You probably already know this, but Jonathan Goldstein, of “This American Life” fame, has his own radio show, “WireTap,” that runs on the CBC Radio One in Canada, and, via Public Radio International, several American public radio stations.
"Alberto Gonzales on line 2...." by Vaguely Artistic, Flickr.
It’s more or less like his stuff on “This American Life,” with his sense of humor shifting rapid between wry and dry. (With a voice and delivery like his, it’s hard to believe his sense of humor to be anything but wry and/or dry.)
The production of the show is fantastic – “WireTap” sounds like what would happen if Ira Glass hired Nick Van der Kolk from “Love and Radio” as a producer.
By which I mean two things:
- It sounds approachable and familiar, but with an underlying sense of unsettling avant garde absurdity.
- Awesome.
(Seriously, can someone get Nick to produce a segment for “This American Life?” Even if they just use the Lady Sovereign episode?)
One of the greatest things that Goldstein brought over from This American Life is the random clip from the middle of the show. Glass & co. use it to cram words into the mouth of Torey Malatia, but the genius twist that Goldstein employs is to release those clips as mp3 ringtones.
Just like this one: WireTap: Lucky Lady
Also, the first time I noticed, really noticed Goldstein was on this TAL episode, “Special Treatment,” wherein his friend Howard reminds me uncannily of a good friend of mine from high school.
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Special treatment really is one of the great Jonathan Goldstein episodes. It’s funny hearing Howard Chackowicz or Josh Karpati on TAL because they are less parodies of themselves like they are on Wiretap.
There are lots of TAL and Wiretap crossovers – for instance, Jonathan Goldstein and Starlee Kine are like BFF and she’s always on Wiretap. David Rakoff also plays characters on Wiretap often as did John Hodgman for awhile. Jorge Just (who did the episode on Improv Everywhere where they punked Ghosts of Pasha) is also a regular on Wiretap.
I could go on and on…
Sam Shalabi, who was in Gospeed You Black Emperor, is often on Wiretap…
Sorry…
Anyway, give “Recordings for Someone” a listen from This American Life. It features Josh Karpati and Jonathan Goldstein and is sometimes referenced as the genesis of Wiretap.
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[...] little bit ago ago, I wrote about Jonathan Goldstein’s CBC show “Wiretap.” I mentioned his friend Howard and how he reminds me of a friend I had in high [...]
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