This American Life

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Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

Lady Gaza posted:

I don't have a link but the episode on patent law is very good.

Definitely, that was sort of my introduction to the whole patent law fiasco, then I saw it mentioned everywhere. I really love the episodes that are borderline muckraking journalism. The Coke Recipe episode was sort of like that too

# ¿ Sep 30, 2011 15:42

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:31

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

maxnmona posted:

Yeah, occasionally they do an episode that just gets you angry at the ridiculous injustice of it.

Another one is this one http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/163/can-you-fight-city-hall%E2%80%A6if-you-are-city-hall

Though it's way too short, the storyteller for the first act is excellent. The way she tells the part about being supported about criminals had me cracking up

# ¿ Oct 10, 2011 17:02

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

I had a studiomate that would play This American Life all the time. It was my first exposure to the show and it just seemed like it was a bunch of stories about troubles being gay, how the family would deal with it etc., a lot of which were David Sedaris stories. Eventually it got a little old

Turns out he was just a pretty gay guy that chose to listen to a lot of episodes dealing with gayness. Oddly enough, I'm not sure if I would be a fan of the show now if it weren't for the exposure it got from my studiomate (Wait Wait Don't Tell Me too)

# ¿ Nov 9, 2011 02:09

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

CDOR Gemini posted:

About halfway through this week's episode, and holy poo poo, the program in Act 2 sounds like just an incredible waste of time and money. Hey, we spent 3+ months of multiple police officer salaries to catch a bunch of high school kids with a small amount of pot and stick them with felonies. Keeping the streets safe!

I'm surprised the word "entrapment" didn't show up at any point during that story

# ¿ Feb 15, 2012 17:26

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

Holy Calamity! posted:

I bought the android app and for some reason there's a huge chunk of shows missing between 2010-2012 Anyone know why this might be the case? I've been marathoning TAL like mad since I discovered it.

The Android app is terrible. A bunch of them are missing, there's still the ads at the beginning and worst: you should download each episode before listening because the built-in player cuts out at 40 minutes and doesn't stop when you remove the headphones.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2012 16:32

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

maxnmona posted:

A longer written response from Mike Daisey http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/reports-of-my-death-have-been-greatly.html

and the prologue he added to the last few shows of the stage version: http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/heres-audio-from-prologue-i-delivered.html

That response coupled with the episode is fine. Daisey totally lied about a lot of this stuff, and that was a terrible thing to do, especially when he understood what they were going for. However, TAL does acknowledge that most of the facts were true, whether he experienced them or not. That acknowledgement gets a little forgotten under the amount of attention Ira pays to the fact that TAL was lied to.

I do think it's somewhat TAL's fault. Their muckraking episodes have been great, but traditionally TAL HAS been a monologue show. They mixed the two, didn't stick with a reputable source (I haven't heard Daisey's monologue but I assume he doesn't normally report on things), and paid for it.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2012 14:50

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

cadenceweapon posted:

Definitely one of the most well produced and consistently good podcasts out there. I can't count how many times the show has sucked me in and had me totally disregard the world around me while I listen.

The story with the girl who completely reinvented herself to become a butcher and made a meat club really turned me off. Even aside from her tone, she kept falling into these obnoxious lists that had my car yelling "WE GET IT". Rest of the episode was good though.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2012 17:42

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:31

Farts Domino: May 8, 2004

the littlest prince posted:

The android app for TAL just got updated. You can now download more than one episode at a time! And plenty of other improvements apparently.

Reviews on the Play Store so far are glowing.

thanks for the update. The old one was miserable

# ¿ Dec 12, 2012 19:53

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Rapidly Going Deaf > This American Life