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59-752: The Natural History Museum at Tring was the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild ; today it is under the control of the Natural History Museum, London . It houses one of the finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects in the United Kingdom. It was known as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum until April 2007. The museum is located on Akeman Street , in Tring , Hertfordshire . The Natural History Museum at Tring

118-672: A Foxconn factory in China. The episode was entitled "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory" and became one of the show's most popular episodes at that time, with 888,000 downloads and 206,000 streams. WBEZ planned to host a live showing and a Q+A of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" in Chicago on April 7, 2012. On March 16, 2012, This American Life officially retracted the episode after learning that several events recounted both in

177-406: A Peabody Award in 1996 and again in 2006 for TAL , for a show which "captures contemporary culture in fresh and inventive ways that mirror the diversity and eccentricities of its subjects" and "weav[es] original monologues, mini-dramas, original fiction, traditional radio documentaries and original radio dramas into an instructional and entertaining tapestry". In 2020, This American Life became

236-536: A major motion picture . The film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Matt Damon . Glass has stated that the radio show has no financial stake in the film, but noted that he appreciated how well the movie stuck to the original facts. This American Life ' s 361st episode's, "Fear of Sleep", section "Stranger in the Night" featured an excerpt from Mike Birbiglia 's one-man show, "Sleepwalk with Me". This inspired Glass to work with Birbiglia for two years on

295-419: A 2014 interview, Glass revealed the software and equipment used to make the show. The staff records interviews using Marantz PMD661 digital recorders and Audio Technica AT835b shotgun microphones . After each recording session (whether a single interview or day of recording) he uses a story structuring technique he learned from print journalist Paul Tough . He jots or types all the most memorable moments from

354-651: A Discovery Room designed for young children, and the Rothschild Room, which is set out to recreate the surroundings that the Rothschild family would have worked in. It became part of the Natural History Museum in 1937 and changed its name to the Natural History Museum at Tring in April 2007. The site is also home to the ornithological research collections (Bird Group, Department of Zoology) and

413-468: A distribution partnership with the program, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded the show a three-year grant for $ 350,000, double what Glass applied for. As time went on, the staff was drawn more to journalistic stories that were, as Glass puts it, "in a style where there were characters and scenes and plot and funny moments." The show is also carried on Sirius XM Satellite Radio over

472-496: A format where each segment of the show would be an "act," and at the beginning of each episode, would explain that show consisted of "documentaries, monologues, overheard conversations, found tapes, [and] anything we can think of." Glass also served as executive producer. The program's name was changed beginning with the March 21, 1996, episode, and was picked up nationally by PRI the following June. Chicago Public Media (then called

531-482: A hybrid foal is on display. He was frequently seen riding a zebra-drawn carriage. The museum's Zebra Cafe alludes to Lord Rothschild's love of zebras and has photographs of his trained zebras harnessed to open carriages. The extensive collection, housed in several rooms, includes extinct animals and birds such as the quagga , thylacine , great auk and reconstructions of the moa and dodo . Oddities include hybrids and examples of abnormal colouration. The dogs' display

590-486: A mood in a story or make things sound pretty. Instead, it's there to help you make your point ... We're trying to point out what you should be listening for in the tape so you get the same joy or sorrow out of a story that we're feeling. And we use music the same way—it's a little flashlight that helps us get our ideas across. Jonathan Menjivar, in a guest post for Transom Episodes of TAL are accompanied by music. Some songs are used between acts and are credited in

649-634: A movie based on this segment. The film version of Sleepwalk with Me screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2012, to favorable reviews, winning the "Best of NEXT Audience Award". In May 2011, Walt Disney Pictures announced it was adapting a movie from a 2009 episode titled "The Girlfriend Equation". The 2018 film Come Sunday was based on a 2005 TAL story called "Heretics," about controversial Tulsa preacher Carlton Pearson . In 2019, Lulu Wang adapted her autobiographical story called "What You Don't Know" from

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708-401: A piece included on the show. The program helped launch the literary careers of many, including contributing editor Sarah Vowell and essayists David Rakoff and David Sedaris . For live shows, which combine live and pre-recorded elements, Glass previously used a mixing console and CD players. With time, he switched to using an iPad Mini running TouchAble software, which in turn controls

