David Kestenbaum: It's called Universe Splitter.

Ira Glass: OK, so now I've opened it up. And there's, like, a gray steel, fake steel background. And it says in white type on top of it, Universe Splitter, quantum-induced universe bifurcation. What do I do now?

David Kestenbaum: All right, so tell me something you are having trouble making up your mind about what to do.

Ira Glass: You and I are recording this on December 31.

David Kestenbaum: Yeah.

Ira Glass: And I've had a week off. I grew a beard.

David Kestenbaum: I noticed.

Ira Glass: And I'm trying to decide if I should shave it off. And so that's something I'm trying to decide.

David Kestenbaum: I have an opinion on that, but--

Ira Glass: What's your opinion?

David Kestenbaum: Actually, I think it looks pretty good right now.

Ira Glass: OK, so what does this Universe Splitter do?

David Kestenbaum: It lets you do both. Like, it creates a duplicate of this universe so that in one you get to grow the beard, and in the other you shave it off.

Ira Glass: Wait, that's what we're going to do?

David Kestenbaum: Yeah.

Ira Glass: For pretend or for real?

David Kestenbaum: No, no, for real, maybe. This is a thing. It's called the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. And there are a lot of really smart physicists who think this is probably what's happening.

Ira Glass: OK, so how does this work? Like, what do I do next?

David Kestenbaum: All right, so there are two boxes there?

Ira Glass: Yeah. In one box it says, In one universe, I will now.

David Kestenbaum: OK, so put, shave off beard tonight.

Ira Glass: Hold on-- shave off beard tonight. OK, and then the other box is labeled, In the other universe. In the other one, I will now--

David Kestenbaum: Put keep beard.

Ira Glass: Keep beard.

David Kestenbaum: OK. And then what's below it?

Ira Glass: And then below it there's like a button with like, an atom drawn on it.

David Kestenbaum: Yeah.

Ira Glass: Like an atom like you would draw it in a 1950s cartoon.

David Kestenbaum: Yeah, that's like the aesthetic of the whole thing. It's like an old piece of scientific equipment.

Ira Glass: So what does it do when you push the button?

David Kestenbaum: So if you push the button, it sends a signal to a fancy piece of scientific equipment at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. And the equipment these days can be tiny, like a little box you can hold in your hand. And it does the following. It takes a single particle of light, a photon, it sends it at a kind of mirror that can make the photon either go left or right. You can think of it that way.

Ira Glass: Like at random it'll go either left or right?

David Kestenbaum: Well, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, which govern very small things, it actually goes both. It's not that we don't know. It actually goes left and right at the same time.

Ira Glass: OK.

David Kestenbaum: So that's super weird, right? But that is actually true, and demonstrated, and like we've known that since the 20s.

Ira Glass: OK. So then what happens in this device in Geneva?

David Kestenbaum: Yeah, so the device fires a photon which can go left or right. And then the device looks to see, well, where did it go? And we know the particle's in both places, right? But when the machine looks, it only finds it in one place. It shows it went either left or right, which doesn't make sense, right? Because we know from the math that the particle did go to both places. So why did we only see it in one of those places?

Ira Glass: And what's the answer?

David Kestenbaum: All right, so one of the answers is that the photon is in both places, left and right, but just in different universes.

Ira Glass: Wait. So you're saying that when you shoot the photon into the mirror, it actually creates an entire duplicate of our universe. And in one of those universes, the photon is on the left, and the other it is on the right?

David Kestenbaum: Yes. It both went left and right. Those are just in different universes. The math of it makes a lot of-- the math of it is very, like, streamlined and simple. I remember the day I saw it in class, and I was like, oh, my god. Maybe it's true.

Ira Glass: Yeah.

David Kestenbaum: So those boxes you filled out on the app--

Ira Glass: You mean the box where I typed in "shave off beard tonight", and the box where I typed in, keep beard?

David Kestenbaum: Right, right. So it'll basically choose one of those boxes if the photon goes left, and the other box if the photon goes right.

