This American Life

If you’re an NPR listener then you know exactly what I’m about to talk about. If you are not let me introduce you to a program that will make you one.  I discovered the show This American Life when I was in college . For some reason our family listened to shows like Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion on Sunday afternoons so it was pretty natural for me to move right into this type of story telling.  NPR is one of those things that either you are or you aren’t. You either always have it on that station when  you’re in your car or you listen to two fat guys talk about guns, politics, eating and church.  Here is what TAL is. It is story telling at its finest. What they do is take a topic and break it down into three or four acts taking on the topic at different angles. Some of my favorite stories are Heretics and Giant pool of money.  One is about a man who said there was no hell the other was about the financial recession. I think what fascinates me so much about this radio program is that its about real people. Its the kind of stories that you say “come on that can’t be real”  Ira Glass the host weaves all of these stories together by filling in the gaps for us. He has a way of speaking for us. Saying the things that we would be thinking if we were interviewing those people. Something else that I like about the show is that they also record on location. Its some dude or girl with a microphone that goes out to where the story is. It isn’t us just listening to people in a studio talk. It’s not just an interview or call in show its storytelling.  That’s kinda the part that makes the show pretty awesome.  This American Life has become so popular that they even started a television program. They kept the same style on camera that they had on radio and that’s pretty cool.

I have always said I would rather hear a true story than one that’s made up.  That’s why I like biographies and that’s why I like documentaries.  Those will always beat a fiction story for me every time. People are just that interesting to me. So here is what I think you should do…. give it a try. You can listen to the ones I suggested or ask for some others that I like or you can check out the podcast. They always have up the past week’s show. (so many choices) Or you can tune in on WBHM if you live in Birmingham  at 5:00 on Sunday.  If you don’t live here you need to check your NPR station’s website and see when it is on.  On a side note if you want get away from the shock jock, or the two fat guys and you just want to hear what’s going on in the world try turning to your NPR  station in the morning. Its not as colorful as those guys or other news shows its just straight news.  You remember when that happened.

Oh I do have one question what do you think of the new layout and the smart phone version. I’m trying out some new stuff.