Recommended Podcast and TV Show

I'm a fan of Ira Glass and "This American Life". I listen to the weekly podcast, and I've been watching the show as well. It is, at its core, simple story-telling about extraordinary things that happen to ordinary people, and as with any discussion about the commonplace, the resounding themes are universal (for the non-Americans, don't let the title turn you off).

L and I have been watching the second season lately, and the shows are powerful. Last night, we watched an episode about an Iraqi who, curious to know what Americans think about the Iraq war, travelled all around to the Mid-West U.S. looking for random conversations. Here's a snippet:

The most poignant, though, was the season ender about the lives of seven people named "John Smith", starting with an 11 month old John Smith, and ending with a 79 year old John Smith. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on youtube. Instead, here's Ira Glass on David Letterman, on how he became a vegetarian: