In 2012, Claressa Shields was a 16-year-old boxer in Flint, Michigan. She had an audacious dream: to be the Muhammad Ali of womens boxing. We gave her tape recorder to keep an audio diary as she fought to make it onto the first ever women’s Olympic boxing team.
Claressa is now 25 and fights professionally. With two gold medals and four world championships, she’s achieved her boxing dreams. But with boxing shut down during COVID, she has turned her attention to a different kind of dream. She bought a house. Today on the podcast, we hear Claressa’s original audio diary and bring you an update.
Teen Contender won a Peabody Award in 2012. The follow up story aired on This American Life as part of their 25th anniversary special.
Meet Miss Subways
The Gospel Ranger
Mandela's Election: 30 Years Later
Working, Then and Now
My Iron Lung (Revisited)
My So-Called Lungs (Revisited)
The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records
Guest Spotlight: Parakeet Panic
The Drum Also Waltzes
The Unmarked Graveyard: Live at WNYC
The Man on the President's Limo
The Unmarked Graveyard: LaMont Dottin
The Unmarked Graveyard: Hisako Hasegawa
The Unmarked Graveyard: Cesar Irizarry
The Unmarked Graveyard: Dawn Powell
The Unmarked Graveyard: Documenting an Invisible Island
The Unmarked Graveyard: Angel Garcia
The Unmarked Graveyard: Noah Creshevsky
The Unmarked Graveyard: Neil Harris Jr.
TRAILER: The Unmarked Graveyard
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It is Free
The Modern West
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace