This story works because it accomplishes two things that by themselves might seem simple, but together are difficult to do successfully. First, Gwen tells a story, clearly and confidently, with pacing driven from the obvious chronologies of events - all crossing paths with the life of one homeless individual, Earl Hutchinson. Then she does something that is rare. She tells this story in such a way as to give us all a certain empathy to the story - not necessarily the individual. Those of us "of an age" have these stories in our past. Friends and acquaintances that have dropped off our radar, but who, somehow, pop up now and again in our memories - fond and rich with the clarity of a photograph. This allows us to attach ourselves to the story, relating to it, step by step, saying "Damn, that's sad, and I knew someone just like that." The story is the radio equivalent of a surveyor tying bright orange ribbon to the trees, and stakes, and brush in a field - that field of course is our memory. Those bright flags provide us with markers to measure our own story.

The length of this piece and its narrative tone lend itself to the likes of This American Life, or at least a show with longer-form content. It is compelling, well recorded, and beautifully written.