767-532: A private museum also receives funding from the state, so that a comparison with public museums is possible. Many, especially smaller, private museums do not meet the requirements of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The main reason is that qualified personnel are not sufficiently available or can hardly be financed and therefore often only very limited opening times may be offered. Often private museums focus on entertainment and have

826-546: A production partner on the show and on Serial with future shows to be independent. In 2017, This American Life launched the podcast S-Town through the spinoff company Serial Productions. Serial Productions was bought by The New York Times Company in 2020. The Times and Serial jointly produced the podcasts Nice White Parents , hosted by Chana Joffe-Walt , which debuted in July 2020; and The Improvement Association , hosted by Zoe Chace, which debuted in April 2021. In

885-521: A second theater event, titled This American Life – Live! Returning to the Scene of the Crime . Contributors included Mike Birbiglia, Starlee Kine , Dan Savage, David Rakoff, and Joss Whedon . On May 10, 2012, This American Life broadcast a third theater event, titled Invisible Made Visible . Contributors included David Sedaris, David Rakoff, Tig Notaro , Ryan Knighton , and Mike Birbiglia, who made

944-481: A short film with Terry Gross . On June 7, 2014, This American Life recorded a fourth live event titled The Radio Drama Episode . Contributors included Carin Gilfry, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Birbiglia, Joshua Bearman, and Sasheer Zamata. The episode was broadcast on radio and the podcast on June 20, 2014. From 1998 to 2005, the program could be accessed online in two formats: a free RealAudio stream available from

1003-403: A short program identification by host Ira Glass who then introduces a prologue related to the theme which precedes act one. This prologue will then lead into the presentation of the theme for that week's show. After the introduction of the theme, Glass then introduces the first act of the program. Content varies widely by episode. Stories are often told as first-person narratives . The mood of

1062-561: A show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists. Malatia approached Glass with the idea, who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program, but with a different premise, a budget of US$ 300,000 , and sights on taking it national. In a 1998 article in the Chicago Reader , Michael Miner quoted Covino as saying, "The show [Glass] proposed was The Wild Room . He just didn't call it The Wild Room ." Glass, however, did not include his co-host in his plans and assured him that

1121-585: A show with him that he would have felt comfortable with and I would have felt comfortable with. But at that point—I was in my late 30s—I just wanted to do the thing I wanted to do." We always saw the show as an entertainment. We saw ourselves as designing a format in opposition to the way stories were structured on NPR. We talked about it as a public radio show for people who didn't necessarily like public radio. Glass to The New York Review of Books , August 2019 The show debuted on WBEZ in Chicago as Your Radio Playhouse on November 17, 1995. Glass conceived

1180-409: A single theme or topic through the unique juxtaposition of first-person storytelling and whimsical narrative." For budgetary reasons, Glass and four of the radio show's producers left Chicago for New York City, where Showtime is headquartered. In January 2007, it was announced that Glass had completed production on the show's first season, with the first episode set to premiere on March 22. Originally

1239-415: A tourism focus. Their collections are on display for the public to enjoy. This museum-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This American Life This American Life ( TAL ) is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass . It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in

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1298-467: A website redesign. Though the segments were cut from podcast streams, the transcript of the contents have been kept accessible on the show's official website. In 2015, the show retracted a story about canvassers who tried to change people's political opinions. The story was based on an article in Science that was also retracted. In March 2014, the program announced that PRI would stop distributing

1357-435: Is "labor intensive," David Stewart with Current said it is "remarkable that while a few stories were fatuous or trite, most were successful and some really memorable." He added, "Whose American life is this? Clearly Ira's: it is kinky, clever, at once disingenuous and innocent, fanciful, rarely too serious...Above all, it is compelling." The program has received criticism as well. In 2020, author Andrew J Bottomley wrote that

1416-859: The Ableton Live software on his MacBook Air . He can plug the MacBook into the house sound system using the device's headphone jack. The show offers two, six-month fellowship positions annually for persons who have worked in the field of journalism, but who would like training in how to tell stories in the style of This American Life . Former fellows include: Emmanuel Dzotsi , co-host of Serial season 3; BA Parker, host of NPR’s Code Switch ; Brian Reed, host of S-Town ; Ari Saperstein, host of Blind Landing ; Jessica Lussenhop , investigative reporter at ProPublica ; and current staff members Dana Chivvis, Phia Bennin, Aviva DeKornfeld and Safiyah Riddle. We don't use music at This American Life to create

