Beth on This American Life
From: bwarshaw@sas.upenn.edu ("Somebody's Fool") Message-Id: <200102211649.f1LGnAl28198@mail2.sas.upenn.edu> Subject: This American Life/Sedaris To: whseminar@dept.english.upenn.edu Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 11:49:10 -0500 (EST) A little table of contents, for those who want to skip around in my compartmentalized report: Sidebar Schedule Numbers about TAL What it is What the host has to say What I think Selection of shows that Sedaris has done (look up the show dates in the TAL archives --found on the home page-- to access them via Real Audio) ________________________________________ Sidebar: This American Life is NOT an NPR program, but is produced independently at WBEZ (91.5 FM) Chicago, and is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. Yes, I know that Ira Glass (the host) refers to it as an NPR program, to avoid confusion, but I'm not trying to split hairs. Whether or not a show is syndicated by NPR makes little semantic difference, but it has a lot of bearing on the content and format of the show. It just sounds kind of ignorant when we call it an NPR program, especially when they mention PRI several times per show. __________________________ Schedule: TAL runs tonight (Wednesday) at 10pm and reruns Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 11am on WHYY (90.9 FM). Check it out if you can. __________________________ Numbers: TAL is an hourlong weekly show that currently runs on 420 stations across the US. It's received grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the NEA, and just celebrated its 5th anniversary last November. It has over a million regular listeners, most of whom are much younger than the average public radio demographic of 35-59. __________________________ What it is: >From the website (www.thislife.org): "Its mission is to document everyday life in this country. We sometimes think of it as a documentary show for people who normally hate documentaries. A public radio show for people who don't necessarily care for public radio. What we look for in putting the show together are stories that we love, truly love. We have the themes because mostly, they make it sound like there's a reason to hear a story about, say, a contest where everyone stands around a truck for days until one person is left standing" [this is the "Hands on a Hard Body" competition, about which you can find a video documentary as well] ..."We think of the show as a kind of journalism. Our former contributing editor says that what we're doing is applying the tools of journalism to everyday lives, personal lives. Which is sort of true. It's also true that the journalism we do tends to use a lot of the techniques of fiction: scenes and characters and narrative threads. Meanwhile, the fiction we have on the show functions like journalism: it's fiction that describes what it's like to be here, now, in America." _______________________________ What Ira Glass, as host, lead producer, and originator has to say: "I don't really like stuff which is 'good for me' very much. The reason why I would want somebody to listen to this show is not because it will make them into a better person, but because they simply find that they're drawn in by the characters in the stories. I hate that public radio feeling when I'm listening to Morning Edition and I feel like, 'If I listen to the end of this report, I will be a better person and a better citizen'. I hate that!" "I look to do on the radio what I would want someone making a radio show to do for me, i.e., to be awake to the world, to tell me things that I will find interesting, and to engage me." "One of the ongoing obsessions of the show is doing stories about people who are horribly mischaracterized elsewhere in the media." ______________________________ What I think: Because you care so much...I've actually applied before to be an intern at TAL, and I'll be trying again in a few months (I lost to a man who'd just come back working with the Red Cross in Bosnia AND had a record deal on Drag City with his band...how do you compete with that?) Some of the things that comes up when discussing TAL are A. how the men who appear on the show are straight out of Lisa Simpson's Non-Threatening Boys Magazine, and B. how earnest (or naive or un-ironic or whatever) the show is. Some people actually call it a "feminized" show, but I honestly don't see that: personally, storytelling and listening to people's experiences are some of the most important things we can do, and putting together a show with the theme "Sissies" does not a sissy make. But whatever, listen for yourselves. _________________________________ David Sedaris has been reading his own essays and plays and just talking it up with Ira Glass on air since the show's inception, and is TAL's most constant contributor. Many of the pieces he's read can be found in Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day, but some are totally original and can only be found on www.thislife.org. Here's a few interesting ones (starred are ones I love): (This one's for Tim) "Cruelty of Children" June 21, 1996, Episode 27: Act 1: I Like Guys "Detectives" July 12, 1996, Episode 28: Act 2: Writer David Sedaris on the odd crime wave that hit their own home. "Animals" January 31, 1996, Episode 12: Original radio play by David Sedaris and the Pinetree Gang "Christmas and Commerce" December 20, 1996, Episode 47: "Santaland Diaries" in its complete form *"A Very Special Sedaris Xmas", December 19, 1997, Episode 87: Stories from "Holidays on Ice" *"Delivery", March 14, 1997, Episode 57: Act 3, World premiere David Sedaris play. *"Americans in Paris", July 28, 2000, Episode 165: David Sedaris gives Ira a tour of "his" Paris for an hour. "Death to Wacky", March 20, 1998, Episode 97: Act 1: Negative. Sedaris tells true stories of photographers who try to take pictures of him which will make him seem more "wacky" than in fact he is. -- ********************************************** * The art of losing isn't hard to master; * * so many things seem filled with the intent * * to be lost that their loss is no disaster. * * -Elizabeth Bishop * **********************************************