This American Life (Radio)

This American Life (1995-present, creator Ira Glass) is a public radio show. There is a TV series also, but I'm more familiar with the radio show, and I'd like to make a case for talking about it here. It's long-running, has a lot of episodes, and is great, so it's something you might want to introduce people to, but be overwhelmed about where to begin. I'm here to help!

Key Episodes

175 Babysitting This is what TAL is all about: taking some ordinary aspect of life and examining it through little, surprising momens. All the stories in this episode are solid, but the story about the boy and girl who made up a family to baby-sit is probably one of the best TAL has ever done; Myron Jones, the interviewee, is so interesting and warm and delightful.

220 Testosterone This is a good example of the show taking on the human side of a science topic, as interviews with a man who lost his testosterone and a trans man just beginning to take testosterone illustrate the effect the hormone can have on people's personality and experience. Also, there is a fun behind-the-scenes throughline as the producers of the radio show have their testosterone levels checked and try to guess who will be the highest. This may be more fun if you listen to it later after getting to know the various producers better, but it's also a pretty good introduction to them.

328 What I Learned from Television I'm not sure if this is a legit best episode or just the best one for followers of this blog. In this live show recording from 2007 features fun TV stories from an all-star roster of regular contributors: witty David Rakoff learns to embrace reality TV; history geek Sarah Vowell describes a short-lived Puritan-themed sitcom; host Ira Glass gets emotional eulogizing The O.C.; sex advice columnist Dan Savage examines the bizarre worldview of his son's then-favorite show, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Maybe it's because I love TV so much, but there are no bad moments in this episode.

Bonus Episodes
The TAL staff has put together a pretty good list of fan favorite episodes, which is a good place to continue your (or your friend's) journey. I've tried to stray off that list for some of my personal favorite episodes.

65 Who's Canadian? CANADA PRIDE WHOOOO ahem. David Rakoff explains to Ira Glass what happens when he hears the name of someone he knows to be Canadian.

88 Numbers: Notable for containing the Best and Worst songs in the world. I also like all the stories about measuring love with Excel.

190 Living the Dream: The story about transsexual prostitute teenagers is awkward listnening these days, I think, but John Hodgman's story about Bruce Campbell describes his appeal 100% accurately, plus Adam Davidson's hilarious childhood diary about becoming the next Prime Minister of Israel.

226 Reruns Another episode I love for its TV references: Starlee Kine explains why she loves Boy Meets World, and Sarah Vowell talks about people comparing themselves to Rosa Parks (including the great scene from Sports Night). Plus, Robert Krulwich and John Hodgman telling stories with their wives.

268 My Experimental Phase: Three stories, each great in their own way: producer Nancy Updike talks to Ira Glass about convincing herself she was a lesbian (I love when the staff talks among themselves, and this is a good introduction to Nancy); a totally quintessential TAL story about a punk rocker and a Hasidic Jew who form an unlikely friendship and musical partnership in Williamsburg; and a strangely hilarious live stage recording of a woman reading from her 8th grade diary.

293 A Little Bit of Knowledge: Nancy explains the concept of "Modern Jackass"--this show is worth it just for that--plus stories about those childhood misconceptions we don't bother re-examining until well into adulthood, and Dan Savage's story about his six-year-old son's opposition to gay marriage.

323 The Super One of the most memorable TAL stories ever, I think, is Jack Hitt's amazing tale of the super in his old building.

339 Break-up: My favorite story in this one is the one where Starlee Kine gets advice from Phil Collins on how to write a torch song and how to get over a break-up.

355 The Giant Pool of Money: I'm not sure how well this one would hold up, but this contemporary plain-language explanation of the global financial crisis of 2008 was impressive and eye-opening at the time (critically, and to me).

379 Return to the Scene of the Crime: I saw this in theaters as the live show, but it's also fun on radio, with Mike Birbiglia's non-Sleepwalk with Me story and Joss Whedon performing his song about DVD commentary from the DVD commentary of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.