{"id":726,"date":"2020-10-19T23:28:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T06:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/?p=726"},"modified":"2020-10-19T23:28:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T06:28:55","slug":"this-american-life-1-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/2020\/10\/19\/this-american-life-1-new-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"This American Life 1: New Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m listening to NPR’s This American Life, <\/em>hosted by Ira Glass.\u00a0 This American Life<\/em> is one of the most famous and most-listened-to podcasts in existence, as well as being incredibly long-running with 720 episodes and counting.\u00a0 I’ve decided to listen to an episode from every other year of the 26 years it’s been running, because I’m interested in tracking changes in format and style over such a long period of time.\u00a0 Of course, I’ll only go into detail on three of the episodes since we’ll only be posting three discussion blogs, and for this post I wanted to begin with the very first one.\u00a0 From the start, it’s obvious that this is not a normal episode–much of it is devoted to meta discussion of the fact that it is a new program.\u00a0 Even at the beginning, it seems that the writers and producers had designs on This American Life<\/em> (at the time called Your Radio Playhouse<\/em>) being a big, popular, long-lasting thing.\u00a0 The scope is incredibly broad–it’s about “this American life” in every aspect, and it was that way from the start.\u00a0 It must have felt scattered at first–you listen to an episode about anger vs forgiveness, then one about vacations, and then one about poultry, and it would be understandable if you were confused about what exactly they were trying to do.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, they never seemed confused.\u00a0 I would think it risky to go for such a wide variety of topics from the start, rather than building a strong identity first and branching out later, but that’s exactly what they did.\u00a0 Glass’ own explanation of the theme of the show seems disjointed and vague at best.\u00a0 “OK, the idea of this show, this new little show, is stories….” He says.\u00a0 “And the idea is we’re going to bring you stuff you’re not going to find anywhere else. And there is also going to be music.”\u00a0 He says little to distinguish This American Life<\/em> from other podcasts or radio programs, and yet it would become quite distinct from anything else in the genre simply by virtue of popularity.
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Despite not being uncertain about their content, the writers and producers are so painfully conscious of the fact that this is the beginning of something big–“the very beginning of our radio relationship…our first little radio date.”\u00a0 Glass might as well have called the episode “I Am Starting A Big New Podcast And I Am Very Nervous”–“New Beginnings” is a plain enough title as it is.\u00a0 Early in the episode, as he explains the conceit of This American Life<\/em>, Glass verbalizes watching the time tick by, saying “We’re one minute five into the new show\u2026.\u00a0 We are two minutes into the program.”\u00a0 Open discussion of his plans for and thoughts about the podcast is a common theme: “We have gotten so deep here. I never expected that it was going to get so deep. I’m just very pleased at how deep this has gotten.”\u00a0 It could perhaps be considered charming, Glass vulnerable and honest about his nervousness; I find it mostly disagreeable, because listening to a podcast on 1x speed\u00a0 (the website has no other option that I can find) takes long enough without the host spending so much time like this.
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This episode is narrated by one person, who alternated time talking directly to the listener and interviewing other people.  The structure, listed on the website, is a prologue and three acts.  In the prologue, host Ira Glass interviews talk show host Joe Franklin, asking him for tips about how to be a good host; in act one, photographer Kevin Kelly tells the story of his religious conversion; in act two, Glass calls his mother to ask her for advice about the show; in act three, filmmaker Lawrence Steger describes the time he was diagnosed with HIV and immediately left for a road trip across the country, in the style of describing an idea for a short film about the experience; in act four, musician Ed Ryder talks about playing music while he was in prison.
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There’s not a lot of back-and-forth in act four and especially not in act one–Glass lets the guest talk mostly uninterrupted.\u00a0 I think this works well in act four, because Glass still pops in occasionally and because Ryder has a more expressive and dynamic voice and doesn’t speak too slowly.\u00a0 I dislike it in act one; Kelly’s voice varies less in tempo, pitch, and tone, he uses more filler words, and this act is the longest of the four segments.\u00a0 I am generally interested in stories of religious conversion, but even with that Kelly failed to hold my attention.
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Act three contains the most usage of narrative techniques specific to auditory media.\u00a0 Because Steger is explaining an idea for a short film rather than playing the film itself, he has to verbalize when he wants music, as well as what kind and how loud, which serves to draw the listener’s attention to these choices. He also controls the pace and tone of his voice more intentionally than the other guests do.\u00a0 Act four continues in the vein of meta self-awareness about this being a podcast (though of course the word “podcast” wasn’t coined until 2004)–Steger asks Glass if a particular sound sample is available, he asks for the microphone height to be adjusted, and similar bits that would normally be edited out of the final version.
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Overall, I’m quite excited to see how the podcast evolves when it’s not quite so new, and I’m interested in the strategies they’ll use to make a podcast with such broad topics feel cohesive and continuous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word count: 945<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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