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Lessons from 863 episodes of This American Life

51 points by cryzinger

by kiernanmcgowan

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This American Life really does live up to its name - its a real slice of American culture / society on any given week. I imagine its going to be a wellspring of understanding our time for future anthropologists and historians.

by pimlottc

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I'm just happy this article doesn't start with "So I fed all 863 episodes of TAL into ChatGPT and here's what I discovered..."

by willturman

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Ira Glass’ take on the creative process [1] really resonated with me in the context of creating software or otherwise.
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHrmKL2XKcE

by RyJones

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I used to listen every week.
As I got older, the content got less interesting.
I think Ira is a hoopty frood; however, Ira lost touch with "American Life" like 20 years ago.

by disposition2

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> On a purely topical level, it was also neat to revisit the last three decades of news and politics and pop culture more or less in reverse.
It’s a fictional drama but it’s really interesting to watch ‘Law & Order’ episodes from the 90s and throughout the years.
You can kind of witness the erosion of civil liberties over the seasons and as someone who experienced it in real life, it’s pretty wild to see (at least in a fictional universe) how the police state (this is probably a misnomer, but I fail to find the proper wording in this moment) is enabled to supersede civil liberties in the interests of ‘security’ and law enforcement.

by js2

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The only other show that even comes close for me is The Moth. It's a much different format, but the story telling is consistently high quality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moth

by comrade1234

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I know this American life is good and when I listen to it I almost always think it was worthwhile. However... his voice. It's just so hard for me to listen to him for some reason.
Same thing with Hidden Brain. Impactful episodes that can change your life but the guy's voice puts you to sleep so it's like taking an upper and a downer at the same time.

by TMEHpodcast

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I’ve often wondered what This American Life would have been if it were British.
“Each week, we bring you stories of life in Britain. Not extraordinary life. Not even particularly interesting life. Just… life. Grey, tea-soaked, mildly apologetic life. Today’s theme: Standing Quietly in Queues While Contemplating Death and Crisps.”

by adamgordonbell

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Love TAL. Been trying copy and learn from Ira Glass, and his many producers forever.
Some episodes hit so hard they can change how you think about something.
There is a fun graphic novel about how TAL and other narrative radio shows are made. I forget it's name, buts its great.
They also briefly had a TV show that I liked and spun off serial and many other shows and introduced me and the world to David Sedaris.

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by timewizard

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by teaearlgraycold

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> I never listen to podcasts at anything other than 1x playback speed, so I at least deserve brownie points for that.
Not to start a flame war, but I personally consider it extremely poor taste to listen to high quality content on a faster speed. For something thrown together like a recorded lecture then it makes sense. But for an episode of This American Life? Please take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why.

by xnx

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by seany

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TAL of the most insufferable podcast I still try to listen to in an "expand the Overton window" kind of way... I'm active l according to my podcast player I've listened to 159 things l hours of it and never fished more than 59% of a single episode.
Let's get an earnest episode about dramatically expanding gun rights, or criminalizing public sector unions, or eliminating zoning laws. ,