This American Life
Saturday, February 22nd, 2003This American Life is probably the most amazing radio show presently on the air. I have a deep love for a well-told story, and The American Life is full of them. Every Saturday morning is spent sitting next to the radio, coffee in hand, listening.
Many of the shows are available online in Realplayer format (streaming). Each show is an hour long. Last week's episode — with a story by an American veteran of the Gulf War, and a retelling of Star Wars Episode I — is here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/232.ram
These are some other great episodes (all in Realplayer format):
Act V: Really incredible story of a performance of Hamlet in a maximum-security prison
Ask An Expert: Stories of people who got terrible advice from experts, including a great one about Marlon Brando, and a story about recovered memory by my perennial radio crush, Alix Spiegel
81 Words: The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided, in 1973, that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness — again, by that hot Alix Spiegel
The House At Loon Lake: remarkable hour-long story of boys who discover an abandoned house — and how one of them returns as an adult to find out what happened to the owners
What Are You Looking At? Live show featuring They Might Be Giants, including the great story "American Goth" by Sarah Vowell
The Secret World of Daytime: Stories of what people do during the day, including a story of silo workers who spend the afternoon watching soap operas, and an incredible story by Mona Simpson about a Filipino nanny
Reruns: Stories of people who get stuck in their own personal reruns
Suckers: people who get suckered in various ways
High Speed Chase: This one has a personal narration of an incident in South Dakota that was in local news awhile ago
Hitler's Yacht: The story of Hitler's yacht, again by the delicious Alix Spiegel
This week's episode was, um, okay. Now that it's over, I suppose I should get on with my life.
