This American Life is one of a handful of really great programs on NPR. I like most of the stuff on NPR- Prairie Home Companion, Infinite Mind, Click & Clack, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me are all great shows.
I even like the news shows like All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Too many Public Radio Stations are still on the all Classic music all the time format, which is a bit sad. You can find podcasts of This American Life if your NPR station prefers music to talk.
This American Life is thought provoking and funny and occasionally shocking. Showtime liked it so much they decided to make a television version of the radio show. All the old timers out there know the disappointment of seeing a radio show on TV. Sci Fi suffered the worst from the move from radio to TV, as you could not longer say something like the glittering mothership hovered over the city-you had to show an aluminum pie pan wobbling over a cardboard model of a city. This American Life the TV Show is not as good as the This American Life the Radio Show, which is odd, since they are exactly the same stories, only with pictures.
Ira Glass is the host of This American Life. He has a kind of Woody Allen voice and a soft delivery and questioning nature to all the odd little stories. This America Life was the first place I ever heard the amazing works of David Sedaris. The Santaland Diaries was shocking and amazing and very funny. It was played on a show about Christmas and Commerce with that This American Life twist to it. Each week they pick a topic and play some stories about that topic.
Last week was Ruining It For The Rest of Us. A series of stories about how bad apples really do spoil the whole bunch and how a comic has his worst show ever at a charity event. It was a good show, they are all good shows. But there is that whole surprise element that make This American Life really good. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the Showtime version as much as I thought I would-I’ve already heard the stories. The Wife won’t read a book if she is planning to see the movie, she doesn’t want to know what is going to happen.
National Public Radio is a the closest thing we have to BBC Radio, with its mix of this, that, and the other thing. This America Life is fun-give it a listen if you haven’t done so already.
