This American Life

Dear readers, please be advised: if you're not listening to This American Life, you're seriously missing out. I've subscribed to their podcast (I use iTunes, which makes podcasting dead simple; see This American Life's podcast page for more info).

I've never listened to this show on the radio -- in fact I don't even know when it's broadcast on my public radio station -- but this is one of my favorite podcasts.

It's an hour-long documentary show, sometimes one long story, but usually 3 or 4 shorter stories, all within some theme. Usually, the story will start, and I'll wonder what crazy, boring subject they've got this time. But invariably, it will turn out to be fascinating. No, really. Riveting. Hell, downright enriching.

This week's episode is a great example. It's political, which most of their shows aren't. Titled "The Audacity of Government", the description is: "Stories of the Bush Administration, its unique style of asserting presidential authority, and its quest to redefine the limits of presidential power." As the current episode, it's available to download as an MP3, after next week it will still be freely available, but only as streaming audio. (And if you subscribe to the podcast, iTunes just gets the new ones when they're available, and keeps them until you listen to them.)

Check it out. And if you're not absolutely thrilled, I'll give you a full refund.