Ira Glass: OK, got it.

David Kestenbaum: You have to do what it says.

Ira Glass: You mean I have to keep the beard or shave off the beard like it tells me?

David Kestenbaum: Yeah. Yeah, because when you press that button, you're going to get back one answer. But there's going to be a duplicate universe in which there is a duplicate you sitting in a duplicate studio and a duplicate me and you holding a duplicate phone in exactly the same way. The only difference is that that phone comes back with the other answer.

Ira Glass: And then that version of me will do whatever it says on the phone?

David Kestenbaum: We know that other guy. We trust him. He's going to go do the other.

Ira Glass: OK, I think I understand all this. Let's go ahead.

David Kestenbaum: Do you want to press the button?

Ira Glass: Yeah, go ahead. Push it.

David Kestenbaum: I do feel weird about it. I feel weird. I know it's crazy. I feel weird.

Ira Glass: You literally just put your finger right up to the button and pulled it away in fear.

David Kestenbaum: All right, here it goes-- the split universe.

Ira Glass: OK, it says, Input valid. Internet contacted. Geneva online. Device ready. Photon emitted. Quantum event.

XXX

Ira Glass: And David, just to be sure I'm understanding this, you're saying this isn't a metaphor. You're saying there are scientists who really believe that a second universe gets created?

David Kestenbaum: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it's not most physicists. And there are some who think it's ridiculous, for sure. But there are some would take it very seriously.

Ira Glass: OK, where is this alternate universe that we're creating?

David Kestenbaum: Yeah, I don't really even know how to think about this. But if this is true, the universe is duplicating itself all the time. It's like a fundamental thing about existence.

XXX

Etgar Keret: During the Second World War, him and his parents, they hid in a hole in the ground that they dug for 620 days. So he had a lot of spare time.

Etgar Keret: And when he was there, he would imagine all kinds of things. He would imagine a world in which the Nazis didn't exist, or in which he wasn't a Jew, or in which people just in general didn't kill each other, you know? And this kind of thing was something that he associated with being a child. Then he kind of felt that it interested him as a child, then I will probably like it too.

XXX

Etgar Keret: My father, the way that he would talk about his time in the hole, he would say that he would sleep, and then he would wake up, and then he would ask his father if the war was over. And his father would say no, so he would go and sleep some more. That's the way he would tell it to me. I think it's that kind of-- the softcore version.

Ira Glass: And was it like, when you say a hole, could they even stand up?

Etgar Keret: No. They couldn't stand in it, and they couldn't even lie down in it. They had to sit in it. And when the Russians liberated the town and they were brought out, they had to be carried out because their muscles were so cramped that, by the time of the end of the war, they couldn't move them.

Ira Glass: Oh, my god. So basically they're in this hole, and they're sitting there?

Etgar Keret: Yes. And you know, it's like it's very, very cold, you know? It's way beyond freezing. And you don't have food. And you hear voices in German, and you know that you can easily be killed. And you close your eyes, and you think of another universe.

XXX

David Kestenbaum: Are you personally good at apologizing?

Bob Shrum: Oh, I've had to apologize so many times for so many things-- sure.

David Kestenbaum: What's the most recent thing you apologized for?

Bob Shrum: Having a fight with my wife about what we were giving various people as Christmas gifts.

XXX

Bob Shrum: One of the people there said, this better be good.

David Kestenbaum: Meaning you better do a good job?

Bob Shrum: Yes.

David Kestenbaum: Yeah.

Bob Shrum: So I sat at the dining room table and I wrote in longhand on a yellow pad, which is how I've always written. I drafted it.

David Kestenbaum: Do you have it there with you?

Bob Shrum: It's on the-- well, actually, I can go get it. You want to hold on for a second?

David Kestenbaum: Can you read the speech for me?

Bob Shrum: Yeah. It's not very long, so I will.

XXX

David Kestenbaum: What do you think would have happened if instead that night he'd taken out your speech and read it?

