This American Life can be a bit much at times, but some wonderful radio/podcasting comes out of the show. Ira Glass and gang often manage to get such moving stories out of people, with an underlying concept that people on the radio and in podcasts should sound like people.
I’m a very minor closet Phil Collins fan (Against All Odds and In the Air Tonight), but even if you HATE Phil Collins, check out this piece with him on the show.
It’s extraordinary audio. It starts with a silly premise, heartbroken girl wants to talk to Phil about heartbreak, then weaves its way from mildly cringe-inducing humour into something else altogether. By the end, all sorts of barriers have come down, and its turned into one of the most personal and moving interviews about loss and art I’ve ever heard.
Download or listen to it quickly: TAL’s podcasts are up for a week only, and this came out last week sometime.
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Thanks for pointing this show out, Hugh.
I took a listen this morning and agree that it’s one of the best interviews I’ve heard in a while. Mostly because it was a conversation and not an interview.
I also felt like Phil Collins was out of his element. These weren’t the usual, “tell me about your tour” type of questions and you get to hear the real person.
I was moved.
This ep is one of my personal favourites also.
Phil Collins just comes off as a wonderful man in this episode – he speaks so frankly about heartbreak. It actually changes how I hear his music now.
Agreed. It’s a great story.
BTW, though the podcast claims to live for just one week, the MP3s remain at (hilariously structured) perma-ish-links like this one:
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/jomamashouse/ismymamashouse/339.mp3