This is the first lecture in a series about how to think critically about social problems. If you would like to hear/watch the rest of the series, please send me a comment. In this edition, I tell two stories and ask you to think about what makes them memorable. The stories that we tell about social problems are similar: They are memorable, but we also worry about them in proportion as activists can get us to connect their issues to things we hold dear. We can also study social problems in the same way that we study folklore.