Fermented Mare's Milk

From the folks over at This American Life, one of my absolute favorite things in life and about the only thing that kept me from a shooting spree while trapped in the sub-basement last year as a data entry monkey:


NEW BEGINNINGS, PART TWO: Last week Showtime made it official: we're going to produce a series for them, a television version of This American Life. We shot a pilot last year, and the full series will begin broadcasting in the fall or winter of 2006. We'll continue making the radio show while we do the TV show. Again: the radio show will stay on the air.

What we can say about the series: It doesn't look a TV newsmagazine. It's shot to look like a movie. Widescreen. Beautiful lighting. And the stories feel just like the stories on the radio show. When we started the pilot, we weren't sure that'd be possible. Now we're convinced it is. We'll give more details -- and hopefully some previews -- in the coming months.


To the inevitable haters: Wider audiences are almost always a good thing and the people who argue that point are almost always bitter and lacking in basic hygiene skills. Just saying. Plus, we can now all see just how oddly huge Ira Glass really is, even though we've been convinced by his voice on the radio for the last decade that he's about the size of Gary Coleman. So celebrate.

(Oh, and while we're celebrating things, everyone who knows the Story known as Julie should send her a virtual high five: she's in the next Ploughshares! Trust me when I tell you: huge. As Jay-Z once said, "Ladies is pimps, too...")