Eric Pahls: I am in the mountains of southwest Pennsylvania-- or hills-- right now, so I hope I don't lose you.

Ira Glass: I'd say that part of the drive is so incredible because suddenly you really are not in the Midwest.

Eric Pahls: Right. The houses get older and the land gets a little more diverse than it was.

Ira Glass: Yeah. There's hills suddenly.

Eric Pahls: Yeah. Right. Not flat, I guess, in other words.

Ira Glass: Yeah. And describe the scene. Explain who's with each other right there in the truck.

Eric Pahls: Yeah, we are in a GMC pickup with a U-Haul trailer on the back of it. My dad's driving. My younger brother's in here, as well.

Ira Glass: And explain why you're going to DC.

Eric Pahls: I'm going because I am the press secretary for an incoming congressman.

XXX

Eric Pahls: I didn't realize I had that many ties till I went to pack. I would say probably 30 to 40 ties.

Ira Glass: Oh, wow. You own more than I do.

Eric Pahls: Well, last Christmas I asked to be a member of the Tie of the Month club.

Ira Glass: Now, I'm no expert on being a press secretary, but from seeing them on TV, it just seems like you could get by with like four ties-- blue, red, blue stripe, red stripe.

Eric Pahls: Right. I get really self-conscious about wearing the same tie like more than once in a couple weeks. I also just really like ties.

XXX

Zoe Chace: But he tweets out hateful things.

Kat Niedermair: Are they really hateful?

Zoe Chace: "I can't wait till you're deported," "deport you." That is hateful.

Kat Niedermair: Yeah, I guess. I think he's joking, though.

Zoe Chace: Yeah, but--

Kat Niedermair: I know, I know.

Zoe Chace: You kind of like that stuff?

Kat Niedermair: Uh-- no. I mean, yeah. I don't know. I like trolling. I enjoy trolling because I think that things should be talked about. I think that trolling encourages that. But I don't know. I mean, I think that if you're saying that actually at somebody, then-- I mean, it depends on the context.

XXX

Kat Niedermair: He was trolling.

Zoe Chace: But why is that a joke?

Kat Niedermair: Because you can't say it. Because it offends people. That's why it's a joke.

Zoe Chace: It offends people, but it also has consequences, right? Like when people said heil Hitler, there were these big consequences. They just don't care about the consequences?

Kat Niedermair: Not really. But they also-- he said "hail Trump" because he thought it was funny, because it's like not really quite "heil," but it's like very close. I see a lot of the kids online are either LARPing-- Live-Action Role-Playing-- or just seeking to offend because they want a reaction.

XXX

Seth Freed Wessler: So where are-- like where are you sitting right now?

Kenia: We're actually sitting in a tree.

Seth Freed Wessler: What do you mean you're sitting in a tree? Like in a tree?

Kenia: Yeah. There's this small tree by the house, so we're just sitting here to get clearer sound because of the signal.

Seth Freed Wessler: How far off the ground are you sitting right now?

Kenia: How many feet is like that branch?

Henrri: That branch? It would be like five feet.

Kenia: Yeah, like five feet. Like my height.

XXX

Henrri: I feel like as time passes I do love it here and everything.

Kenia: It's like a romantic little dream you have of living here in peace.

Henrri: If we could live in peace, then yes. I would say definitely. But that's the thing. You do one wrong thing and you don't get a redo.

Kenia: Yeah, things are super hard here. Beautiful, beautiful place, but life is damn hard.

Henrri: It's tough.

XXX

Stephanie Foo: You're like the welcoming committee.

Chris Cabrera: In a sense, yeah. We're a welcoming committee.

Stephanie Foo: That's your job.

Chris Cabrera: Yeah.

Stephanie Foo: That must be frustrating.

Chris Cabrera: Yeah. You're figuring, what's my job come to? I'm releasing 80% of the people that are coming through.

XXX

Trump Supporters: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!

Chris Cabrera: It was interesting. Granted, I think that's kind of like a symbolic thing-- "build the wall" that they chant. Nobody knows what's going to happen with the wall, but just for the fact that we have that support nationally as far as Border Patrol agents--

Stephanie Foo: Oh, you didn't see it as like, I'm stoked about the wall. You were like, oh, look at all of those people who support me.

Chris Cabrera: Yeah. I think they're realizing that what we have is a real job and it's a difficult job, and we're actually on their radar.