Saturday, June 7, 2008

This American Life: Prom


This American Life is my favorite program on NPR. It's amazing for many reasons, it doesn't tackle political issues like many NPR programs. There are no bi-partisanship arguments, it's an easy going, nearly relaxing hour of radio. Creator Ira Glass has developed one of the most interesting and captivating radio programs on the air waves. A long time correspondent for many public radio shows, Ira Glass finally and deservedly got his own program syndicated in 1996 broadcasting from WEBZ in Chicago and it's been entertaing listeners ever since. Every Sunday I set my radio dial in my car to 89.1 at 3:00 just to listen to stories of average American people who run into interesting events. It relates to everyone and it can either make you laugh, smile or cry. There are many episodes that stick out in my mind but a couple of weeks ago This American Life reran (sp?) a four act show about proms. Personally my prom was less than average, I really didn't even want to go--I remember I had to awkwardly and nervously drive my date in her Father's massive pick-up truck. These stories were particularly interesting to me for not only their somewhat intense subject matter but also for nostalgic reasons, memories of high school,why prom sucks, why after prom is awesome because you are 17 or 18 and get to drink massive amounts of alcohol and make terrible mistakes, etc. Here is a link to the show Episode 186: Prom. You can listen to it there, I hope you enjoy it and perhaps you can recall how awful or awesome YOUR prom was.

This American Life airs on NHPR every sunday at 3.

6 comments:

joshua francis said...

This American Life reminds me of sleeping off hangovers on Sunday afternoons. Great program. Soothing and hypnotic.

Alex Kotce said...

Agreed. Did you have that experience today?

joshua francis said...

Negative. There are no hangovers in suburbia; I trimmed the hedges.

Alex Kotce said...

haha

Christina Spinelli said...

Ira Glass used to be married to Lynda Barry. She drew some great comic strips about it. He sounds like the worst husband ever.
All that aside, the man can certainly host an A+ radioshow.

Alex Kotce said...

OH shit I've read about that. That's too bad, you wouldn't expect it. It plagues his biography.

Also: I heard he had to lose like 50 lbs to do the television show on Showtime.