Before It Had a Theme

Yes!!!!! A win for the good guys!!!!!

A must listen for lovers of radio, storytelling, & of course, This American Life. Hearing these producers talk about editing choices & ‘behind-the-scenes’ of the now-iconic TAL is riveting. BUT: my ears heard Rob ‘leading’ in a way that’s like if Terry Gross’s producer interrupted her or said, “But...” after especially astute observations. Case in point: at approx 15:10 & forward in S1:E1 when Britta comments that Ira is setting up a phone conversation in a way that’s “...preempting your judgement” was EVERYTHING. I wanted to hear more from her. Instead, Rob moves on w/a “Yes, but...”. I think Britta caught a recurring event w/her observation: the verbal ‘shame inoculation.’ I hope in future episodes these two have more balanced time to elaborate on their comments. 4 stars now, hoping for 5 in the future.

I don’t always agree w/ the hosts but this podcast really provides fascinating background info and commentary that both informs and sparks debate. It also is full of ‘related’ materials in the links which add another whole piece to the experience of each discussed episode. Britta definitely seems a bit more astute in picking out layers of nuance and I’d love to hear a bit more of her each episode. She talks more about how TAL used a particular methodology to unite the show into such a successful and now imitated format or delve a bit deeper into the techniques Ira uses that really enhance each segment of the show even though his intros need To be brief. That’s expertise that really adds to a meta-podcast format whereas just describing or reviewing content isn’t as appealing to me. A lot of good research seems to have gone into each ep. I guess they couldn’t find a way to get the podcast noticed/sponsored but I wish they’d been able to get a mention on TAL to drive more listeners to them because I’d love to have seen it develop over 30-40 episodes. Come back! Let’s try to get an audience for this!

I just recently started listening to podcasts, specifically This American Life and It’s interesting to hear how Rob and Britta interpret these stories offering me an opportunity to view them from another perspective