Your Ears Will Thank You

By Timmy Watson in News on Oct 14, 2006 3:39PM

This American Life. A radio show, unlike any other radio show on the airwaves. They have humor, they have grace, yet, at the same time they give an insight to everyday life. They seem to have it all, except one thing, one tiny little thing. Free Podcasts. (We apologize for our bad Ira Glass impression, kind of hard to do an impression in this medium.)

The show is finally offering free podcasts starting Monday, October 16. Of course, there will be stipulations. The show will become available through the This American Life (TAL) site, Chicago Public Radio, and the Itunes Music Store the Monday after it airs and will be available for 7 days. The show will then enter the archive$. Archived shows can be accessed through the current TAL subscription service at audible.com and at the Itunes Music Store.

In addition, all shows will continue to be accessible at the TAL site as a free stream. They also recently updated their audio player; they now use PupuPlayer which is much better than both Real Player and Windows Media Player. We are hoping they have updated their sound for their mp3 format; it is currently quite horrible.

While we don't agree with This American Life hoarding the archives, the free podcast will bring a ton of new listeners to This American Life. Besides, if you really want them there are ways around everything.