I've just started getting into this radio show since I've felt tired of listening to music. Man, what an engaging radio show. Its kinda crazy some of the experiences you get to hear about and really peer into the lives of every day people. They published a recent episode, LaDonna: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/647/ladonna I was engrossed the whole time, rapt and just feeling for the woman in the experience hoping something good would happen. Now I'm going through the recommended list. Does anyone have particular episodes they recommend? Theres 23 years worth of content, so I'm gonna need some recs.
Yeah, always a joy to listen to while driving. Y'know, except for the depressing ones. (Which are still a nice listen)
129 Cars is probably my favorite episode. They spend a day at a car dealership just following the lives of the salesmen. You mentioned peering into the lives of everyday people, if that's your thing you'll probably love this one.
God I forgot about that episode until just now. Fantastic. I’ve been going through their back catalog via their app. The story of the PI Moms (or that started about them at least) was great too. Edit to add: episode 447 Not crazy about their app redesign but they’re all there.
Their 'Dead Ringer' segment will forever change the way you look at calamari. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/484/doppelgangers/act-one
They're almost all great. Except for the Apple-bashing one that they retracted when it came out that the stories were entirely fabricated. The episodes on Harper High School should be at the front of your queue, though.
I think that’s the only one they’ve outright pulled from their archive. The transcript is on the app but the retraction episode was...something. Just listened to that (and Doppelgänger) fairly recently.
The one about the gangs in Chicago and how you have no actual choice but to join them was really good. It focused largely on a specific high school i believe.
Harper High School, eps 487-488. It was infuriatingly to listen to at the time, as Daisy and his claims were blatantly fake. TAL dropped the ball and I stopped following it for a couple months (and haven't donated directly to it since).
I missed the original at the time of airing but knew of Daisey from other media appearances. The correspondent on the retraction episode was terrific. 460. And so I don’t double post— I really liked S-town as well. I remember the reception being a bit more lukewarm but I like Reed’s style.
Thats kinda nuts that they've had an episode with fabricated info. I've skimmed the transcript, but now I'm listening to their episode "Retraction": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction
There are a lot of really good episodes, but one of my favorites is one of their not so normal shows; House on Loon Lake: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/199/house-on-loon-lake Definitely check it out. I fall in and out of TAL constantly, but it's always there.
Yeah that whole thing was weird. I think they just got so anxious to do an Apple expose they totally bought into that wierdo’s claims. Ira was really pissed.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/414/right-to-remain-silent This is one of the most intense things I have ever listened to.
Oh man. The Retraction episode is intense. The dude is going through the process of admitting to Iris and himself that he is a liar. The silence in parts of this are powerful. Edit: oh man, he just doubled down on his lies a week after admitting to his guilt. Mike Daisy is a shit head.
A few years back, i listened to the first one hundred episodes or so over the course of a few months. It was fascinating. Really need to get back into that.
There’s one episode that I can’t remember the name of but I really loved. It’s just about one of the producers on the show going back home to take care of his mother who is ill and a complete drama queen. He narrates it and you hear him learn about his mothers life and his brothers life. Really personal and harsh stuff-it’s stuck with me throughout the years. There’s another episode about a car plant in Fremont CA and the workers there-they end up going to Japan to cross train with some workers there and the story is really fascinating.
I remember the 2nd one. Fascinating is exactly how I’d put it. Wasn’t terribly long ago. Fake edit: NUMMY 2015– episode 561 The first sounds familiar butbdrawing a blank on how long ago I heard it.
Yeah that’s the one. Highly recommended. Also I found the other one: “Duty Calls” https://www.thisamericanlife.org/334/duty-calls I’m going to relisten to these two today. We should do a TAL re-listen thread. Start from the beginning. Some of those early episodes are kind of rough as Ira was trying to figure out what type of show it was going to be.
S-town was really terrific. I mostly hated Serial and I stopped listening to TAL a long time ago, but something about S-town was extremely compelling.
Been listening to it since at least 2007. Still one of my favorite things on public radio. There are so many great episodes, I don't think I can list a single one.
Would totally be game for it. I started going through their back catalog a couple years ago when I started taking the train to work but there's so much out there that I've still only managed a fraction.
I recommend if you haven’t listened to S-town that you do I spent an entire sick day just listening to it. It’s made by I believe on of the producers of this American life.
I started listening weekly while in college. It really is a fabulous show. I recommend finding some contributors you like and searching for episodes with them. I like David Sedaris and Jonathan Goldstein.
This is an excellent episode. It has to be up there with the best they've done. "The Test" specifically is incredible - one of my favorite pieces of non-fictional story-telling. I can't recommend it enough.
I would highly recommend the mobile app. it's a one time fee (cheap) and you have access to the entire catalogue of shows. you can mark the ones you've heard and favorite them, etc.
What would it take for you to resume donations? (And would you recommend the podcast to others at this point?)
I still listen to and recommend TAL. I know withholding donations at this point is based more on emotion than reason, but I just can't do so after such an egregious betrayal. I'd still support WBEZ if I moved back to the Chicagoland area, though (as I support WAMU residing in DMV).