Bob Shrum: I think it would have lessened the chances that he would've been impeached.

David Kestenbaum: Really?

Bob Shrum: I don't know that it would have prevented the impeachment, but I think it would have lessened the chances.

XXX

David Kestenbaum: I wonder, of all the possible universes, in how many of them does Clinton say I'm sorry, you know? Not I'm sorry for what happened, or I'm sorry if people feel-- but really like I'm sorry.

Bob Shrum: There may be a universe in which he did that. I'm just not aware of it, because I don't live in it.

David Kestenbaum: Yeah, that's not the one we live in.

XXX

David Kestenbaum: And the speech that you wrote, while great, was not at all how he was feeling at that moment.

Bob Shrum: Obviously, the speech that I drafted did not reflect how he felt coming out of the grand jury.

David Kestenbaum: In that sense, can you fault him?

Bob Shrum: I just think you want to do what fits the moment, and you want to be true to yourself. The problem was that, I think, he was true to the angry guy who had just come out of the room, you know? He was maybe not true to the person he was the next day.

XXX

Dana Chivvis: Were you always scared that you might mix them up? Like from the day they were born, was that a real fear?

Annette Sklar: I tried to be really careful about knowing who either had-- what outfit they were on. I knew-- I was really careful about it. So usually, we had outfits in different colors-- blue, blue Jay, and red, Randy red. And then I didn't think about it too much, once I knew it was.

Dana Chivvis: OK.

Annette Sklar: That's how we did it.

Dana Chivvis: That's a good system.

Annette Sklar: I mean, I think I did feed them twice, one of them, and didn't feed the other one. That happens, sometimes. You did that. You did that. One of them was eating, the other one was crying a lot. And I go, why is he crying so much?

XXX

Annette Sklar: And she goes, oh, we have such a great surprise for you. Now we have Pampers. We're just using them for the first time. So instead of using your diapers, we used your Pampers.

Dana Chivvis: Oh, no.

Annette Sklar: And then they gave me all four of their tins.

XXX

Annette Sklar: And I'm not kidding you, they looked exactly alike. And so I was thinking I was a really terrible mother.

Dana Chivvis: Oh, no.

Annette Sklar: Then how can I really look at this and not see my own children and not know which ones they are?

Linda Wallace: You know, she called me in a panic. And she just said, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know which one's which. I don't know what to do.

XXX

Dana Chivvis: Did you go over there to try to help her?

Linda Wallace: No, I didn't.

Dana Chivvis: Yeah.

Linda Wallace: Because if she couldn't tell them apart, how would I be able to tell them apart?

Dana Chivvis: Right.

Linda Wallace: I mean, I couldn't tell them apart, you know? She had the pins.

Dana Chivvis: Yeah. Were you nervous to tell Dick? Were you nervous to tell your husband?

Annette Sklar: Yes.

Dana Chivvis: You were?

Annette Sklar: Yes. I was really nervous. So when he came home, and he saw them, and they were in their crib-- and so finally, I had to tell him. I go, I have to tell you what happened. And I told him. And he goes, really? He goes, oh, we'll figure it out. Let's see.

Annette Sklar: And then we were both looking at both of them right next to each other. And then of course, they had the Pampers on, and nothing. And he's going, I don't know. What do you think it is? I go, I don't know.

Annette Sklar: I really, always felt like I had the right person in my heart. I just said it is, and I'm not going to think about it anymore. This is my life. We know who they are, and it is who they are. And we're not going to talk about it anymore.

Dana Chivvis: Do you think she got it right? Do you think Annette got it right?

Linda Wallace: I don't know.

Dana Chivvis: You don't know?

Linda Wallace: I mean, I don't think she knows. She says she did, but how does she know? I mean, there's no way. They were so-- they looked so much alike, and so I'm not sure.

XXX

Dana Chivvis: Randy, can you describe what Jason looks like?

Randy Sklar: He's very good looking. Jason, he is very Semitic looking. He's got glasses. He's about 5 foot, 8 and 1/2.

