A compelling, satisfying, and narratively complete exploration of a moral mystery--the donation of a human organ to an unrelated friend. I say moral mystery, because the narrator's choice flies in the face of evolutionary theory--those textbook calculations of enlightened genetic self-interest--wherein a 50% risk of death is worth it to save a brother, a 25% risk to save a cousin, and so on. (No one mentions this gene-saving calculus within the piece, but the fears--and resentments--of the narrator's mother are certainly motivated by deep innate feelings of connectedness.) What makes the piece work is that the narrator displays no trace of self-congratulation--his willingness to subject himself to the risk of death and the certainty of pain comes across a mystery to himself. His Holiness the Karmapa remains an off-mic minor character, albeit one who makes the crucial decisions that drive the story.

A well-produced piece--the ordinary-guy-voice narration, the underlying beds of moody pop music, the location recordings--all are used well.