It's no particular secret that I think geeks are cool. Fictional nerds who come to mind include Abed Nadir, Connor Temple, and Riley Poole, but real life nerds are even better. I love their passion and zeal, their single-mindedness, their at-times awkward dress sense, and the fact that they wore hipster specs before hipsters did.One of my favourite real-life chic geeks is Ira Glass, journalist and storyteller extraordinaire as well as host of probably the world's greatest podcast, This American Life. Tonight, I get to hang out with him (okay, and about two hundred other people) while he talks about life on the radio, being creative, and all of that stuff. I'm even more excited that I get to share the experience with my mum as well as Laura and her mum. The only person missing from the equation -- and she deserves to be there more than all of us -- is Ruth, the lady responsible for introducing me to This American Life in all of its storytelling glory. In a devious twist of fate, she's out of the country while Ira is in the country, which makes me sad.
If you haven't heard of This American Life, you've been missing out. Here are a few favourite podcasts for you to sharpen your teeth on:
The Invention of Money
Fear of Sleep
Act V
Switched at Birth
Ira Glass also said this. It's worth a revisit.
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Conversations:
Anon 1 -- I do have excellent sisters. I suspect you are one of them.
Anon 2 -- you are awesome. I suspect you are also one of my sisters.
Anon 3 -- I suspect you are anon 1.
Cara -- what did you think of Prized? I didn't enjoy it half as much as Birthmarked. Too girl-caught-in-the-middle-of-a-love-square, which just seemed cheesy. I did like the new sci-fi twists the story took, though. Also, do you pronouce Caragh (as in O'Brien) the way you pronounce Cara? A friend and I were discussing this very thing.
Hannah -- you can always replace the book element with something else you enjoyed -- favourite recipes or places to visit or holidays or whatnot :).
Samantha R -- me, too! It'll be so fun if I can get it operational -- even if the pictures don't come out all that great.
Katie -- oh, do do! I would love to see what sort of pictures you capture with it!
Love the conversations!
ReplyDeleteAnon 1 & 3 :)
You were very quick off the mark getting your post up! I've finally done mine. It is a giant wall of text.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun was had by all
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post Danielle! I must confess I'd never heard of Ira Glass, or The American Life. I listened to about 50 secs of Fear of Sleep, and so badly wanted to listen to more... but sadly, the downloading was a bit too slow... Definitely going to try again another time!
ReplyDeleteBut I LOVED the short clip (the one that was worth a revisit). What BRILLIANT advice. Guess I'm one of those who truly longs to be creative, but it really doesn't come particularly naturally... So whilst I don't think it'll necessarily turn me into a creative genius, I found his advice so interesting and encouraging all the same! Cool guy. Hope you had a fabulous evening hanging out with him!! x