Health & Swellness

A gift for me (and you, once you tune in)

January 13, 2010 at 8:00 AM 1 comment

Yesterday, I had a look at my holiday shopping list and I’m happy to report that for once I managed to stick to what I’d budgeted – most years, my Christmas shopping ends up being more like “One gift for this person, and two for me. And isn’t this necklace just so perfect, too? I must pick one up for myself!”

This year, the only gift I got for myself involved making a cash donation to This American Life. I’ve been listening to TAL’s free weekly podcast for a year now. This American Life is from Chicago Public Radio — yet more proof that all good things come from Chicago (Have I mentioned yet that I love, love, love Chicago?). Each week the radio show features a theme and a few stories based on that theme. David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and David Rakoff (Canucks will definitely want to search the website archive for the very funny episode #065 “Who’s Canadian?”) are just a few of the contributors who’ve been featured on TAL.

Smart, insightful, at times funny, and at other times sad (a recent story was so gut-wrenching that I had to pause it to collect myself, and finished listening to it another day after I’d emotionally steeled myself), the podcast is one of the best parts of my week and always leaves me yearning to be a better storyteller.

And while the podcast is free, TAL still needs to cover the cost of the bandwith and so when host Ira Glass asked for donations, I knew exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

Subscribe to their podcast if you’re not already a listener. Do it. Now. Right now. Really. (Even if you hate it — although you won’t – what have you got to lose? It’s free.) www.thisamericanlife.org

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