存在一种以自我为中心的偏见。
That people find stories that happened to them far more surprising than the same stories happening to other people.
人们发现发生在自己身上的故事比发生在其他人身上的同样的故事更令人惊讶。
Case in point.
举个例子。
My name is Juliana Bontrager and I'm 16 years old.
我叫 Juliana Bontrager，今年 16 岁。
Juliana-- she's got a problem with her grandmother.
朱莉安娜——她和她的祖母有问题。
My grandma has been obsessed with coincidences.
我的祖母一直沉迷于巧合。
And she finds them in her life all the time and she always wants to tell everyone about them.
她在生活中一直发现它们，并且她总是想告诉每个人。
And we get annoyed with her sometimes because she thinks they're so incredible and how they happen to her all the time.
有时我们会生她的气，因为她认为这些事情太不可思议了，而且这些事情总是发生在她身上。
And every time we see her-- oh, my gosh.
每次我们看到她——哦，天哪。
You would not believe what happened to me.
你不会相信发生在我身上的事。
And I always-- I was at the hospital with-- she lives with her cousin so she takes her cousin to the doctor's office quite a bit for appointments and stuff.
我总是——我和她一起在医院——她和她的表弟住在一起，所以她经常带她的表弟去医生办公室看病之类的。
And she'll be sitting in the waiting room.
她会坐在候诊室里。
And then they'll drive to go get lunch after that and they'll see the people they were waiting in the waiting room with at the restaurant.
然后他们会开车去吃午饭，然后他们会在餐厅的候诊室里看到和他们一起等待的人。
And I always thought that was funny.
我一直认为这很有趣。
Because it's like, yeah, that's coincidence.
因为这就像，是的，这就是巧合。
But maybe they're just going to get lunch, too.
但也许他们也只是去吃午饭。
It's not that big of a deal.
这没什么大不了的。
Yeah.
是的。
Juliana Bontrager So then, a while ago, I was doing a project in my English class.
Juliana Bontrager 那么，不久前，我在英语课上做了一个项目。
We were reading The Scarlet Letter book.
我们正在读《红字》这本书。
And I was-- once we finished the book, our end project was we had to come up with what our sin was or what sin we struggled with the most.
我是——一旦我们完成了这本书，我们的最终项目就是我们必须想出我们的罪是什么，或者我们最挣扎的罪是什么。
And I chose envy.
而我选择了嫉妒。
So we had to create our own letter out of paper and then we had to safety pin it to our shirt and wear it around school the entire day.
所以我们必须用纸制作我们自己的信，然后我们必须将它安全地别在我们的衬衫上，并整天穿着它在学校里。
So as I was coloring in my letter and cutting it out, my mom was listening to the show Monk in the background.
当我在信上涂色并剪下来时，我妈妈正在后台听《蒙克》节目。
As we were watching it, I was literally cutting out my last line on the letter E for envy.
当我们观看它时，我真的出于嫉妒而剪掉了字母 E 上的最后一行。
And it said, on the show, I've studied the seven sins and the most prominent one is envy, as I was cutting out my letter.
它说，在节目中，我研究了七宗罪，其中最突出的是嫉妒，因为我正在剪下我的信。
And so I immediately called my grandma and was telling her about it.
于是我立即打电话给奶奶，告诉她这件事。
And she was like, oh, uh-huh.
她就像，哦，嗯。
That's a good one.
这是一件好事。
Yeah.
是的。
And then I didn't really hear back from her after that.
然后我就没有再收到她的回复了。
And I thought, well, maybe she's just envious of my great coincidence.
我想，好吧，也许她只是嫉妒我的巧合。
[SARAH LAUGHS] And I was sitting there like, are you kidding?
[莎拉笑]我坐在那里，你在开玩笑吗？
Mine was so much better.
我的好多了。
You just happened to run into a person twice in one day.
你只是在一天之内碰巧遇到一个人两次。
I do that all the time.
我一直这样做。
What are the odds of, as I'm cutting out this letter E, they would talk about that on a show?
当我剪掉这个字母 E 时，他们在节目中谈论这个的可能性有多大？
And I was so confused about it.
我对此很困惑。
OK.
好的。
So Juliana's coincidence is a common one.
所以朱莉安娜的巧合是很常见的。
We've all had those moments when you're reading a certain word and then someone says it on the radio or on TV.
我们都经历过这样的时刻：你正在读某个单词，然后有人在广播或电视上说出它。
But remember, Juliana's 16, so maybe this is the first time it's happening to her.
但请记住，朱莉安娜已经 16 岁了，所以这也许是她第一次遇到这种情况。
Still, I'm on her side here.
尽管如此，我还是站在她这边。
I think it is more remarkable than her grandmother's example of the people in the waiting room being at the restaurant.
我认为这比她祖母在候诊室里的人在餐厅的例子更引人注目。
Do you have a phone where you can dial up your grandma right now?
你现在有可以给你奶奶打电话的电话吗？
OK.
好的。
One second.
一秒钟。
Sarah Koenig So Juliana conferenced her grandmother in so we could settle this.
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig）因此朱莉安娜（Juliana）与她的祖母会面，以便我们解决这个问题。
I'm here.
我在这儿。
Elaine Olson.
伊莱恩·奥尔森。
Sarah Koenig Elaine Olson.
莎拉·科尼格·伊莱恩·奥尔森。
Nice to meet you.
很高兴见到你。
Nice to meet you, dear.
很高兴认识你，亲爱的。
Sarah Koenig I laid out my argument for Elaine about the purity-- and therefore, superiority-- of Juliana's example.
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig） 我为伊莱恩阐述了关于朱莉安娜的例子的纯粹性以及因此的优越性的论点。
But Elaine argued right back.
但伊莱恩立即反驳。
There were several hours between the two sitings, plus, the restaurant was about four miles from the hospital.
两个地点之间相隔几个小时，而且餐厅距离医院大约四英里。
And in that four mile radius, you might say, I could have gone to any number of restaurants.
你可能会说，在那四英里的半径内，我可以去任意数量的餐馆。
The fact that I ran into her at that restaurant, I think is a coincidence.
我认为我在那家餐厅遇到她是一个巧合。
I think-- Elaine Olson She could have gone any place, too.
我想——伊莱恩·奥尔森 她也可以去任何地方。
That's true.
这是真的。
It's true.
这是真的。
I'm not saying it's not a coincidence, I'm just saying it's not maybe as pure as-- you can break down the probabilities of a certain kind of person in a certain kind of neighborhood going--
我并不是说这不是巧合，我只是说这可能不像——你可以分解某种社区中某种人的概率——
I don't think so.
我不这么认为。
Sarah Koenig You don't think so.
莎拉·柯尼格 你不这么认为。
Do you think you're somehow prone to coincidences-- like coincidences find you more than they find other people?
你是否认为你在某种程度上容易发生巧合——就像巧合更多地出现在你身上而不是其他人身上？
I don't know.
我不知道。
That's why-- in my own family-- I've asked them, does this happen to you?
这就是为什么——在我自己的家里——我问他们，这种事发生在你身上吗？
And don't get much of a response.
并且没有得到太多回应。
But--
但是——
You are impossible to argue with.
你是无法与之争论的。
So when you ask for coincidences, we have nothing to give to you because you have-- you are so set in your ways.
所以，当你要求巧合时，我们没有什么可以给你的，因为你已经——你是如此固守自己的方式。
I'm 81.
我81岁了。
OK.
好的。
Yeah.
是的。
OK.
好的。
Sarah Koenig So what would Juliana have to experience, in terms of a coincidence, that would impress you, do you think?
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig）那么，朱莉安娜必须经历什么，就巧合而言，会让你印象深刻，你认为吗？
What would it need to be?
它需要是什么？
Well, it's hard to tell.
嗯，这很难说。
Just a couple of weeks ago, I had my cousin up at another doctor's.
就在几周前，我带我表弟去看另一位医生。
I'm sitting in the reception area.
我坐在接待区。
Gentlemen across from me was Asian and--
我对面的先生们是亚洲人，而且——
This time it was about an Asian man in the waiting room whom she later saw buying a melon at Trader Joe's, which Elaine admitted wasn't as good as the other one.
这次是关于一个亚洲男人在候诊室里，她后来看到他在商人乔那里买了一个瓜，伊莱恩承认这个不如另一个好。
Act Two, In God We Trust.
第二幕，我们相信上帝。
It's probably no surprise that we got a huge number of coincidence pitches about love-- romantic love.
