Kid Logic

儿童逻辑

This American Life

2026-02-16

1 小时 0 分钟
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Kids using perfectly logical arguments and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: Ira talks with Rebecca who, using perfectly valid evidence, arrived at the perfectly incorrect conclusion that her neighbor, Ronnie Loeberfeld, was the tooth fairy. Ira also talks with Dr. Alison Gopnik, co-author of the book, "The Scientist in the Crib," about what exactly kid logic is. (6 minutes)Act One: More stories like the one in the prologue, where kids look at something going on around them, observe it carefully, think about it logically, and come to conclusions that are completely incorrect. (11 minutes)Act Two: Michael Chabon reads an excerpt from his short story "Werewolves in Their Youth," from his collection of the same name, about an act of kid logic that succeeds where adult logic fails. (16 minutes)Act Three: Howie Chackowicz tried a risky combination when he was little, kid logic with puppy love. He used to think that girls would fall in love with him if they could just see him sleeping or hear him read aloud. He revisits his biggest childhood crush and finds out that not only did his methods not work, but that no one even noticed them. (10 minutes)Act Four: Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: Children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong. Including the tale of a girl who received a tissue box for Christmas, allegedly painted by trained monkeys. (13 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org This American Life privacy policy. Learn more about sponsor message choices.
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  • Rebecca remembers exactly when she learned the astonishing truth.

  • She was in second grade and ran into her best friend Rachel at school one day.

  • And she pulled me aside and said, you know, last night, you know,

  • I lost a tooth and I woke up

  • while the tooth fairy was putting the money under my pillow and guess who the tooth fairy was.

  • She said, oh my God, who was it?

  • I have to know.

  • And she said, my dad, my dad is the tooth fairy.

  • And I remember running home after school and telling my mom, mom, I know who the Tooth Fairy is.

  • And declaring it as if I had grown up, that I knew who the Tooth Fairy was.

  • And she said, oh, well, who is the Tooth Fairy?

  • And I turned to her and I said, Rachel's dad is the Tooth Fairy.

  • Ronnie Loeberfeld is the Tooth Fairy.

  • And she said, I can't believe you know.

  • It's totally a secret, you can't let anyone else know, but you're right, Ronnie is the Tooth Fairy,

  • and you know, he works really hard, and you know, it's a secret, so you can't let anyone else know.

  • He is the Tooth Fairy, but you can't let anyone else know.

  • And from that day on, Ronnie, Ronnie Loeberfeld was the Tooth Fairy,

  • and all of my notes under my pillow were signed, Love Ronnie Loeberfeld.

  • In his day job, what did Ronnie Globerfeld do?