This American Life - Chance and Second Chance

Ralph Fisher and Sandra Reddell in some ways seem like stand-ins for the so-called 'primitives' of anthropology's darker days; they are old and from Texas. They are simple people somehow unlike us, removed by their strange dealings with these bulls and their dogged faith in miraculous powers of science. The firm, barely smiling way Ms. Reddell tells Ira Glass he's wrong about Chance being less demonstrative than other animals marginalizes her as some sort of mild zealot, while Chance's (or another bull's) head is somewhat paradoxically mounted above her television.

These people have a relationship with this animal, the show implies, that we simply cannot understand, a relationship that runs the gamut from their letting Chance wander around their yard to taking pictures with his body and skinning it upon his death. The way Mr. Fisher describes alternately skinning Chance's body and crying is particularly arresting. Ralph Fisher and Sarah Reddell characterize Chance as being very much like the family's dog or cat, except for the size, but the way they act in his death is utterly unlike the typical family's response to a beloved pet's death. They skin their pet, and keep the hide in a box in their closet. When Ms. Reddell takes the hide out of the box, she explains, "This is Chance...He's all empty." It is clear they love this animal. Mr. Fisher has tears in his eyes when he describes the way they begged Texas A&M to clone chance. But within This American Life, these people and their affection for this bull, Chance are rendered absurd. As Ira Glass explains, this particular episode is about how "people get snapped back to reality." The Fishers, in other words, were previously outside of reality, in some place of faith and friendly bulls. Because they treated Chance as a pet and believed that science could bring him back, despite Second Chance's violence, they are Other. Whereas in the episode's prologue, we are all meant to emphasize with and imagine ourselves as the young "peezilla," our relationship with Sarah Reddell and Ralph Fisher is comparatively one of distance and head shaking.