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Location: LaGrange, Kentucky, United States

The opinions and interests of a husband, analyst and Iraq war veteran.



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Thursday, March 22, 2007

"This American Life" goes visual today

Ira Glass's new project on Showtime attempts to translate the distinctive, stoytelling format of "This American Life," popular on NPR, into small screen format. Will it be successful?

Reviews have been favorable so far, and even Ira is surprised at the finished product:

For a dozen years, Ira Glass has worked to exploit the unique qualities of radio as a storytelling medium in "This American Life." So now that he's branching out to television, the first impression one has is that nothing could be more misguided or less true to the show's original purpose.

And you know what? Glass himself shared that initial impression. "When we began this program, I was naive. I honestly didn't believe pictures could add anything to a story," he says in a promotional DVD distributed by Showtime and the show's original home at WBEZ 91.5-FM's Chicago Public Radio.


Clips from the TV show are available at Showtime's website above. (More at thislife.org.) They look promising and I've been a big fan of the radio show for a decade. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and upgrade to premium cable!



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Some of my favorites from the NPR archives:

Superpowers - John Hodgman, et al.

The fix is in - FBI informant Mark Whitacre.

What are You Looking at? - Sarah Vowell, et al. (Live event)

Running After Antelope - Scott Carrier, et al.

Click to read show descriptions and listen to entire shows for free! Or subscribe to TAL podcast.

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