This American Life

For those of you who may not know this, I am a huge National Public Radio (NPR) fan, I could listen to it all day long and wish more folks would so I would have something to talk about with them. I think their news is honestly very fair, they go to great lengths to talk to folks from both sides of the spectrum and they go deep into stories. My friend JFord will probably shudder when I type this, but I think their journalism goes way beyond anything that is in print today (except maybe the Christian Science Monitor).

One of my favorite shows is "This American Life", each week they pick a theme and develop 2-4 stories around that theme, they almost always make you say, "Hmmm, that was interesting, I wish they had another hour . . .". When their team of reporters broke down the financial collapse, it was amazing, I really understood it all. Very cool.

Well, this past weekend, they did a road show in Washington, DC and I got tickets to it, which was pretty awesome. For a modest donation to the local NPR station (WAMU) I got to go to a pre-show dessert event with none other than Ira Glass, the host of the show.

Picture of me with Ira Glass:

He was just like he was on the radio, nice, talkative, interesting and told a great story. For about an hour, he talked to the folks at the dessert social, answered their questions, signed autographs and let us take pictures with him, very cool. When I was in Iraq, I bought about 5 years of his shows on Audible.com and listened to them almost everyday. Some of the shows were from Iraq, which was very interesting, because I was there. After I listened to them, I understood a bit more about Iraq and how the conflict was affecting Iraq. This American Life went to great lengths to talk to Iraqi's, get their perspective and develop a different angle than most folks would hear.

(Editor's Note: I was not in favor if the Iraq invasion, when we first heard there was a plan being developed for the invasion I thought the folks in the plans shop were joking, but it was horribly true. To this day I can't listen to or see George W. Bush without getting angry about the invasion. I was happy to be part of the operation that turned the conflict around and made it manageable for the Iraqis, that was a year well spent. Whenever I hear of casualties (US or Iraqi) from the conflict, I literally see red. I am sure there are a lot of folks in my father's generation that felt the same way about JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson and Vietnam).

OK, off the soapbox . . . .

During the show in DC, the This American Life folks played four stories from their television series and talked about the 2 year Showtime show they put together and how challenging that was for them. Of the stories, the one that stood out the most was one done by an Iraqi (Hamid Hamsa) that received a Fullbright Scholarship and was studying in New York. For you This American Life fans, Hamid Hamsa had been on the radio show before, he talked about how the invasion had affected his family and his impression of the invasion as a young Iraqi.

The television episode took place about 4 years after his radio appearance, the premise of the show was he wanted to ask American people why the US invaded Iraq. When he asked the question in NY, he was told that they didn't want to invade, they were against it in NY, he would have to go south to talk to the folks down there about the reason for the invasion. So, during his spring break, he built a stall (like Lucy's stall in the Peanuts comic strip) that had a sign that said "Talk to an Iraqi" on it and went south to talk to folks. He stopped in Fayetteville, NC, Savannah, GA and Jacksonville, NC among other places. It was interesting (and sometimes sad) to see how Americans reacted to him and the discussions that took place. He said that the folks he connected to the most were the families of Service Members because they had a better understanding of the conflict and were closer to what was going on than the general public.

Link to the This American Life webpage (you can right click on the links below and open in a new Tab if you want to stay on my blog page, I just learned that internet trick):

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Talk to an Iraqi episode link:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/tv-archives/season-two/two-wars

My personally favorite episode:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/175/babysitting

If you all are not into NPR, I recommend catching a few podcasts, they are free on Itunes. As mom said once after listening to a This American Life episode when she was visiting me in NC "You never know what you are going to hear on NPR."

Other New:

Final Four update - - My beloved Blue Devils got rocked out of the tournament. I have to admit, I didn't think they had it in them, but love them anyway. Coach K decided to go small at the end of the year, I am not sure why, but he is the coach with three rings. I wish they had more balance and it looked like they would this year, but they never emphasized the inside game. Sigh, live by the three pointer, die by the three pointer.

On the good side, UNC got beat as well.

Movie recommendation: Win Win, good family flick, just a little bit of violence, but really well done. I got a good laugh at the wrestling team all getting pinned. Paul Giamatti is one pretty good actor, even if he is playing himself.