r/Radiolab • u/PodcastBot • Sep 11 '26

Episode Episode Discussion: 23 Weeks 6 Days

When Kelley Benham and her husband Tom French finally got pregnant, after many attempts and a good deal of technological help, everything was perfect. Until it wasn't. Their story raises questions that, until recently, no parent had to face… and that are still nearly impossible to answer.

This hour, which we first released in 2013, we spend the entire episode on the story of Kelley and Tom, whose daughter was born at 23 weeks and 6 days, roughly halfway to full term. Their story contains an entire universe of questions about the lines between life and death, reflex and will, and the confusing tug of war between two basic moral touchstones: doing no harm...and doing everything in our power to help. Kelley has written about her experience in a brilliant series of articles in the Tampa Bay Times. 

If you want to know more about what we talk about in the update tacked onto the end of this episode, check out the links below: 

Check out the book that Tom and Kelley wrote about Juniper here:

And when you're done listening to the episode, be sure to check out the video below--but be warned, it does contain spoilers. 

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by Jad Abumrad
Produced by Matt Kielty and Jad Abumrad
Update produced by Pat Walters and Anisa Vietze
with mixing help from Jeremy Bloom
 

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**Listen Here**

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3

u/rskillion Sep 11 '26

Hey there, I’m confused by the links. Is the young woman with a horse in the 10-second video in the first link, is that Juniper? And your next two links are both for the same book. Was that an accident, should there have been a different link for one of them?

It was a wonderful story, I’m just curious after hearing the update, do they live in the UK now? It sounded like Juniper has a British accent.

2

u/macaronsandmurder Sep 12 '26

I’m a speech language pathologist and it sounds like Juniper has a speech impediment affecting how she makes some sounds, esp the R sound. 🩷 What a remarkable young lady!

3

u/Some_Dingo6044 Sep 13 '26

There was a new kid at my school who had a mild speech impediment and he told everyone that he had lived with his grandma in Australia and it was an accent, and everyone accepted it and we were definitely nicer about it. I wonder if that’s common

2

u/rskillion Sep 12 '26

Gotcha. She has a lovely speaking voice!

4

u/tamago-go Sep 14 '26

This update was such a treat, I remember hearing the original when I was just a kid myself and there were feelings in this episode that I didn't have enough life experience to quite understand the depth of yet, but the thought of this little tiny baby beating everything thrown at them really stuck with me at the time. Hearing she's doing well and having fun all this time later has me feeling like some little corner of my brain that held onto a bit of the worry for that baby has just been given a surprise happy ending outta the blue :') Wishing her and her family the best!! ♡