我们收到大量关于爱情（浪漫爱情）的巧合宣传可能并不奇怪。
A few years ago, after Stephen Lee proposed to his girlfriend Helen, they brought their families together for the first time to celebrate the engagement.
几年前，史蒂芬·李向女友海伦求婚后，他们首次携家人聚在一起庆祝订婚。
My mom and my stepdad came to New York to meet with Helen's parents.
我妈妈和继父来到纽约见海伦的父母。
And basically, over the course of dinner and coffee afterwards, we discovered that, basically, my father had dated my wife's mother back in Korea back in the 1960s and he had proposed to her--
基本上，在随后的晚餐和咖啡过程中，我们发现，基本上，我父亲早在 20 世纪 60 年代就曾在韩国与我妻子的母亲约会，并向她求婚——
I'm going to slow this down a sec, just to let it sink in.
我要把它放慢一秒钟，让大家理解。
Helen's mother had almost married Stephen's father-- his late father, actually.
海伦的母亲差点就嫁给了斯蒂芬的父亲——实际上是他已故的父亲。
He died when Stephen was 17.
斯蒂芬 17 岁时他就去世了。
And how this all came out was that after they had dinner, they went back to Stephen's apartment and they were looking at Stephen's family photographs.
这一切的结果是，他们吃完晚饭后，回到斯蒂芬的公寓，正在看斯蒂芬的家庭照片。
So my future mother-in-law's flipping through the album and she sees my dad.
所以我未来的婆婆翻阅相册时，她看到了我的爸爸。
And so she asks, oh, oh, what was his name?
所以她问，哦，哦，他叫什么名字？
And my mom tells the name.
我妈妈告诉了我这个名字。
And my future mother-in-law just nods and moves on and keeps on flipping through the book-- doesn't even say anything.
我未来的婆婆只是点点头，然后继续翻书——甚至什么也没说。
Imagine what she must've been feeling with seeing that photo suddenly-- just flooded.
想象一下她突然看到那张照片时的感受是什么——洪水泛滥。
She has a-- she just must-- I think she'd be really good at poker.
她有——她必须——我认为她真的很擅长扑克。
(LAUGHING) Right.
（笑）对。
So Helen's mother says nothing, goes home.
海伦的母亲什么也没说，回家了。
But later that night, she tells her daughter, this was the one.
但那天晚上晚些时候，她告诉女儿，就是这个了。
This was the man who might have been.
这就是本来可能的人。
She explained that the reason they hadn't married was because her father-- Helen's grandfather-- had chosen a different husband for her-- the man who became Helen's father.
她解释说，他们没有结婚的原因是她的父亲——海伦的祖父——为她选择了另一个丈夫——后来成为海伦的父亲。
All of them ended up living in the US, but they quickly lost touch.
他们最终都生活在美国，但很快就失去了联系。
And Stephen didn't find out about any of this until a couple of days later.
斯蒂芬直到几天后才知道这一切。
That's when Helen calls me up and says, I have something to tell you.
就在那时，海伦打电话给我说，我有件事要告诉你。
And she tells me and I was floored by it.
她告诉我，我对此感到震惊。
And together, we called my mom.
我们一起打电话给我妈妈。
And she put a good face on it, but she was pretty shocked.
她虽然表面上表现得很好，但心里却感到相当震惊。
Did she know that there had been this other woman that your father had been in love with?
她知道你父亲曾经爱过另一个女人吗？
That's the thing.
就是这样。
My dad told her, years and years ago, there was this other woman that I was in love with at one point, long before I met you.
我父亲告诉她，很多年前，我曾一度爱上了另一个女人，早在我遇见你之前。
But Mom was like, look, you have a past.
但妈妈说，看，你有过去。
I have a past.
我有过去。
We all have a past.
我们都有过去。
Who cares?
谁在乎？
Of course, never thinking that she was going to share grandchildren with that woman.
当然，她从来没想过自己会和那个女人共享孙子。
She later admitted to me that if she had known this from the very beginning, she would have not supported Helen and me.
她后来向我承认，如果她一开始就知道这一点，她就不会支持海伦和我。
Really?
真的吗？
Stephen Lee It would have just been like, look, being with the daughter of the other woman your dad loved-- it would-- can't you find someone else?
史蒂芬·李：这就像，听着，和你父亲所爱的另一个女人的女儿在一起——它会——你就不能找到其他人吗？
How did you take this coincidence?
你如何看待这个巧合？
Did it come to mean anything to you or to Helen?
它对你或海伦来说有什么意义吗？
Yeah.
是的。
There's something about it-- the fact that I didn't have the time with my dad that I wished I had had.
这是有原因的——事实上，我没有像我希望的那样有时间和父亲在一起。
Yeah.
是的。
Stephen Lee And then, suddenly, to have him be an active part of my life again.
斯蒂芬·李 然后，突然间，他再次成为我生活中积极的一部分。
To think that I can talk to my mother-in-law and hear what he was like in his 20s-- something that my mom doesn't even know.
想到我可以和我的岳母交谈，听到他 20 多岁时的样子——我妈妈甚至都不知道。
And my-- actually, Helen's father is a strong believer in the idea that somehow my dad-- somehow is behind all this.
而我的——实际上，海伦的父亲坚信，我的父亲——不知何故是这一切的幕后黑手。
That somehow he's helped make all this happen.
他以某种方式帮助实现了这一切。
At the time this next love story takes place, a guy named Paul Grachan was working in a Chicago suburb called Arlington Heights.
下一个爱情故事发生时，一个名叫保罗·格拉坎的人正在芝加哥郊区阿灵顿高地工作。
He had just started dating a woman named Esther.
他刚刚开始和一个名叫埃丝特的女人约会。
They'd been out maybe eight times.
他们大概已经出去八次了。
And I thought maybe it was time to get exclusive or become boyfriend/girlfriend or whatever it was.
我想也许是时候获得排他性或成为男朋友/女朋友或其他什么了。
And I was about to go out to lunch and I was thinking about asking her on a Friday date that I had set up.
我正要出去吃午饭，我正在考虑在我安排的周五约会上约她。
And I went out to lunch.
我出去吃午饭。
I stopped at the store prior to hitting the deli that I normally hit.
在去我通常去的熟食店之前，我在商店停了下来。
And I got some change, went to the deli, ordered my sandwich.
我拿了一些零钱，去了熟食店，点了三明治。
It was $6 or something like that.
价格是 6 美元或者类似的东西。
I pulled out a $5 from my wallet and I pulled out the couple bucks' change that I had gotten from the store, handed the clerk one of the ones.
我从钱包里掏出 5 美元，又拿出从商店买来的几块钱零钱，递给店员其中一张。
And then I looked at it and I pulled it back.
然后我看了看它，然后把它拉了回来。
Written on the dollar, in pencil, was Esther.
美元上用铅笔写着以斯帖。
And I thought, oh, that's weird.
我想，哦，这很奇怪。
I'm thinking about asking her to go steady and I get this dollar that says Esther on it.
我正在考虑让她保持稳定，然后我得到了这块钱，上面写着埃丝特。
That's bizarre.
这很奇怪。
So I stuck it in my pocket, chuckled.
于是我把它揣进口袋里，笑了。
I went to the store.
我去了商店。
I got one of those floating frames and a little piece of gold lame and I stuck the dollar in the frame.
我买了一个浮动框架和一小块金箔，然后把美元贴在框架里。
So it was floating in the middle on this piece of gold, as if you're going to go in a church in Italy and they had a fragment from the robe of some saint or something like that.
所以它漂浮在这块金子的中间，就好像你要去意大利的一座教堂，他们有一些圣人长袍的碎片或类似的东西。
And I called it the Immaculate Dollar of Arlington Heights.
我称其为阿灵顿高地的完美美元。
So on Friday, I asked her out and she was all excited and we were all giddy.
所以周五，我约她出去，她很兴奋，我们都头晕目眩。
And then I said, hey, I have one more thing for you.
然后我说，嘿，我还有一件事要告诉你。
And I gave her this frame with this dollar in it.
我给了她这个镜框，里面有这块钱。
I start unwrapping it and he's like, it's a dollar with your name on it.
我开始打开它，他说，这是一美元，上面写着你的名字。
And he's all beside himself.
他已经疯了。
And I just looked at him like, I'm freaked out.
我只是看着他，我吓坏了。
She furrowed her brow a little bit and look concerned.
她微微皱起眉头，看上去有些担心。
And I said, is there some sort of problem?
我说，有什么问题吗？
I was speechless for the first time ever.
我第一次无言以对。
But I said, you know, remind me to tell you something later.
