Comments on: This American Life

Question: This American Life

Who_Am_I — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:06:53 -0800

What are your favorite This American Life Episodes?

I'm making CDs of This American Life episodes for car trips, and I'm interested in what episodes you guys have really enjoyed. I already have Notes on Camp, Godless America, Allure of the Mean Friend, and Act V, which have been some past favorites of mine. What else is good?

By: waldo

waldo — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:38:11 -0800

Fiasco!, The Fix Is In, Conventions, Voter Fraud, Promised Land, Cruelty of Children, and My Experimental Phase, in that order. (I, too, listen on car trips. I've amassed 69 hours of TAL in MP3 format.)

I wish somebody would put together a listing of the songs most often used in TAL. The same bits are used over and over. Though some of them are just texture and beat, several are quite wonderful. I just can't identify them.

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:49:39 -0800

Fiasco! is truly one of the best radio broadcasts ever. Cringe is also very good.

By: curtm

curtm — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:53:02 -0800

I love This American Life. This is not a definitive list, but among those episodes I love are:

Mind Games (2005)
Apology (2004)
Swing Set (2004)
My Experimental Phase (2004) !
Desparate Measures (2004)
What is This Thing? (2003)
Sucker (2002)
Testosterone (2002) !
Plan B (2002)
Kid Logic (2001)
Cring (2001)

By: Felicity Rilke

Felicity Rilke — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:56:46 -0800

Running After Antelope, Sissies, Fiasco!, The Cruelty of Children, First Day, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Mapping, in no particular order.

I particularly like Scott Carrier's pieces.

By: gwint

gwint — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 08:57:43 -0800

Running After Antelope.

On preview: Jinx, Felicity.

By: bitpart

bitpart — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:07:26 -0800

What I Should Have Said.

"Silly jonny, silly jonny."

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:22:48 -0800

The House on Loon Lake
Who's Canadian?
And the one where they visit an aircraft carrier bound for the Persian Gulf... can't recall the title.

Incidentally Scott Carrier's book by the same title Running After Antelope is a good read.

By: rajbot

rajbot — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:23:17 -0800

My Experimental Phase and The Fix Is In.

It was mentioned on Boing Boing a while ago that you download the actual TAL realaudio file by using a link like this:

http://www.wbez.org/ta/268.rm

Replace 268 with your favorite episode number. This makes it possible to listen to TAL on the train :)

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:25:46 -0800

Fiasco and Conventions and the Cruelty of Children are the most memorable ones for me.

how can I get these as mp3s?

On preview, thanks rajbot!

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:28:09 -0800

House on Loon Lake by a mile. I've heard that show about six times and it still haunts me.

By: kittyb

kittyb — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:29:50 -0800

I'll second -- on preview THIRD -- "Loon Lake" -- I get goosebumps just thinking about that episode. I've made copies for roadtripping friends and everyone loves it.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:47:19 -0800

Another vote for "My Experimental Phase" -- the firstlong segment about the Hassidic Glam Rocker is fantastic. Also, "Lost in America is really really really good.

By: Who_Am_I

Who_Am_I — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:49:07 -0800

how can I get these as mp3s?

It's kind of ghetto, but I use Total Audio Recorder to record them in real time as they play through Media Player Classic. Converting the .rm files from rajbot's method is probably easier though.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:08:27 -0800

Here's the TAL staff's list of their own favorites.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:16:42 -0800

Dammit, you've already mentioned all my favourites!

OTOH, I can't believe no-one has mentioned Geekymedia yet.

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:23:05 -0800

This American Life: Lies Sissies & Fiascoes; Crimebusters & Crossed Wires: Stories from This American Life

By: jetskiaccidents

jetskiaccidents — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:32:49 -0800

I haven't heard a ton of episodes (I need to make some cds of my own..), but I like Mind Games (286, '05), The Middle of Nowhere (253, '03), and the first act of You Are So Beautiful to Me (228, '03).

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:35:30 -0800

anyone know of a free rm to mp3 converter?

By: gnash

gnash — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:44:21 -0800

Wow. This is a fantastic question, and like others I am a *tremendous* TAL fan.

Bar none, the funniest TAL show has to be First Day - Squirrel Cop. A story about a rookie cop, his first day and a... squirrel.

Very, very, very funny. It will have you in tears. If you listen to none, listen to this one (I will have more later...)

By: Tufa

Tufa — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:45:12 -0800

waldo, the TAL site does in fact keep a listing of songs they've used as scoring, over and over again. There are samples of the songs, too, so you can properly suss out the familiar ones.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:48:26 -0800

missed goodnewsfortheinsane's post. double thanks!

Another vote for Squirrel Cop. I got the CD as a Christmas present and played it driving home and almost went off the road I was laughing so hard.

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:52:28 -0800

"how can I get these as mp3s?"
audible.com is one way. Using Streamripper on a schedule with KCRW is another. Bittorrent is yet another. Personally, I use a homebrew app for all my conversion needs, but it's not quite polished enough for primetime.