Jason Sklar: That's generous.

Randy Sklar: Somewhat athletic looking.

Jason Sklar: Less generous.

XXX

Jason Sklar: We were livid that this could have happened, and also that she was sharing it in sort of an offhand kind of joking way. And Linda Wallace, who is a funny woman, was making it funnier. And they were laughing about it. And we were like-- we were just very embarrassed by it and upset by it. Like, oh my god, this is an insane thing to hear, because we may not be who we are.

Dana Chivvis: What pissed you off about it? What was so upsetting about it?

Jason Sklar: I think that it just was we were just sensitive, I think, to being confused. And again, it was this narrative that kind of went through our lives, as we wanted to be individuals and we wanted to be seen as individuals. And then here's this thing that happened where we could be so easily confused.

XXX

Linda Wallace: The couple times that it was brought up throughout their years, if somebody said something about it, they would go, I don't want to hear about it. Don't bring it up again.

Dana Chivvis: Wow. I had no idea it was that painful for them.

Linda Wallace: I mean, it was a joke between Annette and I that I'm not sure was a joke between all of us, because they were very sensitive about it.

Randy Sklar: Just the simple fact of the matter that for countless times in our lives, someone has said to me, Jason? And I'm like, nope, I'm Randy.

Dana Chivvis: Right.

Randy Sklar: You know? Like, that that's happened so many times in my life. If that's not true, there is--

Jason Sklar: You have to go back to every single one of those people and apologize.

Randy Sklar: --and apologize. No, but there's a notion that you've been living a little bit of a lie. It's a tiny lie, but it's not your lie.

Jason Sklar: Not your lie.

Randy Sklar: It's not your lie, and it's not your fault. But still, that's unsettling in a weird way, to me. That's just weird that for all this time I had it wrong.

XXX

Dana Chivvis: Do you think you'd swap names?

Randy Sklar: Or would we legally change our names to each other's names?

Dana Chivvis: Right. If you are swapped, then you're kind of like committing fraud all the time right now.

Randy Sklar: I guess, yeah.

Jason Sklar: Unintentionally.

Randy Sklar: Unintentional fraud, yeah. Well, I would be using his social security number.

Dana Chivvis: Right.

Randy Sklar: You know, how does that affect everything we do?

Dana Chivvis: I wonder if it does. I mean, maybe it only matters if one of you commits murder barefoot, and then runs through wet cement or something.

Randy Sklar: Right.

Dana Chivvis: Maybe practically, it doesn't actually matter.

Jason Sklar: That one's out. We can't do that.

Randy Sklar: We can't do that now. Thanks a lot.

XXX

Annette Sklar: I just have a feeling, that's all-- my feeling, my definite feeling that I know who's who. I know who you are. I'm the mother. I know.

Randy Sklar: What if it's different? You want me to change my name? What if I became Jason and Jason became me?

Annette Sklar: Then you have to have different girlfriends.

Randy Sklar: You mean wives? Mom.

XXX

Kurt Kuhn: Well, have you ever bitten into birdshot while eating?

Jason Sklar: I have not, no.

Dana Chivvis: I have, actually.

XXX

Cab Driver: Do you have any family in Korea?

Emily: I'm meeting my birth mother for the first time.

Cab Driver: That is exciting for you. Who told about your birth mother?

Emily: I searched for her through the adoption agency. It took two years-- two years of searching.

Cab Driver: Oh, that's good. That's good. And what about your dad?

Emily: I don't know.

Cab Driver: You don't know?

Emily: I don't know.

Cab Driver: OK, don't worry about that anything. It should be better, everything. And it's a very blessing for you. You're going to meet your mother. I know. I know you're feeling, because you've spend your whole life without your mom.

Cab Driver: I know you spent your whole life without your mom. You need your mom on when your children-- like you babies, you know?

Emily: Yeah. Going on the plane, too, for me, it was kind of thinking about the last time I took that flight was when I was a baby. And touching down, I remember thinking that the last time I was here was when I was five months old.
