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August 12, 2011

Amusement Park

We head to some of the happiest places on earth: amusement parks! Ira Glass takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, where the young staff – coached by a funny, fun-loving boss just a little older than they are – truly seem to love their jobs.  

Photo of a roller coaster

xavdlp / iStock

Prologue

Prologue

Host Ira Glass walks through a Kansas City Missouri amusement park called Worlds of Fun with Cole Lindbergh, who had a season pass to the park as a little kid, starting working there summers at 14, and then just stayed. Now he's a full-time, year-round employee, running the games department. It's possible he does this job better than anyone in the country. It's rare to witness someone so happily great at his job. (9 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Gameboy Grows Up

Ira continues with Cole Lindbergh and the hundred teenagers who work for him in the games department at Worlds of Fun. We watch them compete against each other to see who can do the most business, in Cole's Sweet Sixteen bracket tournament, which pits all 32 games in the park against each other. We hear about all the things Cole does that other games managers don't. He invents games. He directs music videos starring his team. (23 minutes)

Cole's Worlds of Fun videos mentioned in Act One:

By

Ira Glass
Act Two

Great Adventures

We asked for your stories about amusement parks. Three hundred of you called in, with stories of fear, floating carnies and, um, vomit. (9 minutes)

By

Jane Feltes
Ira Glass

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