Ok, so we all love This American Life. So many riveting stories, lateral interpretations of a theme, and a ponderous contemplation of our shared humanity.
But I do worry about the influence of this all-consuming show on other radio makers, and storytellers generally. It started as a niggling feeling for me at Ira Glass' Reinventing Radio tour, then the niggles slowly started to build.
Last year at one of my friend Beth's Party For Your Thoughts get togethers, where guests share links to stories to talk about over dinner (like an in-the-flesh version of our blog, plus yummy food), my friend and fellow radio maker/lover Kate Montague's contribution to the evening
was the hour-long radio documentary Walking Across America: Advice for a Young Man, made by first time radio maker Andrew Forsthoetfel, with the help of Jay Allison from transom.org. The story was picked up by This American Life, and reedited into a shorter piece that played as part of the episode Hit the Road.
Comparing the two (which I did obsessively, of course!!), I thought TAL missed the mark, badly. They'd somehow managed to cut out all the moments that had made me cry when I heard the original version (and even cry again on subsequent listenings). And the tweaking that they did to the structure kind of killed the spirit of the story for me, and for no perceptible good reason.
Here are the two versions if you're interested in comparing them:
So anyhow, Kate recently sent me this great article from Griffith Review, which eloquently lays out so many of the things that we're starting to bother me about TAL.
It would be really sad if the scope of how stories are told narrows as TAL's format is so ubiquitously imitated. Both in the sense of the stylistic approach, but also the perception of what kind of stories can be told. Ira really put me off at the Reinventing Radio talk when he said "not everyone has a story (for This American Life)", and it's true. TAL stories are always extraordinary, always have twists and turns, ironies and coincidences that most ordinary lives don't. Which makes me worry that TAL teaches listeners (and program makers) to always expect a twist or a punch line and equate that with a good story.
While I continue to love TAL, and love the way the show has inspired so many people, it's easy to forget that there are many, many different ways to tell a story. And I firmly believe everyone does have a story worth telling.
Thanks to Kate Montague for sending me the Griffith Review article. And here's a link to Kate's radio documentaries on SoundCloud, including the yarn about the sassy whip cracker in Darwin that I sent you both a while back.
http://m.soundcloud.com/katemontague
Image from the radio documentary Walking Across America: Advice for a Young Man.
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