March 16, 2007

What I Learned from Television

Stories recorded during our 2007 live tour. Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Dan Savage, and other favorite contributors went on the road with us to New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles; and performed brand-new stories in front of sold-out audiences.

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Transcript

The great band Mates of State came with us, and you can hear their music throughout the show. Stories about what TV can teach us...and how TV lies to us.

Contributors John Hodgman, Jonathan Goldstein, and Alexa Junge also toured with us. Stay tuned for their stories in upcoming broadcasts. Plus, the band OK Go performed with us in L.A.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks with Jane Espenson—who's written for the TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Gilmore Girls—and with J.J. Abrams—one of the creators of the hit shows Lost, Alias, and Felicity—about how we might be in the midst of another Golden Age of television. (4 minutes)

By

J. J. Abrams

Jane Espenson

Ira Glass

Act One

29

This American Life contributor David Rakoff, who swore off TV in college, returns to it in dramatic fashion: He attempts to watch the same amount of television as the average American—29 hours in one week. David is author, most recently, of the book Don't Get Too Comfortable. (15 minutes)

By

David Rakoff

Song:

“Like U Crazy” by Mates of State

Act Two

Turkeys In Pilgrim Clothing

Sarah Vowell examines what happens when TV takes on a subject it really has no business exploring at all, but seems fairly obsessed with nonetheless: The Pilgrims. Sarah's most recent book is Assassination Vacation. (10 minutes)

By

Sarah Vowell

Song:

“Goods (Instrumental)” by Mates of State

Act Three

Radio On The Tv

Ira says a few words about what he learned from working on a television show himself and about what it's like to hear your name mentioned casually by a fictional character on a prime time drama. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“California” by Mates of State

Act Four

My Other Dog's A German Shepherd

Regular This American Life contributor Dan Savage, a syndicated sex columnist with possibly the filthiest mouth of anyone you could ever meet, finds a TV program so dirty, so weird, and so perverted that he won't let his son watch it—even though it's a kids' show, made for kids, and broadcast on a network for kids. Dan's most recent book is The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family (15 minutes)

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Dan Savage

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