This American Life - Live!

I have been a lifelong listener of National Public Radio, it's part of my daily ritual that has truly shaped much of who I am. Within the last year or two, I discovered my new favorite show, This American Life, a program produced in Chicago for Public Radio International. It's been aired in Chicago since 1995, but has relatively recently been picked up by our local Public Radio station here in Denver and even more recently popularized by it's availability on iTunes - each week's episode is available for free download to any number of devices. It's been at or near the top of the "Top Podcasts" list for months. The show has become so popular, that they decided to spin off a television show, also titled This American Life, which airs on the Showtime network. Many loyal radio listeners also became TV show watchers and the show has grown and is now beginning their second season, which debuts on Sunday night (May 2nd).

I think this is an awesome example of convergence - a little radio show, dreamed up by a few producers and a host in Chicago has become a national phenomenon and cultural influence, with a presence on the radio, TV, web, books, newspapers and web articles, a blog, even Facebook and MySpace pages. If you've never heard of TAL it's absolutely worth your time to check it out.

Anyway, last night (May 1st) they hosted an event where they broadcast a combination radio/TV show live from New York City via satellite feed to a handful of movie theaters across the country. This American Life - Live! was way cool. A few friends and attended in a nearly full movie theater to watch this program. As we were leaving, we were struck by how awesome it was - a high tech cultural event that attracted a very diverse cross-section of the population to one place, at one time, for a unique event. We all had a feeling of "it's a small world," mingling with people of similar interests, etc. During the show, the host, Ira Glass, fielded questions listeners/viewers had emailed in, he took questions from their live audience, and showed segments of their upcoming season of TV shows. The show and the whole experience raised a lot of interesting issues and questions that my friends and I discussed at length for several hours afterward.

I'm really sorry, I probably should have posted something about this earlier so others would have had an opportunity to attend... but I'm sure you'll be able to catch a repeat webcast or read about it in lots of other places. :-)