但我说，你知道，提醒我稍后告诉你一些事情。
So OK, I let it go and we had our relationship.
好吧，我放手了，我们建立了关系。
We got engaged.
我们订婚了。
We got married.
我们结婚了。
A couple of years later, we were unpacking at a new apartment that we had.
几年后，我们在一套新公寓里收拾行李。
And I had the-- I found the frame with the dollar in it.
我找到了装有美元的框架。
And I stuck it up on the dresser and she came in the room.
我把它贴在梳妆台上，她就走进了房间。
I said, hey, you never told me about this dollar.
我说，嘿，你从来没有告诉过我这块钱的事。
What's the deal with that?
这有什么关系？
She said, well--
她说，好吧——
When I was 19, I was a cashier working in a copy shop in downtown Chicago.
当我 19 岁的时候，我是芝加哥市中心一家复印店的收银员。
And I was dating someone and I just wasn't happy with him.
我正在和某人约会，但我只是对他不满意。
And I just thought, how do people know who the right person that they're meant to be with-- how do they know who that is?
我只是想，人们怎么知道谁是他们注定要在一起的合适人选——他们怎么知道那个人是谁？
I said, you know what?
我说，你知道吗？
I'm not going to worry about that.
我不会为此担心。
I'm just going to put my name on this dollar bill.
我要把我的名字写在这张钞票上。
And the guy that gets this dollar bill is going to be the guy that asks me to marry him.
得到这张钞票的人将是向我求婚的人。
And I'm like, well, you can't just write your name on one.
我想，好吧，你不能只在上面写下你的名字。
Actually, I think it was more like maybe 10 or 12.
事实上，我认为可能是 10 或 12 个。
And so this dollar bill that you gave me, I believe, is the same dollar bill that I wrote my name on.
所以我相信你给我的这张钞票就是我写下我名字的那张钞票。
And I knew that we were going to be married the day that you gave me this dollar bill.
当你给我这张钞票的那天我就知道我们要结婚了。
It was pretty crazy.
这太疯狂了。
Esther Grachan And then he made me tell him the story again.
Esther Grachan 然后他让我再给他讲这个故事。
He asked me five or six times.
他问了我五六次。
And I said, the details don't change.
我说，细节不会改变。
It's the same story.
这是同一个故事。
He couldn't-- I think he was a little bit beside himself that that actually happened and that I didn't tell him.
他不能——我认为他有点疯了，这件事确实发生了，而我却没有告诉他。
I don't know how I found the will to not say anything to him, but I just remember do I, don't I, do I, don't I?
我不知道我是怎么找到不跟他说话的意愿的，但我只记得我，不是吗，我，不是吗？
What do I do?
我该怎么办？
I didn't want to freak this guy out and be like, what, this girl's already talking about marriage?
我不想吓坏这个家伙，然后说，什么，这个女孩已经在谈论婚姻了？
Wait, what?
等等，什么？
Forget it.
忘了它。
I don't read too much into almost anything.
我几乎不会对任何事情读太多。
I just kind of move forward.
我只是向前迈进。
And then after she told me, I think I went through all the normal stages of whatever and I just thought, what does this mean for us?
在她告诉我之后，我想我经历了所有正常的阶段，我只是想，这对我们意味着什么？
Are we going to invent a time machine or our kids going to bring world peace?
我们会发明时间机器还是我们的孩子会带来世界和平？
What's the-- is there some sort of bigger thing that we're not seeing here?
这是什么——有什么更大的事情我们在这里没有看到吗？
Now it just sits in that very same frame up on our dresser and I look at it every day that I wake up.
现在它就放在我们梳妆台上的同一个框架里，我每天醒来都会看它。
Sometimes I remind her that we have it when she's upset at me or angry.
有时我会提醒她，当她对我感到不安或生气时，我们就会有这种感觉。
It's never been a question in my mind like, you know what?
我脑子里从来没有这样的问题，你知道吗？
I'm going to kick this guy to the curb.
我要把这个家伙踢到路边。
But I do believe it's because of this dollar that I feel tied to him.
但我确实相信，正是因为这块钱，我才觉得自己和他有联系。
Obviously, I love him, but I think that if it ever did cross my mind, I'd be like, but wait, this is my soulmate.
显然，我爱他，但我想，如果我真的想到过，我会想，但是等等，这是我的灵魂伴侣。
I can't just walk out on him.
我不能就这样抛弃他。
We don't even wear wedding bands.
我们甚至不戴结婚戒指。
I'm like, why?
我想，为什么？
I know I'm stuck with you.
我知道我被你困住了。
You got this dollar bill.
你得到了这张一美元的钞票。
I guess he could also put it back out into the register and then be like, look, I'm cashing this in.
我猜他也可以把钱放回收银机，然后说，看，我正在兑现。
I think it's got to go to somebody else.
我认为它必须交给别人。
He could do that.
他可以做到这一点。
Paul and Esther Grachan.
保罗和埃丝特·格拉坎。
They've been married for 18 years.
他们结婚已经18年了。
[MUSIC - "SOMEPLACE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE" BY BRY WEBB WITH RICH BURNETT]
[音乐 - BRY WEBB 与 RICH Burnett 合作的《Someplace I'M sought to be》]
Act Three: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime Sarah Koenig Act Three, Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
第三幕：兄弟，你能省一毛钱吗 莎拉·柯尼格 第三幕，兄弟，你能省一毛钱吗？
This story comes from Ryan Rozar in Los Angeles.
这个故事来自洛杉矶的瑞安·罗扎尔。
It happened when I was in college.
这件事发生在我上大学的时候。
I was actually pledging a fraternity.
我实际上是在宣誓加入兄弟会。
And I ran into some of the seniors on campus and they were laughing about something.
我在校园里遇到了一些高年级学生，他们正在大笑。
And so one of them tells me this story that had happened to him that day, supposedly, where he gets in the shower and about 5, 10 minutes into his shower, he hears a "ting." And he looks down and sitting on the floor of the shower between his feet is a nickel.
其中一个人告诉我那天发生在他身上的故事，据说，他洗澡的时候，大约 5、10 分钟后，他听到“叮”的一声。他低头一看，淋浴间的地板上坐在他两脚之间的是一枚五分钱。
And has no idea where this nickel came from or why it's there.
并且不知道这些镍币从哪里来，也不知道为什么会在那里。
Obviously, everyone was making jokes that he had change falling out of his butt and we were like, were you eating dollar bills?
显然，每个人都开玩笑说他屁股上掉了零钱，我们就说，你在吃美元钞票吗？
But anyway, we have our laughs and I go home and I don't think much about it.
但无论如何，我们都有欢笑，我回家后也没有想太多。
The next day, I get in the shower and like 5, 10 minutes into my shower, I hear a "ting." And I look down and right between my feet is a quarter.
第二天，我去洗澡，大约 5、10 分钟后，我听到“叮”的一声。我低头一看，双脚之间就是四分之一。
So my first thought was, how did they do it?
所以我的第一个想法是，他们是怎么做到的？
My thought was, I totally assumed that this must not have really happened to him.
我的想法是，我完全认为这一定不会真正发生在他身上。
That was a set up and somehow they set this up to happen to me.
这是一个圈套，他们以某种方式让这件事发生在我身上。
But I could not figure out how.
但我不知道怎么做。
I was just like, it had to be a prank, basically.
我当时想，这基本上是一个恶作剧。
Oh, that's so smart of you to figure out the whole con.
哦，你真聪明，竟然弄清楚了整个骗局。
That's what I assumed.
这就是我的假设。
Sarah Koenig Right.
莎拉·柯尼格 对。
But then I go and I talk to him I tell him what happened to me.
但后来我去和他说话，告诉他我发生了什么事。
And I'm watching his face for that-- the laugh or the glint in his eye of mischief or whatever.
我正在观察他的脸——他的笑声或他眼中淘气的光芒或其他什么。
Right.
正确的。
Ryan Rozar And he just looks sincerely mystified by the fact that this happened to me right after it happened to him.
Ryan Rozar 他看起来真的很困惑，因为这件事发生在他身上之后就发生在我身上。
Then a week later, I get in the shower and like 5, 10 minutes in, I hear "ting, ting." And I look down and there's about $0.35 between my feet.
一周后，我去洗澡，大约五、十分钟后，我听到“叮，叮”的声音。我低头一看，我的双脚之间大约有 0.35 美元。
Right?
正确的？
[SARAH LAUGHS] So there's that moment of no way before I look down and there's more change.
[莎拉笑]所以在我低头看到更多变化之前，有那么一刻，我毫无办法。
So at this point, obviously, my mind's going to some weird places because I-- you don't want to be the butt change fairy guy.
所以在这一点上，显然，我的思绪会去一些奇怪的地方，因为我——你不想成为改变屁股的仙女。
There's somehow-- there's just-- there's nothing-- no way that this story gets good for me.
不知何故——只是——没有什么——这个故事不可能对我有好处。
And then no explanation comes, but it doesn't happen for a while-- for I want to say, probably, a month.
然后没有任何解释，但它不会发生一段时间——因为我想说，可能是一个月。
Until one day, I'm about to get in the shower and I reach behind me to scratch my back and I feel something cold and metal on my back.
直到有一天，我正要洗澡，我把手伸到身后去挠背，我感觉背上有什么冰冷的金属东西。
And I turn around to show my-- to turn my back to the mirror--
然后我转过身来展示我的——背对着镜子——
Right.
对。
Ryan Rozar And there is a whole pocketful of change stuck to my back?
Ryan Rozar 我的背上粘着一大袋零钱？
What do you mean stuck to it?
坚持下去是什么意思？
In what way?
以什么方式？
Stuck to it.
坚持下去。
Well, this is what I figured out.
嗯，这就是我想出来的。
It wasn't-- there was no adhesive or anything.
不是——没有粘合剂或任何东西。
It was just impressed into my back.
它只是印在我的背上。
So I figured out what was going on is that I have a bad habit of falling asleep with my pants on because it was college, I would nap a lot.
所以我发现发生的事情是我有一个坏习惯，喜欢穿着裤子睡觉，因为在大学里，我会经常小睡。
And I would also sleep with my shirt off because my apartment was really hot.
我也会脱掉衬衫睡觉，因为我的公寓真的很热。
So what was happening was change was falling out of my pockets onto my bed and I was laying on it and all that sweat and pressure was just sticking the coins to my back.
所以发生的事情是零钱从我的口袋里掉到我的床上，我躺在上面，所有的汗水和压力只是把硬币粘在我的背上。
They're just literally impressed into my back.
它们确实印在了我的背上。
And it was taking about five minutes of water running on it to dislodge them, at which point they were dropping at my feet.
大约需要五分钟的水流才能将它们移走，此时它们就掉到了我的脚边。
Clearly, I love this story, but I did not see the coincidence in it.
显然，我喜欢这个故事，但我没有看到其中的巧合。
Ryan said there was absolutely a coincidence.
瑞安说这绝对是巧合。
It happened to that one kid-- the senior-- and then it happened to him the very next day.
这件事发生在那个孩子身上——大四的孩子身上——然后第二天又发生在他身上。
I disagree.
我不同意。
I think this is probably a common quirk of college boy life-- lounging around, shirtless and groggy, on unclean sofas and beds.
我想这可能是大学男生生活中的一个常见怪癖——赤裸上身、昏昏沉沉地躺在不干净的沙发和床上。
Probably half the boys at his college had change stuck to them.
他大学里可能有一半的男孩身上都贴着零钱。
I told Ryan so.
我是这样告诉瑞安的。
I don't think there's any coincidence involved at all.
我认为根本不存在任何巧合。
I do because I'll tell you-- I've known lots of guys who've lived in pretty squalor conditions, and other than me and that other guy, I've never heard someone having the change falling from them.
我这样做是因为我会告诉你——我认识很多生活在相当肮脏条件下的人，除了我和另一个人之外，我从来没有听说过有人从他们身上掉下来零钱。
It's just because they're not admitting it.
只是因为他们不承认而已。
It's just because they're not admitting it.
只是因为他们不承认而已。
I swear to God.
我向上帝发誓。
Start asking.
开始询问。
Start asking.
开始询问。
Hey, how's it going?
嘿，怎么样？
Sarah Koenig Good.
莎拉·柯尼格 好。
Can I come in for a second?
我可以进来一下吗？
Yeah, sure.
是的，当然。
Sarah Koenig I knew Ryan wouldn't actually start asking, so I started asking.
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig） 我知道瑞安实际上不会开始问，所以我开始问。
Because while Ryan's life is sure to contain many special and unique experiences, I am positive that this is not one of them.
因为虽然瑞安的生活肯定包含许多特殊和独特的经历，但我确信这不是其中之一。
So off I went to prove him wrong because finding others would be so easy.
所以我去证明他错了，因为找到其他人会很容易。
I happen to live in a college town-- State College, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State.
我碰巧住在一个大学城——宾夕法尼亚州州立学院，宾夕法尼亚州立大学的所在地。
So I drop by a frat house.
所以我顺便拜访了一个兄弟会。
No, no. Absolutely not.
不，不。绝对不是。
Student 1 Never in my life.
学生1 在我的生活中从来没有。
But wait, have you never heard of that happening to anybody?
但是等等，你从来没有听说过这种事发生在任何人身上吗？
Never?
绝不？
Student 1 I think it'd be a nice icebreaker with women.
学生 1 我认为这对于女性来说是一个很好的破冰活动。
Why?
为什么？
Student 1 Because in a conversation, you could be like, oh, this weird thing happened to me.
学生 1 因为在谈话中，你可能会说，哦，这件奇怪的事情发生在我身上。
Yeah.
是的。
I always got change stuck to my back or my butt for weeks.
我的背上或屁股上总是粘着零钱好几个星期。
Anyway, lots and lots of nos.
无论如何，很多很多不。
I asked whole classes.
我问了全班同学。
And then we thought, Pennsylvania, it's too cold.
然后我们想，宾夕法尼亚州太冷了。
Ryan went to college in Southern California.
瑞安在南加州上大学。
We've got to go south.
我们必须向南走。
So we sent reporters to the University of Virginia.
所以我们派记者去了弗吉尼亚大学。
All right.
好的。
Have you heard of this happening?
你听说过这样的事情吗？
No. Male Student 1 I've never heard that before.
没有。男学生1 我以前从来没有听说过。
No, you're the first.
不，你是第一个。
Sarah Koenig To frats at University of North Carolina.
Sarah Koenig 致北卡罗来纳大学兄弟会。
All the way to Miami.
一路到迈阿密。
We asked at two different universities there.
我们询问了那里的两所不同的大学。
You never had it fall off in the shower?
你从来没有在淋浴时掉下来过吗？
No, it's never happened.
不，这从未发生过。
That's never happened to me.
这从来没有发生在我身上。
Never.
绝不。
Male Student 7 I've never heard of that happening to anybody till now, I guess.
男学生 7 我想到目前为止我还从未听说过有人发生过这种事。
Maybe it's a California thing?
也许这是加州的事情？
So we went to UCLA to match the climatological conditions at Ryan's school.
所以我们去了加州大学洛杉矶分校，以适应瑞安学校的气候条件。
Has it ever happened to you?
你有过这样的经历吗？
Male Student 1 No. That doesn't happen I don't think.
男学生 1 不。我认为这不会发生。
Doesn't happen?
不会发生吗？
Male Student 1 That's not a thing.
男学生1 这不是事。
That is not a thing.
那不是一件事。
So does that mean Ryan was right-- it really was a coincidence?
那么这是否意味着瑞安是对的——这真的是巧合吗？
Maybe.
或许。
I asked at one more class in Pennsylvania.
我在宾夕法尼亚州的另一堂课上问了这个问题。
Ladies and gentlemen, Penn State senior, Casey Phillips.
女士们先生们，宾夕法尼亚州立大学大四学生凯西·菲利普斯。
It's actually an ongoing joke in our apartment because there's just change in our shower all the time.
这实际上是我们公寓里一个持续存在的笑话，因为我们的淋浴一直在变化。
And it's just from you, or others in your apartment, too?
这只是你自己的，还是你公寓里其他人的？
Just me.
只有我。
Actually there's change in my shower right now.
事实上我的淋浴间现在有变化。
Wait, what?
等等，什么？
Casey Phillips There's a-- my roommate texted me today, why is there change in the shower?
凯西·菲利普斯（Casey Phillips）今天我的室友给我发短信，为什么淋浴间要换衣服？
Because I forgot to take it out because that happens to me all the time.
因为我忘了把它拿出来，因为这种事经常发生在我身上。
Like he said, I take naps all the time.
正如他所说，我一直在小睡。
I pretty much just sleep in naps-- in two-hour spurts.
我几乎只是小睡——每次睡两个小时。
And I just sleep in my jeans and I have change in my jeans and it comes out and it gets in my bed.
