This American Life

Started this:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/416/iraq-after-us

it's good but tainted by the standard TAL lightness

This one was awesome 45.5 minutes in, the lady w/ cancer. Also a VERY catchy tune at the end by The Mountain Goats perhaps you have heard of them ;)

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/425/slow-to-reactmywebsite.com/mylink.html

I hope that works.

Singing this tune for the last two days.

The one about the Sioux War in Minnesota was surprisingly good and surprisingly non-trivial. I think it might have been a guest production by a Minnesota public radio station or something.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits

This was a pretty astounding piece and overall very good journalism, although I occasionally thought the reporter got dangerously close to quid-ag territory with some of her comments (e.g. there's a moment where a woman she's interviewing actually can't think of a job she could do that would involve sitting down -- the reporter kind of leaps to the conclusion that this is because this woman literally doesn't know about any jobs where you sit down, rather than the more likely explanation that the woman just wouldn't think to offer examples of clerical office jobs because she's not remotely qualified for them.)

enjoyed the one about obama impersonator louis ortiz (although again, it featured a little of the classic NPR condescension).

lol at the part in the most recent episode where the reporter listens to this supposedly autistic teenager's piano playing and describes it as some kind of intuitive serialist improvisation or whatever, completely ignoring that the kid says it's from an antipop consortium beat.

I'm going to play rap.
Benjamin

You want to play rap?

(MUSIC PLAYING)

Scott Pinkmountain: I'm a musician myself, and I've heard hundreds of piano improvisations. Anthony's music had the kind of spaciousness, repetition, and tiny deviations of some of my favorite avant-garde music. It was both thoughtful and intuitive, strangely confident and vulnerable at the same time. I was hearing something unique.

(APPLAUSE)
Scott Pinkmountain

Bravo.
Benjamin

What was that piece, Anthony? I couldn't tell it.
Anthony

I'm really (INAUDIBLE) Antipop Consortium.

This was really good:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/496/when-patents-attack-part-two

It's barely a part 2 I think tho, most of it was from the original ep iirc

ah ok. I guess that's sort of cheating. But I never heard the part 1, and in any case it was good.

I enjoyed the one where Michael Lewis narrated the story of the Bosnian refugee who thought that his life was changed by a substitute English teacher (but turned out to have kind of half-misapprehended the way things had gone). I seem to be nearly the only person who bumps this thread, which is faintly embarrassing.

probably because its the ILM thread, there's another thread for TAL over on ILE that gets a little more love and attention

oh, durr

which is the standard one?

this thread seems to be the most active.