This American Life! Live! Uncut!

Download: Ira Glass on "The O.C" - "This American Life"
Download: Dan Savage on "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" - "This American Life"


So National Public Radio had their spring pledge drive a little while back and, as an incentive to donate, one of the gifts was a double-disc set of a "This American Life" show from the tour that the show did earlier in the year to promote the TV version of "TAL." The double-disc is exclusive and, from my understanding, much of it was unaired (hence the incentive to donate). If you donated money at a certain hour, you got the double-disc set, no matter how much or how little you gave to NPR. Last night, the CDs finally arrived in my mailbox, and it's glorious.

I figured I'd post two MP3's from it on the site. The theme of the program was "What I learned from Television." The first MP3 is "This American Life" host Ira Glass talking about his love for "The O.C.," with Mates of States doing a version of the show's theme song (Phantom Planet's "California") at the very end. The second MP3 is of "Savage Love" writer Dan Savage talking about the effect of "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" on his son, and has Mates of States performing a cover of Nico's "These Days" (which you know from its use in The Royal Tenenbaums) at the very end.

I'm not sure if the disc set was a one time deal but, at any rate, you should click on the NPR link above and donate what you can. After all, without money, "This American Life" can't be on the air. Then what are you going to listen to? Your local morning zoo crew? Only if you want to vomit in terror.

(Jonathan Graef)