我只是穿着牛仔裤睡觉，我换了牛仔裤，它就出来了，然后就到了我的床上。
I figured it out the same way he did.
我和他的想法是一样的。
That story was eerily similar.
这个故事出奇地相似。
I am too.
我也是。
Sarah Koenig Coming up, don't lift the manhole cover.
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig） 来了，别掀起井盖。
That's in a minute, from Chicago Public Radio, when our program continues.
稍后，芝加哥公共广播电台将继续我们的节目。
It's This American Life, I'm Sarah Koenig, sitting in for Ira Glass.
这是《美国生活》，我是莎拉·柯尼格，饰演艾拉·格拉斯。
We've borrowed today's show from a Chinese saying-- no coincidence, no story.
我们今天的节目借用了一句中国话——无巧不成书。
We first aired the show four years ago after asking you to send us your coincidence stories.
四年前，在要求您向我们发送您的巧合故事后，我们首次播出了该节目。
And you flooded us with more than 1,300 pitches.
你们为我们提供了 1,300 多个投球。
We found trends, we found gems, we found stories impossible to classify.
我们发现了趋势，我们发现了宝石，我们发现了无法分类的故事。
Jeff Dunn, OK.
杰夫·邓恩，好的。
Jeff grew up in Sioux City, Iowa.
杰夫在爱荷华州苏城长大。
When he was 16, he was hanging out with two of his friends at someone's house.
当他 16 岁时，他和两个朋友在某人家里闲逛。
The parents weren't home-- they were goofing around, smoking pot.
父母不在家——他们正在闲逛，抽着大麻。
They were in the living room that had a huge window on one wall.
他们在客厅，墙上有一扇大窗户。
And we're sitting there and we're sitting along this glass wall.
我们坐在那里，沿着玻璃墙坐着。
And there's a dirt road outside of his house.
他家外面有一条土路。
And up this dirt road barrels this van.
这辆货车沿着这条土路行驶。
And the thing that happens next is what you think is going to happen when you see a white van like that at night.
接下来发生的事情就是当你在晚上看到一辆这样的白色货车时你所认为会发生的事情。
These two guys get out-- they're all bundled up and they pretty quickly just run to the back of the van, open it up, and pull out this big black bag.
这两个人下了车——他们都裹得严严实实的，很快就跑到货车后面，打开车门，拿出这个黑色的大袋子。
So they get out.
所以他们出去了。
They take the bag out.
他们把袋子拿出来。
And they quickly run up this small hill that's behind his house.
他们很快就跑上了他房子后面的这座小山。
And it's all wooded.
而且全都是树林。
There's no houses back there.
后面没有房子。
So they run up this hill with this bag.
于是他们就带着这个包跑上了这座山。
And less than two minutes later, they come running back down.
不到两分钟后，他们又跑回来了。
And they get in the van and they take off.
他们上了面包车然后出发了。
So Jeff and his friends do precisely what you don't want them to do.
所以杰夫和他的朋友们正是做了你不希望他们做的事。
If this were an after school special, this is the point where you're yelling at the TV, saying, don't do it!
如果这是放学后的特别节目，此时你就会对着电视大喊大叫，说，不要这样做！
Stay inside!
呆在里面！
But they decide they have to find out what the strange men in the van have deposited at the top of the hill.
但他们决定必须找出货车里的陌生人在山顶上存放了什么。
So they run up there.
所以他们跑到那里。
We get to the top and we look around.
我们到达顶部并环顾四周。
And then we see that on one side of it, there's this manhole cover-- like a circular manhole cover like you'd see anywhere.
然后我们看到在它的一侧有一个井盖——就像你在任何地方看到的圆形井盖一样。
And coming from one of the edges of the manhole cover-- it's in place-- is long brown hair-- human hair.
从井盖的边缘之一出来——它就位了——是长长的棕色头发——人类的头发。
Long brown human hair.
长长的棕色人类头发。
They are teenagers, they are stoned, they are freaked out.
他们是青少年，他们喝醉了，他们被吓坏了。
They have to tell an adult about what they've seen.
他们必须告诉成年人他们所看到的事情。
A police car happens to drive by.
一辆警车正好驶过。
They flag it down and the officer tells them to get in the back.
他们标记了它，警官告诉他们到后面去。
It became clear that she was really concerned because she then said, yeah, there's been a girl missing on the west side of town for the last couple days.
很明显，她真的很担心，因为她接着说，是的，过去几天镇西边有一个女孩失踪了。
Oh, my god.
我的天啊。
Jeff Dunn So again, our hearts just dropped.
杰夫·邓恩（Jeff Dunn） 我们的心又沉了下去。
And you hadn't known?
而你不知道？
That hadn't been on the news or something like that?
这没有出现在新闻或类似的事情上吗？
We had no idea.
我们不知道。
Sarah Koenig You had no idea.
莎拉·柯尼格 你不知道。
OK.
好的。
Can I stop you for a second?
我可以阻止你一下吗？
Is this story going to get funny or is this a horrifying story?
这个故事会变得有趣还是可怕？
Wait, actually, don't tell me.
等等，实际上，别告诉我。
Don't tell me.
别告诉我。
I can't tell you.
我不能告诉你。
Sarah Koenig OK.
莎拉·科尼格 好的。
Don't tell me.
别告诉我。
So she called another officer and the other officer comes.
于是她打电话给另一名警官，另一名警官就来了。
There's a couple cars.
有几辆车。
And they both get out and they tell us to get out and they say, OK, wait at the bottom of the hill.
他们都下了车，并告诉我们下车，然后他们说，好吧，在山脚下等。
So we're waiting.
所以我们在等待。
They go walking up to the top.
他们走上山顶。
And it's dark, so we can't really see them that well.
而且天很黑，所以我们看不清它们。
But we can see them well enough.
但我们可以清楚地看到它们。
And we don't really want to watch what's going on because we see them bend over, pull the cover off.
我们真的不想看发生了什么，因为我们看到他们弯下腰，把盖子拉下来。
And I'm trying not to look, but of course, I'm looking.
我试着不去看，但当然，我在看。
And she pulls up a human figure out of the hole.
她从洞里拉出了一个人形。
Oh, my god.
我的天啊。
Jeff Dunn And then she says, it's a mannequin.
杰夫邓恩然后她说，这是一个人体模型。
I don't know what my friends were thinking, but I was sitting there thinking, how does this story end up OK?
我不知道我的朋友们在想什么，但我坐在那里想，这个故事的结局怎么样？
And it doesn't in any universe unless you say, it's a mannequin.
它在任何宇宙中都不存在，除非你说，它是一个人体模型。
[SARAH LAUGHS] Sarah Koenig Jeff goes to school on Monday, tells his story in physics class, and the kid next to him says, that was us.
[莎拉笑]莎拉·科尼格·杰夫周一去学校，在物理课上讲述他的故事，他旁边的孩子说，那就是我们。
We did it.
我们做到了。
We went around stealing holiday decorations and we had to get rid of them so we stuffed them under the manhole cover.
我们到处偷节日装饰品，不得不把它们扔掉，所以我们把它们塞到了井盖下。
The mannequin, by the way, had been the Virgin Mary in someone's nativity scene.
顺便说一句，这个人体模型是某人耶稣诞生场景中的圣母玛利亚。
I think the real coincidence is that it's our close friends that caused this to happen to us.
我认为真正的巧合是我们的亲密朋友导致了这件事发生在我们身上。
No, Jeff.
不，杰夫。
Turns out that is not the real coincidence of the story.
事实证明，这并不是故事真正的巧合。
My producer Brian Reed was listening to all these interviews as they were happening and he interrupted us to tell us we both missed the point.
我的制片人布莱恩·里德（Brian Reed）在听所有这些采访时，他打断了我们，告诉我们我们都没有抓住重点。
Brian's just pointed out that I'm missing-- you and I are both missing the big coincidence.
布莱恩刚刚指出我错过了——你和我都错过了这个重大巧合。
I don't even know the coincidence of my own story.
我什至不知道我自己的故事的巧合。
Yeah, I submitted it to the coincidences thing.
是的，我把它提交给了巧合事件。
So the main coincidence is there's a girl missing at the same time.
所以主要的巧合是同时有一个女孩失踪了。
Yeah.
是的。
Sarah Koenig I have five words for you, Jeff.
莎拉·科尼格（Sarah Koenig），杰夫，我有五个字要对你说。
[SPEAKING MANDARIN] Sarah Koenig No coincidence, no story.
[普通话] Sarah Koenig 不是巧合，不是故事。
Here's a definition of coincidence that seems right to me.