My favorite episodes:
My Pen Pal
The Middle of Nowhere
The Facts Don't Matter
Perfect Evidence
House on Loon Lake
Rashoman
Teenage Embed, Part One
Teenage Embed Part Two
Enemy Camp
Adventures in the Simple Life
Mapping
Telephone
Guns

By: Tufa

Tufa — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 11:06:54 -0800

Simulated Worlds, mainly for Act Three, in which Ira takes a scholar of the Middle Ages to dinner at Medieval Times:

"Did he just say King of the JEWS?!"

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 11:06:56 -0800

Slightly OT: Some of you might want to contact my pal Jared who has some helpful information if you're converting TAL to MP3 including a tab delimited list of every episode and some other tips.

By: booth

booth — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 11:59:42 -0800

How To, which includes a story called Roadrunner, in which Ira teaches Sarah Vowell how to drive a car. We get a glimpse of the real Ira and Sarah as the stress of the situation breaks down their radio personas.

By: azul

azul — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 12:02:24 -0800

The episode where David Sedaris sings "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" à la Lena Horne.

By: Rash

Rash — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 13:15:35 -0800

In no particular order,

Love Thy Neighbor
Ask the Expert
Before it Had a Name
Music Lessons
Sinatra
Harold Washington
Why Did You Do That?
Who's Canadian
Welcome to America
Berzerker
Wacky
Compulsive Liars
Godless America
the Real Thing
Family Legends
To Win Friends and Influence People
On Horse across America

and the ones where:

they compared the testosterone levels of various men associated w/ TAL
they were on the aircraft carrier Stennis
Spaulding Gray did "Slippery Slope" (which they don't archive)

...and anything by Scott Carrier, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, or David Rakoff .

By: Rash

Rash — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 13:17:08 -0800

I think that testosterone thing was part of an annual fund drive program.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 13:31:31 -0800

Does anyone have an estimate of how many words long the average This American Life "act" is?

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 13:48:00 -0800

I loved Act One of "Something for Nothing," which was about the documentary Hands on a Hardbody.

"You're standin' next to the Devil . . . And you're on the road to Hell."

By: grrarrgh00

grrarrgh00 — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 14:47:26 -0800

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Monogamy (my personal favorite, I think), Pray and 81 Words. I have to second Enemy Camp, especially for the first act when James Fallows grills Richard Perle about the collossal bungling of the war in Iraq. David Rakoff's reading of his story "Before and After Science" in the first act of Family Business makes me do the milk-nose thing. For those who think "House on Loon Lake" is the scariest TAL episode, Perfect Evidence is much, much scarier. Believe me. Especially the last word of Act One. Shudder. Talk about the mundane face of evil.

By: Saucy Intruder

Saucy Intruder — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 15:51:57 -0800

Sarah Vowell's piece on Johnny Cash and June Carter (9/19/03, ep. 247) is gorgeous.

By: gnash

gnash — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:17:34 -0800

A few people have mentioned this one - Conventions (about middle of the page). A story from John Perry Barlow (EFF foundation - Grateful Dead guy) about a serendipitously meeting the woman who quickly became the love of his life and the tragedy of it ending all too soon.

About the saddest story I've ever heard.

By: cowmix

cowmix — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:28:56 -0800

Today's (Reunited) is very good.

By: dial-tone

dial-tone — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:32:36 -0800

And another for House on Loon Lake.

By: killy willy

killy willy — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 18:14:36 -0800

Recordings for Someone - the standout is the last act, featuring the world's greatest answering machine message.

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 21:42:32 -0800

Pst! Azul! It's not Lena Horn, it's Billie Holiday.

By: jimmy

jimmy — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 23:46:02 -0800

running tally with fairly wide margin of error -- mostly for my own convenience, since i wouldn't mind checking these out myself

6 - House on Loon Lake
4 - Fiasco!
4 - My Experimental Phase
3 - Conventions
3 - Cruelty of Children
3 - First Day
2 - Cringe
2 - Enemy Camp
2 - Family Legends
2 - Fix Is In
2 - Godless America
2 - How to Win Friends and Influence People
2 - Mapping
2 - Middle of Nowhere
2 - Mind Games
2 - Perfect Evidence
2 - Running After Antelope
2 - What is This Thing?

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 05:28:57 -0800

Also, Sarah Vowell's description of her obsession with the Godfather movie in the ep called "Mob" is a particular favorite that this thread inspired me to go listen to again.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 12:29:31 -0800

Today's (Reunited) is very good.

It was good. There was something charming about the way the Iranian father said "Mens are from Mars and Women are from Venice" that just made that whole piece feel right.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 09:55:43 -0800

I just listened to "The House on Loon Lake" based on the recommendations here, and it's amazing. Chilling. Funny. Mysterious. Wonderful.

By: pwb503

pwb503 — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 12:12:40 -0800

Hands down, the best episode is 81 Words, a facinating story told by Alix Spiegel, the grand-daughter of a closeted gay psychiatrist in the 70's and the President-elect of the APA at the time it declared homosexuality was not a disease.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:36:23 -0800

Well, this blows.

And I was waiting til today to download a few eps on the fast work machine too.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:45:04 -0800

Cunninglinguist: Yeah, me too. This is why we can't have nice things.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:53:39 -0800

Could maybe some of the people who did get some of the nice things share?