Blog

Two This American Life stories nominated for best journalism of the decade

Mar 16, 2010
Ira writes: Like they say, it's an honor just being nominated. NYU's Journalism Institute chose 80 stories for the honor of "Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade 2000-2009." They included our "Giant Pool of Money" show about mortgage-backed securities and how they brought down the global economy and a story we did on both radio and TV "If By Chance We Meet Again," about a man who brings his dead pet bull back to life with the help of cloning technology (which doesn't work out as he'd hoped). But I found that reading NYU's full list was surprisingly moving. So many of these stories opened my eyes to things I hadn't known about or fully understood, written and executed with amazing style and understated force. I took inspiration especially from these, during this past decade: James Fallows, Errol Morris, Michael Lewis, David Foster Wallace, Malcolm Gladwell, Atul Gawande, Seymour Hersch, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ron Suskind, George Packer, Alex Gibney and Eva Orner.
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Newsflash: "Ira" is a calendar model

Mar 12, 2010

We just got wind of the 2010 NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar, which features a picture of writer Melissa Gira Grant dressed as Ira Glass. Several years ago Melissa was a dancer at the famous unionized San Francisco strip club The Lusty Lady, when she happened across This American Life.

She writes: "I discovered the show accidentally when flipping the dial, and listened when working solo in the one-on-one fantasy booth. I thought I had found a pirate radio broadcast and kept it on between customers, turning the volume down fast with my foot when guys came in."

Anyone else listen to the show in unusual places? Tell us over at our Facebook page.

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Check out our new website!

Mar 4, 2010
We're very proud to unveil our brand new This American Life website! It was designed by the same talented folks who created our new logo, a company called Number 17. Our goal was to make it much easier to search for old shows, because that's really what the vast majority of people use the website for - listening to archived episodes. To this end we've improved the search functionality, made the archives easier to navigate, and added the ability to search by contributor. If you like someone's story, just click their name to see every other show they've been in. And more generally, we've simplified the menu structure to make it a more pleasing experience to move through the site. We hope you like it.
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Words on Sound

Mar 3, 2010

Ira appears onstage in Chicago at the MCA Saturday night, March 6, with radio producers Joe Richman and the Kitchen Sisters, for the Third Coast Filmless Festival. It's partly a talk, partly a discussion, partly a book launch for Reality Radio, a new book of essays about making great radio stories. Tickets are $12 and $15, but it's a small venue so act fast.

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The Stag-at Guide: Part 3

Feb 25, 2010

TAL producer Jane Feltes continues her search for a man she can bring home to Mom. This time she visits The Ginger Man only to discover that just because a guy drinks a complicated beer it doesn't mean he's complicated.

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The Votes Keep Coming In

Feb 24, 2010

Ira writes: Voting's closed to pick the favorite story on our 400th episode but stragglers keep showing up. Monday night a few of us were out getting noodles and when the check arrived, it had a note at the top.

I liked Nancy's story the best.

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Variety Show Thursday Night!

Feb 24, 2010
The Talent Show

A number of people who've appeared on the radio show, including Ira, will be performing in a new variety show that's starting up in New York called "The Talent Show." Thursday night February 25th. 8:00. Gershwin Hotel, in a tiny 100-person space. Those other performers: Mike Birbiglia, John Hodgman, Dave Hill, Shaina Feinberg, Elna Baker and Luke Bergamini (the teen comic who appeared on our TV show).  There'll also be people who haven't appeared on This American Life.

Details here. Update: Online tickets are sold out, but some additional tickets will be available at the door starting at 7pm.


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Ira Glass Interviews Jeff Garlin Onstage Sunday Night

Feb 24, 2010

Ira writes: I've known Jeff since long before I started This American Life and long before he created Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David. He's a standup comedian, a great producer and director of comedians (he directed Jon Stewart's and Denis Leary's HBO specials) and an amazing improvisatory actor. Curb is improvised in front of the camera and I've asked Jeff to bring a couple scenes to show during our interview, to talk about this process. The excuse for this whole thing is that he's on a book tour, but I jumped at the chance because it's going to be really fun to get this person I love and admire onstage to ask anything I want. In prepping this last week, I already have more questions than I can possibly ask.

Sunday, February 28, 2010, 8:00pm
92nd Street Y in New York
Ticket Information

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We Have a Winner!

Feb 19, 2010

Thank you to the more than 13,000 people who voted online for their favorite stories in Episode 400: "Stories Pitched by Our Parents." Polls have closed, the ballots have been counted, and the winner is... Robyn Semien! 3,593 people voted for Robyn's story about her dad's electronically controlled car. Staff favorite Lisa Pollak trailed closely behind, with 3,038 listeners voting for her story about funny funerals. Parents of both producers will receive free trips to visit their kids.

Here are the complete results, in order of ascending votes:

Ira Glass' story about the suit - 147 votes (1.1%)

Sarah Koenig's really short story about her daughter wondering why her Jewish grandmother celebrates Christmas (podcast only) - 178 votes (1.3%)

Alissa Shipp's 16-second story about her Bubby saying she's bored (podcast only) - 243 votes (1.8%)

Alex Blumberg's story about corporations being treated as individuals - 1,173 votes (8.9%)
Note, we interrupted this story on the show, but you can listen to the whole thing here.

Nancy Updike's story about the Erie Canal - 1,910 votes (14.5%)
Want to listen to that catchy song again?

Jane Feltes' story about the university in Haiti - 2,921 votes (22.1%)

Lisa Pollak's story about funny funerals - 3,038 votes (23.0%)

Robyn Semien's story about her dad's car invention - 3,593 votes (27.2%)

Oh and if it were in the running, we bet Julie Snyder's This American Life jingle would have gotten some votes.

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Not to Brag... But Our iPhone App Is Kind of a Hit

Feb 19, 2010

We’re psyched to see that our new app is getting lots of five star reviews, and hanging out among the top apps on the iTunes store (it peaked at #3 in the entertainment category!).

The app costs $2.99, and is pretty packed with features:

  • On-demand access to every radio episode we've ever produced
  • Searching by contributor, lists of staff favorites, and the ability to save your own favorites list
  • Countdown to the Friday night live feed, which you can stream in the app
  • Lots of exclusive audio and video extras

Here’s a video of Ira giving a little tour its features:

The app was developed by our talented friends at Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

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