wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Debra Gwartney is a shallow cruel person one hesitates to call a writer. She never considered, in this book, her kids' motives for running away. Check out the review in the "Portland Alliance" by Therresa Kennedy.

i just read the book, and the dad actually encouraged the girls to run away. people say the mom didn't parent them right, but she expected them to follow reasonable rules and the dad constantly undermined her. also, since the two girls had each other, they just bonded together and turned on the mom, who was trying to raise two other daughters as well. I feel bad for the younger girls, who paid the price of their older sisters' selfishness.

I'm very grateful that I'd left the office briefly and so happened to hear this interview - regardless of how well or poorly it was conducted.

I intend to read the book. While I'm sure that Gwartney herself found it helpful to write the book, she also surely knows how much families in crisis can benefit from reading someone else's story.

Thanks to those who pointed out the terrific 2002 This American Life episode.

I suspect that there are many parents in the listening area who only wish they could find this topic - or any interview on it - boring.

The girls are brats and still do not sound responsible. Good Lord. How dare mom give direction?

I just listen to the This American Life version and it was a lot more interesting, though I STILL don't really understand what went on. I'm not confident that the book gets at the root of it either. Maybe if Stephanie (the younger daughter) wrote her own book ... she's the one who seems to feel nostalgic about the whole thing.

Yawn!!! This was the worst segment is sometime.

worst interview ever

Wow. I'm not sure what was supposed to be happening there. The one daughter (Amanda) sounded like she didn't want to be there AT ALL but then there was all this sisterly teasing going on ... very strange. I agree w/ the person who said that it didn't even rise to being lurid. But I felt Leonard was very nice to them about it all.

strange little segment there....however the story of these three women was told brilliantly on This American Life. believe it or not it was compelling from start to finish.

So Annoying...Must be a slow day in the news room.

Was there a gun to their heads? Ugh.

Wait... there were three of them on the air?
They could use some uppers or maybe a trip to starbucks

good lord. were they FORCED to come out and promote their own book/story?!

Can't she just take responsibility for screwing up the kiddo's?
She acting like it was someone else was the parent.

At least Joan Rivers could crack a few jokes or get beyond one word answers!

I want to hear what the dad had to say.

I worked at an all ages pool hall in Eugene for years. The kids in that town are a mess.
There is a pack mentality that living on the streets is a great solution. Sadly, many of the kids that I came to know from then are now homeless adults.

Please make it end, now, please, please, please.

So what exactly is so bad about hopping a freight train to Tucson?

Nothing personal, but this is a very uninteresting segment.

Why are we listening to this boring story about uninteresting people that does not even rise to being lurid?

#12 - you must have missed the Joan Rivers segment...

*GASP* Heroin! This is so cliche...

WORST segment in my two years of daily listening.

The exposure this will provide to the author mother is sickening.

Sure a lot of people have done it but did they write a book about it??
Or should I say did their mom write a book about it??

This is painful to listen to. Bad idea having them all on at once.

I used to live in one of these counter culture towns with lots of runaway kids and dropouts. There are a lot of great memories from those times but after growing up like that it's hard to get used to the "money first" attitude of New York. In New York even self-proclaimed "leftists" are all wannabe corporate lawyers and hedge fund managers.

This is like the lost episode of "My So Called Life"...

I knew a lot of people that did this for fun. Not hippies wandering around, but runaway gutter punks, tons of drugs, living everywhere, riding trains...

Not so compelling.

Wow, I feel sorry for these people - they need to get some family therapy; it sounds like there are tons of issues that haven't been addressed. The kids sound numb.

And... forget drinking beer, let's get to the nitty gritty - clearly worse stuff than that happened.

I had a similarly permissive high school time, and although I wasn't on the street, I consider it as being "raised by wolves", even though my family was middle class.

Pathetic - what a waste of air space. C'mon, middle class kids running away - this is not new, for goodness' sake!! Get these people off the air, please!

No kidding, Kitty - did they just find out 5 minutes ago they'd be on air? Poor Leonard.

I feel for people in this situation. I'm sure these are very intersting people -- but this interview is pretty boring.

Good lord, these people need to learn to speak on-air... would be lovely to answer questions with more than one syllable, ladies.