This American Life Project

This American Life is a staple of public radio. In three acts, Ira Glass and his contributors explicate upon a particular theme. The show has become so successful it added a television component on Showtime. Both on radio & on TV the conceit has remained the same:

“Each episode has a theme. That's mostly because a theme makes it seem like there's a reason to sit and listen to a story about a contest where everyone stands around a truck for days until only one person is left on their feet...or a grown man trying to convince a skeptical friend that not only has he heard the world's greatest phone message, but that it's about the Little Mermaid...or a man who's obsessed with Niagara Falls, lives minutes from the Falls, writes and thinks about the Falls all the time, but can't bring himself to actually visit the Falls because, as he says, "they've ruined the Falls." If you're not doing stories about the news, or celebrities, or things people have ever heard of elsewhere, you have to give people a reason to keep listening. The themes make it seem like you should.”

The files and links you find here will help you with your project.

If you misse listening to the This American Life episode in class, we listen to episode 469.