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in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 6 May 2008
Glass and the crew produce an engaging "housing crisis for dummies" by drawing an aural map of a mortgage's "trip" from the giant pool of over $70 trillion (the entire world's savings) to the defaulting homeowner, and interviews the individual at each stop who gave it the green light to continue it's death march. Not surprisingly, the common theme of each participant's story was that they ignored their conscience, regulations, or traditional financial logic when they made their respective decisions. It's a riveting description of the crisis, and likely the most lucid, illustrative explanation of it you'll find.
Posted 2:08, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Jonathan Brehm
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 29 April 2008
With This American Life now appearing on television, Ira Glass brings together several longtime TAL contributors to offer their unique take on the medium itself. The show is recorded from one of TAL's live performances, meaning that the recorded interviews that are often the show's strongest segments are unfortunately lacking, but the commentary is as engaging, funny and poignant as ever. Standouts include Sarah Vowell discussing the difficult and complicated history of Thanksgiving as filtered through various sitcoms, and notorious sex columnist Dan Savage railing against The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, a children's show he finds so puerile that he won't allow his son to watch it.
Posted 9:29, 30 April 2008
This abstract was written by
Ty Bannerman
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 25 April 2008
Glass, in three acts, explores the concept of power and the responsibility that inevitably comes with it. In one story a woman must incriminate her abusive father to exonerate a man wrongly convicted of murder, and in another a family, plagued by a violent and confrontational neighbor, ultimately realizes that real power sometimes means choosing not to exercise it. The episode is a dreamlike look into the unseen cost of advantage.
Posted 9:26, 24 April 2008
This abstract was written by
Jonathan Gallaway
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 15 April 2008
Glass explores apologies that aren't heartfelt in this episode inspired by political non-apologies. He explores the snide apology of William Carlos Williams' poem This is Just to Say, and features Sam Shaw's report on the terrible mistakes of Bob Nelson, president of the Cryonics Society of California in the 1960s. Despite promises to hold off on actually freezing bodies, Nelson began doing it before preparations are made, leading to several deaths. This story becomes more shocking with each twist, right up until its disturbing ending.
Posted 11:52, 23 April 2008
This abstract was written by
Meghan Reid
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 11 April 2008
This episode, first broadcast in 2004, presents three stories of people who have left something vital behind. The first intriguing segment details trashy talk show host Jerry Springer's forgotten past as the golden boy of progressive Ohio politics. The other two parts -- a brief chat with an Orthodox Jewish man who loses his faith during a New York Rangers hockey game, and the story of a convent whose sisters attempt to leave the church but remain nuns -- are less arresting, but still of interest.
Posted 10:13, 10 April 2008
This abstract was written by
Bill Anderson
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 1 April 2008
Nobody's Family Is Going to Change, Louise Fitzhugh's book about a girl who learns that, well, she can't change her family, launches this look into how families evolve -- and stagnate. A once-close pair of siblings, now separated by religion and distance, reunites as the sister visits her brother in a Christian community. Two sisters in their 70s continue to dress, eat, and live alike. And a family tries to deal with a father who's been altered by a stroke. In this often heartrending episode, Glass highlights how a lack of change can seem as disturbing as a monumental shift in family relationships.
Posted 5:21, 3 April 2008
This abstract was written by
Meghan Reid
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 28 March 2008
Glass examines the White House's abuses of power and challenges the current presidential candidates to start taking constitutional issues more seriously. Case one: What started as a simple dispute over a homeowner's right to build a wall within ten feet of the Canadian border has become a test of the president's power to renege on treaty obligations. (So far Bush is trampling the treaty.) Case two: A Brazilian woman on the verge of satisfying all citizenship requirements was asked to leave the US because her spouse died during the paperwork process. Though aimed at the excesses of the Bush administration, this excellent program holds lessons for liberals and conservatives alike.
Posted 11:50, 31 March 2008
This abstract was written by
Joy Schwabach
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 21 March 2008
Even if you're lucky enough to have a job you love, chances are that you spend most of your time performing tasks that make you question whether the term "dream job" is ever really applicable. Glass offers an examination of the realities of jobs most people would take in a heartbeat, including a hilarious essay by John Hodgman -- who plays the PC in Mac commercials -- who has found that his middle-aged entry into celebrity makes for some bizarre encounters, and a fascinating interview with Ed Ugel, who knows firsthand that the dream of winning the lottery comes with a dark side.
Posted 3:32, 24 March 2008
This abstract was written by
Ty Bannerman
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 14 March 2008
Glass details the 1912 kidnapping of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar -- he was recovered eight months later, but the mystery surrounding his reappearance resurfaced decades later, leading to a family member's quest to know whether the boy they found was really Bobby. News accounts from the time of the kidnapping show the tangled web of socioeconomic and sexist judgments that complicated the child's recovery, and might have led to the child being returned to the wrong family. Glass looks at the stress that this search for truth creates among generations of the Dunbar family, leading to an uncomfortable question: Is it always better to know the truth?
Posted 2:18, 21 March 2008
This abstract was written by
Meghan Reid
and edited by Brijit.
in This American Life
by
Ira Glass, 7 March 2008
In four acts, Glass explores people who revisit their childhood; he includes the diaries of a man who at 16 thought he would end up an international leader and a former rock star trying to regain his youthful glory. But the piece's most moving and revealing section traces the show's producer, Alex Blumberg, as he revisits his childhood babysitter. Their discussion of their own memories of childhood (and each other) illustrates the funny, sad, and poignant ways children are affected by others, as well as how childhood perspectives refract reality.
Posted 11:17, 11 March 2008
This abstract was written by
Meghan Reid
and edited by Brijit.