I am blessed with a daily commute that can take me 20-35 minutes each. I say blessed because it gives me a chance to listen to my daily diet of podcasts. One of my favourites is the podcast from This American Life, a weekly public radio show that comes out of Chicago.
It's an hour-long program with two or three stories loosely related to the same theme. I wanted to recommend three recent shows.
- The Original Recipe: Show producers dig up what they believe is the top-secret formula for Coca-Cola, one of the most jealously guarded corporate secrets. They make a batch. They drink a bit. They taste-test the batch (left). The show says: Eureka! The Coca Cola company says, not so fast.
- Tough Room 2011: There are three “acts” to this show. The can't-miss act is the middle one, where show host Ira Glass gets to sit in on “story” meetings at satirical magazine The Onion. A very tough room.
- Kid Politics: Recommending the first and third acts here (boring second act in which climate change professor tries to convince teenage climate change sceptic is a fast-forward candidate). First act has kids going through the Ronald Reagan library where educators get the kids to role-play the circumstances leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada. Educators gently guide the kids to conclusion that journalists are bad. Third act is flat-out fascinating — a visit to the Brooklyn Free School where the kids make all the rules and can do anything they want. There are no tests. No homework. You can play videos all day if you want. Turns out that, if given the chance, kids would rather learn something.
I listened to “Tough Room” on the bus – and suffered the shame of bursting into laughter a few times when they recited Onion headlines. “Invention of Money” is another great episode.