An Evening with Ira Glass & The New Kings of Nonfiction
TAL What I Learned from Television Tour Poster
RADIO | Broadcast May 16 - May 18 All Episodes

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Big Wide World

Haider was a teenager living in Iraq when the war broke out. All of a sudden, the whole world was watching what was happening in his country. And he decided to do one of the least safe things possible: work for foreign media covering the war. Plus, other stories of what happens when you strike out into the world. More...
TELEVISION | Debuts May 18 All Airtimes

Going Down in History

Stories of people trying to make — and remake — history, while others go down in history in ways they never intended. Two Wisconsin convicts gain local fame for almost escaping prison using dental floss. High school students pose for smiley yearbook snapshots, which capture nothing of the dramas in their lives. And a man with a 30-year obsession with one particular bird unveils the grainy, Big Foot-style video evidence that he saw it.
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RADIO | Broadcast May 9 - May 11 All Episodes

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The Giant Pool of Money

A special program about the housing crisis. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money. More...
TELEVISION | Debuted May 11 All Airtimes | On Demand

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Two Wars

Two foreigners try to make sense of life in the U.S. in the aftermath of two very different wars. A young Iraqi ends up in America after fleeing Iraq and goes on a road trip full of questions for Americans about the War. And a Bulgarian man in Rhode Island realizes that an ongoing argument with his American wife has to do with the life he left behind 20 years ago, on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
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Monday, May 5, 2008
Let Us Know What You Thought of Our Cinema Event
A big thanks to the more than 20,000 of you who turned out to your local movie theaters last Thursday night for This American Life - Live! No other radio show had ever tried a nationwide cinema simulcast, and we didn't really know what to expect. So we were thrilled that so many people came out, and even more thrilled to read the positive feedback on your blogs (thanks, Google Alerts!).

It was more technologically complex than anything we'd ever attempted—with shots from five HD cameras intercut live, video playback, Ira synching audio to visuals, and everything beamed onto 330 screens across the country. We're amazed that nothing exploded.

Oh, and remember when Ira read the wedding proposal from the guy in a theater in Peoria? She said yes.

We weren't able to send spies to every theater, so tell us what you thought of the show! Leave us comments on MySpace and Facebook, and add your photos to our Flickr pool (Tag 'em tal-live, and give us some details in the description, willya?)!

Thanks, again, to everyone who joined us on Thursday. You're awesome!

Pictured: The satellite truck that made the whole shebang possible. Photo by Seth Lind.

Friday, May 2, 2008
New Chris Ware Animation for TAL TV
For the second season of our television show, cartoonist Chris Ware once again teamed up with animator John Kuramoto. You may recognize the story, told by public radio veteran Robert Krulwich, from our radio show. Here's Chris and John's complete segment from our television episode "Every Marriage Is a Courtroom":



Season Two debuts this Sunday, May 4, at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime. See more clips on our Showtime site!

Thursday, April 24, 2008
TAL on Television: Season Two Debuts May 4 on Showtime
We've been bursting at the seams to share this with you, so without further ado, here's a preview of season two of our television show:



The stories are funnier and more confident this time around, and we're really excited for you to see them. Our six-episode run debuts Sunday, May 4 at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime.

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