This American Life

This is a wonderfully curious radio show. It has such interesting topics that I didn't even know I was interested in until I hear them. Also, this radio show was instrumental in helping me to understand the financial meltdown. They did a great public service with that series of reports.

Entertain yourself! - If you've ever listened to public radio on the weekends, you've probably heard This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass. It's a one hour radio show that comes on weekly, true and untrue stories of people's lives and experiences, all following a theme per week. Every week you get a fresh new perspective or view on life in the United States that you may never experience or may have never even fathomed. I love it because it provides some cerebral entertainment, without requiring much from me - just a turn of the radio knob and there's Ira Glass, giving me a dose of reality in 3 or 4 short "acts". Follow it up or precede it with some CarTalk and you've got a great start to the weekend morning. On thislife.org, you can hear free streaming episodes, dating back to the show's birth in 1995. There are some that aren't accessible but most are there for free, with only a couple that you'd have to buy. I see each episode as a real collector's item, a drop in the time capsule of our collective lives.