it’s always been funny to me, that when you or someone you know, gets a new car, how many of those vehicles you start to notice. when i bought my red cavalier, everyone including myself, started seeing them all over town. they had always been there, but they had no significance so they just melted into the background. but once it was my car, someone who knew me thought it might be me driving around town and would tell me how they saw these cars all over the place. i am going through the same thing with this american life.

i’m embarassed to say, i didn’t know about this show or it’s driving force, ira glass, until a month or two ago. a random encounter with a friend of a friend brought it up. “oh, you work in radio?” she said. “yeah, i do.” “well have you ever listened to this american life?” that simple exchange put glass and his amazing radio program on my radar and i can’t be more grateful. i listen weekly to the podcasts, read up on the show, and i recently stumbled upon a non-fiction collection edited by glass. it is my red cavalier all over again.

the show is just about people. it’s the type of thing anyone who works in the field of journalism like myself, would love to be doing. stories about people, that illustrate the wonder, pain, joy, confusion, irony, and every other great adjective about this american life. i really have to give it to the people that put on the show. i work in corporate radio doing sports, so geographically that put’s glass’s show on the equator, and mine on the piece of ice that just fell off antarctica.

the first time i listened i was so engaged and honestly a bit jealous. i really wanted to be part of something like this. i had a taste of it on a very small scale. my first news radio job, i was an afternoon producer for a morning show. i basically came in after everyone was gone, and chased sound for news stories the next day. the operation was affiliated with the paper, so if i could get sound on an article in the the morning editions, then that was a bonus.

so i went in chasing the obvious stuff, and the host was pretty happy with me. but he told me to step away from the crime beat. while that was important, he said that he didn’t follow the “if it bleeds, it leads” philosophy. he told me to chase stories that effect people. it’s something that i can’t say i have come across since. now that i am in sports, it’s a totally different approach to journalism anyway. however, the reason why i no longer do news, is that was the only place where i ever encountered that way of thinking.

so anyway, this american life, is like the constant human interest story. i highly recommend you check them out on the web, and if you live near by, the movie is playing at va center. get full info on the movie here, and i’ll save you a seat on may 1.