Wednesday, February 17, 2010
what can be gained?
My new thing lately has been listening to episodes of This American Life online while at work. At first, I figured it was something to concentrate on so I wouldn't get distracted listening to other people's work conversations, which mostly didn't have anything to do with my work. Now I'm kind of addicted. I've been working my way through the list on the 'favorites' page, and many of them are very heartbreaking, but many others are really funny.
For example, earlier today I listened to a 2 part series about an American-born/raised Afghan who decided to join his father in Afghanistan when he was 17 for a summer (Part 1) in 2003, and then at 19 for a year (Part 2) in 2005. His father was made governor of an outlying area near Pakistan and he got to take his tape recorder into many places reporters couldn't get. It was very heartbreaking at times.
So, to balance this, I needed to listen to something funny, and chose one all about testosterone. The first part is about a man who had a medical condition where he stopped producing it and what that was like. The second part is about a trans man and going through his process of getting the shots. The third is a contest where the staff of This American Life tried to guess who had the most based on their personalities. The winner was the gay man who didn't even know what Sports Center was. Hilarious!
My favorite moment happens at 20:51, where the trans man says "I used to be this butch dyke, and it has an edge, and it was hip, but now I'm just a jerk." and the guy giving the interview starts laughing and doesn't stop for about 10 seconds, even as the interviewee goes on to say other smart things. Love ittttt.
3:29 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
That's a really great show. I don't see how you get any work done listening to it, though. I tried to do homework listening to it but I just completely stopped and had to turn it off.
By the way, don't forget to post tonight.
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