这是对我来说似乎正确的巧合的定义。
A coincidence is a surprising concurrence of events perceived as meaningfully related with no apparent causal connection.
巧合是指被认为有意义但没有明显因果关系的事件惊人地同时发生。
It's that middle part-- meaningfully related-- that people seem to get stuck on.
人们似乎被困在中间的部分——有意义的相关部分。
Because when events line up just so, you can't help it.
因为当事情就这样发生时，你会无能为力。
You can't help but wonder if there's a message in that.
你不禁想知道这里面是否有什么信息。
In that way, coincidences are like shortcuts to very big questions about fate, about God, even to people who don't believe in either one.
这样一来，巧合就像是解答关于命运、关于上帝的重大问题的捷径，甚至对于那些不相信其中任何一个的人来说也是如此。
The notion that somewhere out there, someone or something is paying attention to your life-- that there might be a plan conjured through coincidences-- that notion seems to be most appealing when you're young.
当你年轻时，这种想法似乎最有吸引力：在某个地方，有人或某事正在关注你的生活——可能有一个因巧合而产生的计划。
We got one story about a young couple visiting Marrakesh in Morocco.
我们收到一个关于一对年轻夫妇访问摩洛哥马拉喀什的故事。
They're at a restaurant talking, like you do, about old flames.
他们和你一样在一家餐馆里谈论旧情人。
And the boyfriend wanted to know about one guy in particular.
男朋友特别想了解一个人。
I asked, Kate, Kate, what did this guy look like?
我问，凯特，凯特，这家伙长什么样？
And Kate just stopped dead in her tracks and lifted one hand to her mouth, with the other hand pointed across the restaurant.
凯特突然停了下来，一只手举到嘴边，另一只手指向餐厅对面。
And she said, oh, my god.
她说，哦，天啊。
He looked like that.
他看起来就是那样。
And she crossed the restaurant and tapped him on the back of the shoulder.
她穿过餐厅，拍拍他的肩背。
And it was him.
就是他。
The daughter of a jazz guitarist named Andy Riley wrote to us about the time when she was 19.
一位名叫安迪·莱利 (Andy Riley) 的爵士吉他手的女儿写信给我们讲述了她 19 岁时的经历。
She was listening to an Ella Fitzgerald album.
她正在听艾拉·菲茨杰拉德的一张专辑。
I was listening to the song, "That Old Black Magic." And at the end of the song, Ella throws in a line, "that old black magic that Billy Daniels got me in." And I've heard her sing that line on that album dozens of times before and wondered, who's Billy Daniels?
我正在听歌曲“That Old Black Magic”。在歌曲的结尾，艾拉插入了一句台词，“比利·丹尼尔斯让我陷入了那个古老的黑魔法。”我之前已经听她在这张专辑中唱过几十次这句台词了，我想知道比利·丹尼尔斯是谁？
But on this particular day, for some reason, I felt inspired to go out to the living room and ask my dad who Billy Daniels was.
但在这一天，出于某种原因，我受到启发，走到客厅，问我爸爸比利·丹尼尔斯是谁。
And he explained that in the '40s, Billy Daniels had sung "Old Black Magic" in a way that made it his song.
他解释说，在 40 年代，比利·丹尼尔斯 (Billy Daniels) 演唱了《Old Black Magic》，这使得它成为了他的歌曲。
And he was referred to as Mr. Black Magic, I guess, back in the '40s.
我想，早在 40 年代，他就被称为“黑魔法先生”。
And it was a big deal at the time.
这在当时是一件大事。
And I asked my dad, had you met him?
我问我爸爸，你见过他吗？
Did you ever know Billy Daniels?
你认识比利·丹尼尔斯吗？
And he said that Billy Daniels was probably dead now.
他说比利丹尼尔斯现在可能已经死了。
And literally at that moment, the phone rang.
就在那时，电话响了。
So I answer the phone.
所以我接电话。
And this playful, gravelly voice asked for Andy Riley.
这个顽皮、沙哑的声音要求找安迪·莱利。
And I said, who's calling?
我说，谁打来的电话？
And he said, Billy Daniels.
他说，比利·丹尼尔斯。
So, last September, I was living in Roswell, New Mexico.
所以，去年九月，我住在新墨西哥州罗斯威尔。
And I had woken up in jail for the last time.
我最后一次在监狱里醒来。
This is Etta Thordarson.
这是埃塔·索达森。
When this happened, she was 20 years old, on drugs, hanging out with street kids.
事情发生时，她 20 岁，正在吸毒，与街头儿童混在一起。
Her mom offered to buy her a bus ticket to Washington state to go to rehab.
她妈妈提出给她买一张去华盛顿州戒毒所的巴士票。
Etta said, yes.
埃塔说，是的。
She took her dog and got on the bus.
她带着她的狗上了公共汽车。
In Los Angeles, there was a stopover at the depot and this guy comes up to her while she's waiting in line to get food.
在洛杉矶，有一次在车站停留，当她排队领取食物时，这个人向她走来。
She's got $2-- just enough for some French fries.
她有 2 美元——只够吃一些炸薯条。
The guy starts asking her questions about her dog.
那家伙开始问她有关她的狗的问题。
And he starts asking me other random questions, like, what are you doing?
他开始问我其他随机问题，比如，你在做什么？
Where are you going?
你要去哪里？
And then he asks me, are you from Alaska?
然后他问我，你是阿拉斯加人吗？
And I was like, yeah, I am, actually.
我当时想，是的，实际上我是。
And then he asked me, is your mom named Meg?
然后他问我，你妈妈叫梅格吗？
And I was like, mm-hmm.
我当时想，嗯嗯。
Yeah.
是的。
She is.
她是。
And he was like, oh, well-- well, I'm Chris.
他说，哦，好吧——好吧，我是克里斯。
I'm your father.
我是你的父亲。
I met you 10 years ago.
10年前我遇见了你。
And I was like, oh, holy [BEEP].
我当时想，哦，天啊[哔]。
Etta had only seen her father that one time, briefly, when she was 11.
埃塔只见过她父亲一次，时间很短，那是在她 11 岁的时候。
And then he pulls out a big wad of money and he pays for my food.
然后他拿出一大笔钱来付我的食物费。
And then he hands me $40.
然后他递给我 40 美元。
And was like, don't say I never gave you nothing and walked away.
然后就说，别说我什么也没给过你，然后就走开了。
That-- what-- I-- I'm shocked by this story.
那——什么——我——我对这个故事感到震惊。
And he didn't-- that was it?
但他没有——就这样？
You didn't see him again?
你没有再见到他吗？
He didn't--
他没有——
Did you expect something more to happen?
您是否期望发生更多事情？
Did you think, oh, well, here's how this is going to go.
你有没有想过，哦，好吧，事情会这样发展。
Yeah.
是的。
I really thought we were going to go sit down and eat together and I was going to lay out my whole life story for him and he was going to explain his life and where he's been.
我真的以为我们会坐下来一起吃饭，我会向他讲述我的整个人生故事，他会解释他的生活和他去过的地方。
I was looking forward to that.
我很期待这一点。
But it didn't happen.
但它没有发生。
Mostly, I want to study his face for longer just because that's-- I've seen him twice and I still can't really remember what he looks like.
大多数情况下，我想更长时间地研究他的脸，只是因为——我见过他两次，但我仍然记不起他长什么样。
Do you regret not pursuing him in some way?
你后悔没有以某种方式追求他吗？
Yeah, absolutely.
是的，绝对是。
In the moment, I was just-- I was so sick.
那一刻，我只是——我太难受了。
I just really couldn't comprehend.
我实在是无法理解。
It wasn't until I got on the bus that I was just-- why didn't I run after him?
直到上车后我才发现——我为什么不追他呢？
I've just spent my whole life wondering about this man and the chance to talk to him was put right in front of my face and I didn't really understand that at the time.
我一生都在思考这个男人，与他交谈的机会就摆在我面前，但当时我并没有真正理解这一点。
And I let it go.
我就放手了。
Emiliana Garcia-Sarnoff also hadn't seen his father in many years, since he was seven or eight years old.
艾米利亚娜·加西亚-萨诺夫也已经很多年没有见过他的父亲了，从他七八岁起。
He lived in California, but he was visiting a national park in Mexico with his mother when he was 18 and they hiked to the top of a pyramid there.
他住在加利福尼亚州，但 18 岁时，他和母亲一起参观了墨西哥的一个国家公园，他们徒步登上了那里的金字塔顶。
The whole place was sort of off the beaten track.
