This American Life
I’m in love with a man called Ira Glass. Before we went away on holidays I was moaning on here about my technology addiction. This is partly because of Ira Glass.
Ira hosts This American Life, a weekly one-hour programme on Chicago Public Radio that I’ve been slavishly following via podcast for the past couple of months. For those who don’t know it, This American Life is an hour of themed stories about… er, American life. It’s kind of hard to describe. I could say that it is like how Home Truths on Radio 4 used to be, but less twee. However, it would probably be kinder to compare This American Life to The New Yorker. The New Yorker’s writing is so good you find yourself reading about things you don’t even like; in This American Life the journalism is so good you find yourself listening to things you never knew that you were interested in.
Over recent months This American Life has played havoc with my life. I almost burnt the tea when I was suckered into a segment about a man who clones his favourite bull. I stayed an extra half hour at the gym to hear about a ghost who plays pranks on guests at a hotel in Wisconsin. I missed a train because I was listening so intently to someone’s story of driving around Utah interviewing schizophrenics as their own life was falling apart. I had to wipe tears from my eyes on the way to work because I was so moved by a writer recounting how, despite being an ardent atheist, his mother’s death has found him sitting in empty churches.
And Ira Glass holds it all together somehow, weaving these disparate stories into a satisfying and compelling whole. He also has the kind of voice that I could listen to forever. This American Life is the perfect radio package.
If you’re in anyway a nosy person who finds other people’s lives endlessly fascinating then you have to listen to it. But get to it - we’ve got 14 years to catch up on.
Tags: go see this
June 9th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
oh gawd…. NOOOO! please don’t tell me stuff like this…. I already have shelves of unread books and unwatched dvds… even the odd unlistened to CD… now this!!
Well, maybe i’ll just try one eh??
P
June 10th, 2009 at 1:44 am
I had never checked this out before. It sounds pretty interesting. Not that I need anything else to be addicted to.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:24 am
good stuff
June 10th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Oh dear, another ‘bookmark’…I am currently reading a lot of Studs Terkel stuff, and wonder if this show might have some of the same qualities. Studs just talked to people, and let them talk back to him, and the results were incredible. Sounds very like what you’re describing here. Thanks!
June 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am
This sounds exactly the sort of show that is on my wavelength scuse pun – I’ll give it a go.
PS tracked down that Sessions album, you know with the Maggie Bell tune you posted a couple of weeks back – killer, thanks for the tip.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
If there is one thing stranger than people reading this blog, it’s people actually taking my recommendations seriously! If you listen I hope the programme lives up to expectations. I’m getting nervous now…
Glad you liked the album PM. And take a listen to this (Dusty7s kindly reminded me) –
http://dusty7s.blogspot.com/2008/07/do-you-wanna-be-in-my-gang.html
June 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
And Piley, unwatched DVDs and unread books? That sounds strangely familar. At least podcasts don’t take up any shelf space.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
trouble is a DVD or a book take seconds to buy… but you need a good couple of hours to watch the bloomin thing, and much more to read a book… I can easily buy an armful of books in half an hour… but realistically, it’s years worth of reading!! Specially now we have the little one… quality reading time is at a premium!
Podcasts and CDs on the pod are almost like freebies arnt they? coz you can tuck in whilst doing somethin else…
P
June 10th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Very true Piley. Buying books is an aspirational investment, not just in your intellect (as such) but in your time and shelving capacity. I am also so shallow that I have had to stop reading a particular book temporarily as it is just too heavy to carry round in my bag (I tend to read on the train) – my ipod and the new Word mag. are much lighter…