A few years ago, I did a semester-long stint as a substitute teacher. I’d never had any kind of pedagogical training and had no clue what to do when a particularly loud-mouthed seventh-grader wouldn’t sit and keep his mouth shut during the “quiet homework time” that the teacher’s notes told me that the kids were [...]
A 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 school. I even dug up a “This American Life” episode that served as a great example of the similarities between Howard and my friend. But [...]
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. It’s more or less like his stuff on “This American Life,” with his sense of humor shifting [...]
On the week before This American Life airs their second dive into the Giant Pool of Money, they’ve decided to air one of my favorite episodes ever, “The Fix is In“. It’s about a food additive company involved in a global price fixing scheme and the informant that helped the FBI bust the companies involved. [...]
And this time, he’s wrangling a monkey. Particularly, a monkey in a sweatshirt. For real. This week’s “This American Life” is called No Map, and it’s about finding a way out of unprecedented situations. Really, Ira could have just played Squirrel Cop again. Instead, he brought the squirrel cop back for more. I want that [...]
Happy Monday, everybody. I’m getting to the recap late as a result of some heavy-duty eating at my house last night, so let’s get to it. Bob heads to the Conservative Political Action Conference in order to find the future of conservatism. I’m not sure if he saw the future, but he did [...]
It’s nice when people you like work well together. You get the best parts of each world. Like when “This American Life” works with “Planet Money” to get in-depth coverage of the current financial crisis that truly reaches for the emotional core of the story. As much as I like the work that happens when [...]
Here’s to fresh starts, false starts, and utter failures. More importantly, here’s to giving back to those who give to us. Happy New Year’s. Let’s fix what’s broken, and make the most of it. 2009 will be what we make of it.
I have been obsessed for years with the musical phenomenon known as song-poems. Song-poems were a semi-scam that ran for a while from the late 50′s to the late 70′s. People would write lyrics to songs and pay services to put them to music and record the song. The budding lyricists were then sent the [...]
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This Ethiopian Life
 I checked. I haven’t written about Mulatu Astatke before. I find this completely shocking. For the last two or three years, after almost every episode of “This American Life,” I have had this song stuck in my head: YeÌ€gelleÌ Tezeta And I couldn’t be happier with that state of affairs. There aren’t many songs [...]