I gotcha. As an avid listener myself, I hope you consider forgiveness someday, given their thorough retraction and track record since. :-) :-) :-)
I'm trying to find an old episode of TAL - specifically one where they talk about the impact of color, including a story about a team that made the opposing team's locker room pink. Anyone know the episode?
There are a bajillion great episodes, hard to narrow them down although the episode about testosterone sticks out to me. It's a good look into how even small alterations to your hormones can completely change who you are.
Jesus, I mean, there's just dozens and dozens of incredible episodes, hundreds of good episodes, and dozens of really meaningful, perspective changing episodes... But really you should just take your finger, scroll as fast you can through the hundreds of episode, count to 3 and just tap your screen... ANd play that one. It'll be good. What's kinda weird for me is that, although I've been listening to TAL for.. ~14 years or so, I don't subscribe to the podcast. It's one of those weird shows that I prefer to listen to "live" at 1PM on Saturdays. If I miss an episode, I don't sweat it because they usually replay them on my other NPR station Tuesday nights, and I'll listen to it then. If I miss it then, I still don't sweat it because they repeat them during the summer and I catch up then. As a thought experiment, I've often thought how the podcast world would be different if This American Life never existed. Basically, the sound style of every audio show/podcast today is a mix between This American Life and RadioLab, obviously the two most influential long form audio narratives of the last 30 years. And everything sounds like it today. I kinda wonder, like, how would everything have changed if TAL and RadioLab just never existed, or if they sounded different, or if they were different in some way... *edit* Gimme a min to find my favorite episodes. Okay I'm back. "The Night in Question." I'm a history guy and particularly interested in Middle East / Israeli history, at least I used to be, and this is about the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. "Recordings for Someone." This is a multi-act one that's often replayed during the dog days of summer. "The Giant Pool of Money." This is the episode that actually launched Planet Money, or well, it was timed with the launch of Planet Money. It's an in-the-moment assessment of the 2008 financial collapse from 2008. Planet Money launched out of this, by Alex Blumberg (who is now the editor/head of Gimlet media, which is why every Gimlet podcast is very TAL / PlanetMoney inspired) "No Coincidences, No Story." A wonderful 3 parter about coincidences, and everybody knows someone like one of the storytellers grandmothers. This is often replayed. There's two episodes from TAL that cover mostly the same theme, "Middle School" and the one on the Prom. I cant find the link to the Prom one right now, but if you're an urban middle class white dude, I feel like everybody had the same experiences as thse stories, well, not as remarkable, but they capture the essence of being an American middle schooler or prom-goer. Someone link "The Prom" episode... it's an old one, 2001 or 2002. Can't find it searching the archive, the words are too common. This is another one they replay every year. Edit: here's The Prom one: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/186/prom More to come. Y'know what, can't find em all, but go through these: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/recommended/staff-recommendations https://www.thisamericanlife.org/recommended/hour-long-stories Man I get remeniscient just looking at some of the titles and descriptions of these. They bring me right back to a specific time and place in my life. Just after college, ~2007ish, 2008ish, I was single and kind of sad about life, but my then roommate and I went to the beach almost every weekend that summer, mostly accidentally... like it wasn't something we planned, but we just went every Saturday or Sunday every weekend... which was usually about ~75mins-2hours away, and back then, I'd download these episodes off of the internet however the fuck I got them (probably using Newsgroups then) and burn them to CDs. And almost every weekend, we'd drive down to the beach usually in Rhode Island or Cape Cod and listen to these, plus like... Vampire Weekend, the Decemberists, Okkervil River, and whatever other music we were into, in my shitty sedan. Distinctly remember sitting in traffic on ROute 4 or 1 in Rhode Island, at those two stoplights that you have to sit through going to Newport or Narraganset or whatever, listening to these episodes. It was kind of a shitty time in my life too, had a shitty job, was in between relationships, we were both fucking super broke and in a mountain of bad credit card debt, but I still kind of get nostalgic thinking about listening to some of these episodes going to the beach. Oh gosh this one too. This is in the series along with "Middle School," "Prom," and some of the others, that if you're a middle class white millennial or gen-xer ... these are describing your life growing up, so acutely. You might not fit that demographic, but it really nails me and these episodes resonate so much with me.
I haven’t listened in close to a decade, but I’ll never forget the one about the two women switched at birth.
One of my favorite individual segments is where they sit in the writers' room at The Onion when they're pitching headlines.
Carrier seems like one of the most genuine people ever. His interview with his daughter was absolutely remarkable. Thanks for sharing :) Its cool to hear about how you associate many episodes with certain experiences.
The Problem We All Live With is not only a fantastic piece of investigative journalism, but a great introspective look into how our emotions make us blind to creating and reinforcing systemic failures. I make a point to share this with all of my teacher friends.
Still one of my favorite podcasts, but it really feels like there are a lot of politically geared episodes these days. I get it, that's where the country is at and I wouldn't mind one here or there. But just too many for my tastes.
I’ve listened to so many episodes of this show; at one point I was going to try to catch up on all of them but then I kinda burnt out on it and haven’t listened in a while. Stoked to see recommendations for episodes I haven’t heard that sound intense or entertaining, going to give them a spin.