整个地方有点偏僻。
We were walking along and some people passed in front of us and my mom said, oh, my god.
我们走着走着，有些人从我们前面经过，我妈妈说，哦，天啊。
Raul?
劳尔？
And then she turned to me and said, that's your father.
然后她转向我说，那是你的父亲。
That's your dad.
那是你爸爸。
And it was.
确实如此。
Also, coincidentally, it was Father's Day.
而且，巧合的是，那天是父亲节。
I ended up, embarrassingly, breaking down and crying on that pyramid.
最后，我尴尬地在金字塔上崩溃哭泣。
It was a really emotional moment for me.
这对我来说是一个非常激动人心的时刻。
My father definitely-- his absence meant a lot to me.
我父亲无疑——他的缺席对我来说意义重大。
And we said, yeah, we're going to stay in contact.
我们说，是的，我们会保持联系。
And after they said bye, they left.
说完再见后，他们就离开了。
And he came running back up the hill about 20 minutes later.
大约20分钟后，他跑回山上。
And you could hear him panting.
你可以听到他的喘息声。
And he said, Emiliano, I just want to say I'm sorry that I didn't stay in touch and that I love you.
他说，埃米利亚诺，我只想说，我很抱歉我没有保持联系，而且我爱你。
And he turned and went back down the hill.
然后他转身就往山下走去。
Emiliano's story goes the way Etta wishes hers had gone.
埃米利亚诺的故事正如埃塔所希望的那样发展。
After a rocky few years, he and his father did get to know each other and each other's families.
经过几年的坎坷之后，他和父亲确实了解了彼此以及彼此的家人。
Emiliano had a son who now had a grandfather.
埃米利亚诺有一个儿子，现在也有了祖父。
Emiliano's father had left him when he was a baby, but when his father died some years ago, Emiliano was there at the hospital.
埃米利亚诺的父亲在他还是个婴儿的时候就离开了他，但当他的父亲几年前去世时，埃米利亚诺就在医院里。
They'd had a real relationship and that never would have happened, Emiliano said, if he hadn't seen him that day at the pyramid.
埃米利亚诺说，如果那天他没有在金字塔看到他，他们之间的关系就永远不会发生。
Walking down that pyramid, I was talking out loud to myself.
沿着金字塔走下去，我大声自言自语。
And I was saying-- this is one strong memory I have.
我说——这是我的一个强烈的记忆。
I was saying, don't forget, don't forget.
我说，不要忘记，不要忘记。
Just getting angry with my future self, which I knew would rationalize this event.
只是对未来的自己生气，我知道这会让这件事合理化。
Because I had a very distinct sense that I had felt that this was definitely a miracle.
因为我有一种很明显的感觉，我觉得这绝对是一个奇迹。
Something had intervened and brought us together.
有某种东西介入并将我们聚集在一起。
You don't just run into your father on top of a pyramid.
你不只是在金字塔顶上遇到你的父亲。
So I think I was a believer for about a week.
所以我想我信主大约一周了。
And then--
然后——
And then, that very pause-- Act Five: What Are The Chances?
然后，就在那一刻——第五幕：机会是什么？
Sarah Koenig That brings us to Act Five, What Are the Chances?
莎拉·柯尼格 接下来我们进入第五幕，机会是什么？
In order to let a good coincidence live a long and healthy life-- to get told and retold and take its rightful place in the narrative of your life-- sometimes you have to stop yourself from thinking it all the way through-- why it happened, really.
为了让一个美好的巧合活得长久而健康——被讲述和重述，并在你的生活叙述中占有应有的位置——有时你必须阻止自己从头到尾思考它——它为什么会发生，真的。
Because the fact is, any statistician will probably rain on your parade, will tell you these things happen a lot more often than you think.
因为事实是，任何统计学家都可能会对你的游行大加赞赏，会告诉你这些事情发生的频率比你想象的要多得多。
But a good coincidence is like a good magic trick.
但一个好的巧合就像一个好的魔术。
When you see one, a struggle ensues instantaneously between the thrill of the apparent miracle and the urge to debunk it.
当你看到一个奇迹时，你会立即在明显的奇迹带来的兴奋和揭穿它的冲动之间展开斗争。
This final story is by Kerry Weeks.
最后一个故事由克里·威克斯撰写。
He's a prop guy for the movies, but he told this at a storytelling competition.
他是电影的道具师，但他在讲故事比赛中讲述了这一点。
Here's my story.
这是我的故事。
I'm nine years old-- first time going to summer camp.
我九岁了——第一次去夏令营。
And my grandfather gives me-- before I go, he gives me his old pocket knife.
在我走之前，我的祖父给了我他的旧小刀。
It's practically an antique.
这实际上是一件古董。
And so the first thing all of us boys do when we get to camp is we pull out our knives and we start throwing them at things, trying to get them to stick the way Daniel Boone did.
所以当我们到达营地时，我们所有男孩做的第一件事就是拔出刀子，然后开始把它们扔到东西上，试图让它们像丹尼尔·布恩那样粘在一起。
And because it's the 1970s, there's nothing unusual about a bunch of young children throwing sharp knives around.
因为现在是 20 世纪 70 年代，一群小孩子乱扔锋利的刀子并不奇怪。
[LAUGHTER] And I got mine to stick in the floorboard.
[笑声]我把我的粘在地板上。
It was like, "wong." And it was great.
就像“黄”一样。这太棒了。
But when I pulled it out, the tip broke off.
但当我把它拔出来时，尖端就断了。
But anyway, camp goes on.
但无论如何，训练营还是要继续。
And a few days later, I notice my knife is missing.
几天后，我发现我的刀不见了。
And I look everywhere for it.
我到处寻找它。
I look high, I look low.
我看起来高，我看起来低。
It's gone.
它消失了。
But then one day, I'm walking through camp and I see this group of boys throwing knives at a tree and something tells me I should check this out.
但有一天，我走过营地时，看到一群男孩向一棵树扔刀，我觉得我应该去看看。
And sure enough, there's this boy in there throwing my knife.
果然，有个男孩在那里扔我的刀。
Now, there's no mistaking this knife because the handle was red and green, but the colors met in the middle and kind of swirled together in a trippy, psychedelic way.
现在，毫无疑问这把刀是因为刀柄是红色和绿色的，但颜色在中间相遇并以一种迷幻的、迷幻的方式旋转在一起。
And I've never seen a knife like that before or since.
我以前或之后从未见过这样的刀。
So I walk up to this boy.
于是我走向这个男孩。
He's a little older, but I walk up to him and I say, hey, that's my knife.
他年纪大了一点，但我走到他面前说，嘿，那是我的刀。
And he says, no, it's mine.
他说，不，这是我的。
And I say, no, that's my knife.
我说，不，那是我的刀。
My grandfather gave it to me.
我的祖父把它给了我。
And he says, no, he didn't.
他说，不，他没有。
[LAUGHTER] He says, my grandfather gave it to me.
[笑声]他说，这是我祖父给我的。
And I'm confused all of a sudden.
我突然很困惑。
Maybe I should have thought this through a bit more.
也许我应该再考虑一下。
I thought he would just hand it over.
我以为他会把它交给我。
And the other boys-- they move in close.
其他男孩——他们靠得很近。
And I'm thinking, could it be possible that his grandfather gave him the exact same knife that my grandfather gave me?
我在想，他的祖父给他的刀有可能和我祖父给我的那把刀一模一样吗？
Is this a thing and I just didn't know it?
这是一件事而我只是不知道吗？
[LAUGHTER] But I look at the knife he's holding in his hand and I look at the blade and I see that the tip of the blade is squared off, as though it were broken.
[笑声] 但我看着他手里拿着的刀，我看着刀片，我发现刀片的尖端是方形的，就好像它被折断了一样。
And I say, that's my knife because I broke the tip off when I stuck it in the floor.
我说，那是我的刀，因为我把它插在地板上时把刀尖折断了。
And he says, what, that?
他说，什么，那个？
No, it came that way so you can use it like a screwdriver.
不，它是这样的，所以你可以像螺丝刀一样使用它。
[LAUGHTER] And I look at the other boys and I'm not getting any help from them.
[笑声] 我看着其他男孩，我没有从他们那里得到任何帮助。
And so I wander off, just thinking to myself, screwdriver.
于是我就走开了，心里想着，螺丝刀。
I never thought of that.
我从来没有想过这一点。
[LAUGHTER] Well, as you can imagine, this really bugged me.
[笑声] 嗯，你可以想象，这真的让我很烦恼。
And I don't mean just while I was at camp, but for the rest of my life.
