I recently rediscoverd the joys of "This American Life," a rediscovery I seem to make two to three times a year. Thanks to a sizeable backlog on my iPod, I've been doing a lot of catching up lately. I thought I'd share two particularly enjoyable recent episodes.

354: Mistakes Were Made (April 18, 2008)

It's the late 1960s, and in the new technology of cryonics, a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death. But freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds. Harder still was admitting to the family members of people Bob had frozen that he'd screwed up. Badly.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1239

355: The Giant Pool of Money (May 9, 2008)

A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

 

Ever wonder what Teller, the silent half of the magic team Penn & Teller, sounds like when he talks? Wonder no more! NPR has posted an audio clip of the articulate(!) magician reviewing the book "The Glorious Deception." [NPR] 'Glorious Execution' in Magic