I’m surprised to see Radiolab get top billing, and This American Life not even get a mention. I think of Radiolab as an excellent imitation of TAL. :-)
Every single episode seems to have the deep underlying message of “Humans are fucked up, on a fundamental level. This is what it means to be human, and it cannot be changed. Let us revel in it.” Sometimes it’s melancholy, sometimes it’s straight-up sad-as-hell, but there’s never a feeling of “things can get better.” It’s always of “these problems are too large to change, nothing can be done but to embrace and accept it.” It is the loss of all hope that makes me want to just give up on everything and crawl into a dark corner for the rest of the day.
I like reading the transcripts of TAL, but I hate listening to podcasts, so I don’t know what the audio is like. I do definitely recommend the reporting/storytelling!
I’m surprised to see Radiolab get top billing, and This American Life not even get a mention. I think of Radiolab as an excellent imitation of TAL. :-)
Ira Glass seems to think Radiolab is better.
Wow, that’s neat. I guess I’d better move Radiolab higher up on my list.
I had to stop listening to TAL because I was tired of wanting to kill myself after every episode.
Elaborate?
Every single episode seems to have the deep underlying message of “Humans are fucked up, on a fundamental level. This is what it means to be human, and it cannot be changed. Let us revel in it.” Sometimes it’s melancholy, sometimes it’s straight-up sad-as-hell, but there’s never a feeling of “things can get better.” It’s always of “these problems are too large to change, nothing can be done but to embrace and accept it.” It is the loss of all hope that makes me want to just give up on everything and crawl into a dark corner for the rest of the day.
I like reading the transcripts of TAL, but I hate listening to podcasts, so I don’t know what the audio is like. I do definitely recommend the reporting/storytelling!