This American Life
My favorite radio program, "This American Life", last week premiered their brand new Showtime television series. The entire episode can be seen for free at the Showtime website. I recommend it. Despite how convenient it is to not need a cable decoder box, I can't help but be tempted to sign up for Showtime again simply so I can watch this show sooner.
The episode's theme is "reality check"; it has a great prologue, then a new story about the owners of the first cloned bull, and then a retelling of "Best Gig Ever" (a story they did for radio a while ago), about the band Ghosts of Pasha and the audience of fake fans that Improv Everywhere filled one of their gigs with. (Oh, hmm. I guess all three stories were on the radio at one time. Well, I haven't heard every single episode.)
While you're at it, try a few of the old radio episodes too. They have great regular contributers like Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris. Some of my favorite episodes are 20 Acts in 60 Minutes which features the greatest dog name ever, Superpowers which has a segment by John Hodgman, and my very very favorite, Numbers, which I couldn't even guess how many times I have listened to. They describe it as "stories of people trying to use numbers to describe things that should not be quantified."
I'm also very fond of the last story in The Kids Are Alright, which I am secretly convinced was the inspiration for Giant Doctor on Scrubs. And Classifieds is a classic, if only for the chance to hear Elton John's "Rocketman" with a theramin accompaniment.
The episode's theme is "reality check"; it has a great prologue, then a new story about the owners of the first cloned bull, and then a retelling of "Best Gig Ever" (a story they did for radio a while ago), about the band Ghosts of Pasha and the audience of fake fans that Improv Everywhere filled one of their gigs with. (Oh, hmm. I guess all three stories were on the radio at one time. Well, I haven't heard every single episode.)
While you're at it, try a few of the old radio episodes too. They have great regular contributers like Sarah Vowell and David Sedaris. Some of my favorite episodes are 20 Acts in 60 Minutes which features the greatest dog name ever, Superpowers which has a segment by John Hodgman, and my very very favorite, Numbers, which I couldn't even guess how many times I have listened to. They describe it as "stories of people trying to use numbers to describe things that should not be quantified."
I'm also very fond of the last story in The Kids Are Alright, which I am secretly convinced was the inspiration for Giant Doctor on Scrubs. And Classifieds is a classic, if only for the chance to hear Elton John's "Rocketman" with a theramin accompaniment.