March 11th, 2008 - Podcatching: This American Life
This American Life is one that probably doesn’t fit the focus of this blog, but I’ll write about it anyway since I listen to it. It’s a weird mix of a show. The typical format is to select a topic then have 2-4 “chapters” each of which is an interview or monologue or something with someone different. Some are from past shows repurposed for a new topic. Sometimes I love the topics, sometimes I hate them. I really didn’t like the Love episode for Valentine’s Day. The first was a long monologue by a guy that said it was a letter to his wife he’d written late at night on his 70th (or such) birthday. I kept listening because I figured it had to get better–they guy was a jerk and didn’t even like his wife very much anymore. In the end, it turns out the speaker is an author and I was led to believe this wasn’t real! I kind of wondered–what 70 year old man writes a letter that takes 30 minutes to read aloud? And I never got the idea that he loved his wife anyway.
But then there was the fascinating one about supers (the guys who run apartment buildings in NY), and my brilliant Plan, which included a guy who became a physicist and is figuring out time travel all because his Dad died when he was a kid and he wanted to be with his Dad again.