我的意思不仅仅是我在营地的时候，而是我的余生。
[LAUGHTER] And I kept thinking, why did I fold so easily?
[笑声] 我一直在想，为什么我这么容易就弃牌了？
Why didn't I go to the counselors?
我为什么不去找辅导员？
And the only thing I can think of is this.
我唯一能想到的就是这个。
I'm the son of a physicist.
我是物理学家的儿子。
And I used to ask my dad these questions all the time like, Dad, how far away is the sun?
我常常问爸爸这些问题，比如，爸爸，太阳离我们有多远？
Dad, how fast is the speed of light?
爸爸，光速有多快？
Dad, what's the closest star?
爸爸，最近的星星是哪颗？
And he would give me these answers and these numbers that were just so [BEEP] huge, I couldn't get my mind around them.
他会给我这些答案和这些数字，这些数字是如此[哔]巨大，我无法理解它们。
So my point is this.
所以我的观点是这样的。
I, better than most other children, had an idea of just how vast the universe is.
我比大多数其他孩子更清楚宇宙有多大。
[LAUGHTER] And therefore, how infinite the possibilities are.
[笑声] 因此，可能性是多么无限。
So the thing is, at the time, I thought, well, maybe the kid's telling the truth.
所以问题是，当时我想，好吧，也许这孩子说的是实话。
The only reason why I bring this up is because this is what I was thinking of when, some 32 years later, I become the landlord of a small apartment building.
我提出这个问题的唯一原因是，大约 32 年后，当我成为一栋小公寓楼的房东时，我就是这么想的。
And one of the first things I did as a landlord was I threw this guy out because he was a small time drug dealer.
作为房东，我做的第一件事就是把这个人赶出去，因为他是个小毒贩。
On the day he's moving out, I get a call from his neighbor across the hall-- a guy I call Budweiser Bob.
在他搬出去的那天，我接到了他穿过大厅的邻居的电话——我称他为百威鲍勃。
And Budweiser Bob says, hey, that druggie is stealing your refrigerator.
百威鲍勃说，嘿，那个毒贩正在偷你的冰箱。
[LAUGHTER] And so I hop down there.
[笑声]所以我跳到那里。
And sure enough, in the driveway is a pickup truck.
果然，车道上停着一辆皮卡车。
And in the back of the pickup truck is a refrigerator.
皮卡车的后面有一个冰箱。
So I charge up the stairs and I demand to know just what the hell is going on.
于是我冲上楼梯，想知道到底发生了什么事。
And Nick, the druggie, calmly tells me-- he says, dude, when I moved in here, that refrigerator was so gross, I bought my own refrigerator and swapped it out.
吸毒者尼克平静地告诉我——他说，伙计，当我搬到这里时，那个冰箱太恶心了，我买了自己的冰箱，然后把它换掉了。
And I put that one in storage.
我把那个放进了储藏室。
And now I'm just putting it back.
现在我只是把它放回去。
And I look in the kitchen.
我看看厨房。
And sure enough, there's another refrigerator.
果然，还有一台冰箱。
It's a little old, a little dirty, but it's working.
它有点旧，有点脏，但还能用。
And I'm trying to think this through.
我正在努力思考这个问题。
Would someone really go to all that trouble of just swapping out a refrigerator and then putting it in storage and bringing it back?
真的会有人不辞辛劳地把冰箱换掉，然后把它放进储藏室，然后再把它带回来吗？
Or would a guy go to the trouble of stealing a used refrigerator just to screw his landlord and replacing it with an even more used refrigerator?
或者，一个人会不辞辛劳地偷一台二手冰箱，只是为了惹恼他的房东，然后换上一台更二手的冰箱吗？
[LAUGHTER] And well, the answer to both these questions is yes.
[笑声] 嗯，这两个问题的答案都是肯定的。
[LAUGHTER] But I look up, and there's Nick.
[笑声] 但我抬头一看，尼克就在那里。
And he's expecting me to say something.
他在等我说点什么。
And there's his buddies, who are helping him move.
还有他的朋友，他们正在帮助他移动。
And they're expecting me to say something.
他们期待我说些什么。
So I walk up to Nick and I look him in the eye and I say to him, you sweep up real good before you leave.
于是我走到尼克面前，看着他的眼睛，对他说，在你离开之前，你把扫地扫得很干净。
[LAUGHTER] Because there's just too many possibilities in this universe.
[笑声]因为这个宇宙里有太多的可能性。
Thank you.
谢谢。
[APPLAUSE] Sarah Koenig Kerry Weeks lives in New York.
[掌声] Sarah Koenig Kerry Weeks 住在纽约。
His story was recorded live at a Moth story slam in New York City.
他的故事是在纽约市的蛾故事大满贯活动中现场录制的。
You can download the Moth podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
您可以在 iTunes 或任何可以获取播客的地方下载 Moth 播客。
At the beginning of the show, I said I was a skeptic.
在节目开始时，我说我是一个怀疑论者。
But after talking to so many people about coincidences-- including a Stanford mathematician who spent decades studying them-- I end up here, agreeing with this one woman I interviewed about her coincidence.
但在与很多人讨论过巧合之后——包括一位花了几十年时间研究巧合的斯坦福大学数学家——我最终同意了我采访的一位女士关于巧合的看法。
She knew her story could probably be explained away with statistics and probability.
她知道她的故事可能可以用统计数据和概率来解释。
But she said, there's just a poetry to things like this when they happen.
但她说，当这样的事情发生时，简直就是一首诗。
There's some kind of beauty in it.
其中有某种美感。
There's meaning in the noticing of it at all.
注意到它是有意义的。
[MUSIC - "CHILDREN OF COINCIDENCE" BY DORY PREVIN]
[音乐 - “巧合之子”，作者：Dory PREVIN]
Our program was produced today by Brian Reed and me, with Alex Blumberg, Ben Calhoun, Miki Meek, Jonathan Menjivar, Lisa Pollak, Robyn Semien, Alissa Shipp, and Nancy Updike.
今天我们的节目由我和 Brian Reed 以及 Alex Blumberg、Ben Calhoun、Miki Meek、Jonathan Menjivar、Lisa Pollak、Robyn Semien、Alissa Shipp 和 Nancy Updike 共同制作。
Senior producer for this episode was Julie Snyder.
本集的高级制片人是朱莉·斯奈德。
Our technical director is Matt Tierney.
我们的技术总监是马特·蒂尔尼。
Production help from Emmanuel Dzotsi and Diane Wu.
Emmanuel Dzotsi 和 Diane Wu 提供制作帮助。
Seth Lind is our operations director.
塞思·林德 (Seth Lind) 是我们的运营总监。
Emily Condon's our production manager.
艾米丽·康登是我们的生产经理。
Elise Bergerson's our administrative assistant.
埃莉斯·伯格森是我们的行政助理。
Music help from Damian Graef and Rob Geddis.
Damian Graef 和 Rob Geddis 提供音乐帮助。
Our original music about the immaculate dollar was written and performed by Bry Webb and Rich Burnett, produced by Bry and Jeff McMurrich.
我们关于完美美元的原创音乐由 Bry Webb 和 Rich Burnett 创作并演奏，由 Bry 和 Jeff McMurrich 制作。
His website, brywebb.com.
他的网站是brywebb.com。
Our website is thisamericanlife.org, where, this week, we have extra coincidence stories from you that all involve your photographs.
我们的网站是 thisamericanlife.org，本周，我们有更多来自您的巧合故事，所有故事都涉及您的照片。
That's at thisamericanlife.org.
这是在 thisamericanlife.org。
Thanks also to Torey Malatia, who's on vacation with Ira this week.
还要感谢本周与 Ira 一起度假的 Torey Malatia。
They were so excited for their cruise, but it seems like by day three, the fun is starting to fade.
他们对这次巡游感到非常兴奋，但似乎到了第三天，乐趣就开始消失了。
You are impossible to argue with.
你是无法与之争论的。
So when you ask, you are so set in you ways.
所以当你问的时候，你就已经固执己见了。
I'm 81.
我81岁了。
OK.
好的。
Yeah, OK.
是的，好的。
Sarah Koenig I'm Sarah Koenig.
莎拉·柯尼格 我是莎拉·柯尼格。
Ira Glass will be back next week with more stories of This American Life.
艾拉·格拉斯将于下周回归，带来更多《美国生活》的故事。
This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.
《This American Life》与 WBEZ Chicago 合作制作，并由 PRX 公共广播电台传送到各电台。