Where The Streets Have No Names (and where they do) Guest: Deirdre Mask, a lawyer, writer, and author of “The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” Believe it or not, most living quarters in the world do not have addresses, which can have a huge impact on the lives of people living there. Even when we do have street addresses, we’re very picky about our street names.In some years, according to Deirdre Mask, more than 40 percent of all local laws passed by the New York City Council have been street name changes. Why are we so caught up in street addresses? And why do they really matter? The Last True Hermit Guest: Michael Finkel, author, "The Stranger in the Woods" Let's explore social isolation--complete social alienation--by focusing on a single, highly unusual, and actual quite baffling story. It’s baffling because we social creatures can hardly imagine it: a man disappears from society for twenty-seven years. He lives in utter isolation, in the woods. Not far from people, but in a place where they can’t ever see him. He’s in hiding. In all those 27 years he exchanges words with another human being apparently only once.