1475-543: The 2016 episode "In Defense of Ignorance" into The Farewell . The 2019 film Ode to Joy was adapted from a TAL story by Chris Higgins called "I've Fallen in Love and I Can't Get Up." This American Life has taken the radio show on the road three times since 2000; material recorded on each of the three tours has been edited into an episode which aired on the radio shortly after the tour. Other episodes include segments recorded live. On May 1, 2008, This American Life

1534-564: The Public Radio International block on the XM Public Radio channel. In the early 2010's, the program consistently rated as the first- or second-most downloaded podcast on iTunes for each week. Early response to the program was largely positive. In 1998, Mother Jones magazine called it "hip – as well as intensely literary and surprisingly irreverent." Glass used a unique strategy to promote

1593-489: The United States and internationally, and is also available as a free weekly podcast . Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays , memoirs , field recordings , short fiction , and found footage . The first episode aired on November 17, 1995, under the show's original title, Your Radio Playhouse . The series was distributed by Public Radio International until June 2014, when

1652-625: The WBEZ Alliance) produced. The program's first year was produced on a budget that was tight even by US public-radio standards. A budget of $ 243,000 covered an outfitted studio, marketing costs, satellite time, four full-time staffers, and various freelance writers and reporters. The station was located at Chicago's Navy Pier . Early on, Glass commissioned stories from artists, writers, theater people, and journalists. National syndication began in June 1996 when Public Radio International formed

1711-566: The course of the show. In the early 1990s, Glass co-hosted, with Gary Covino, a Friday-night show in Chicago called The Wild Room. However, he was looking for new opportunities in radio, and had been sending grant proposals to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for two years when, in 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, general manager of Chicago Public Radio. They offered him US$ 150,000 to make

1770-579: The deal was unlikely to happen. When the show went on without him, Covino says he felt "betrayed". While Glass admits he wasn't transparent about his plans, in that same article, he explained, "Every week on The Wild Room we came to the show with two independent sensibilities. I love Gary. I loved Gary. But I didn't want to keep doing that show...and the notion that everything I brought to The Wild Room I got from him I find completely infuriating...I didn't want to do free-form radio anymore. I have no interest in improvisation. It might have been possible to design

1829-492: The early hours of 27 August 2011, a thief broke in through the museum's front doors and removed the horns from two rhinoceros exhibits, one an Indian rhino and the other a white rhino , using what was believed to be a large hammer. However, in the light of recent thefts from other museums, three months before the break-in curators had replaced the real rhino horns, valued at £240,000, with resin replicas that had no commercial value. On 17 January 2012, Darren Bennett from Leicester

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1888-408: The episode guide for the show. Other songs are used as thematic background music for stories and are not credited. Jonathan Menjivar is a producer and music supervisor at the show. "Over the years, we've used hundreds of songs under our stories—and in some stories, we use a number of different songs in different sections. We tried to answer these emails for awhile [ sic ? ], but often it

1947-523: The face of obvious discrepancies. The podcast of this episode became the most downloaded until February 2013. Two weeks later, the show also reiterated that they had previously removed three stories by Stephen Glass due to dubious content, namely episode 57, "Delivery", episode 79, " Stuck in the Wrong Decade", and episode 86, "How to Take Money from Strangers." The episodes including the segments had inadvertently resurfaced in episode streams due to

2006-424: The film. In June 2008, Spike Lee bought the movie rights to Ronald Mallett 's memoir, whose story was featured in the episode "My Brilliant Plan". Potential Warner Bros films from TAL episodes include "Niagara", which explored the town of Niagara Falls, New York , after those who sought to exploit the tourism and hydroelectrical opportunities of the area left; "Wonder Woman" (from the episode "Superpowers"),

2065-830: The first news program to win the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting. The winning work was "The Out Crowd", the 688th episode with "revelatory, intimate journalism that illuminates the personal impact of the Trump Administration's ' Remain in Mexico ' policy". In March 2021, the May 9, 2008, episode, "The Giant Pool of Money", was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry as one of 25 works added to

2124-515: The island of New Guinea , some of which had been collected by Alfred Russel Wallace . The police announced on 12 November 2010 that a 22-year-old US citizen, Edwin Rist, had been arrested, in the Tring area, in connection with the theft and the majority of bird skins had been recovered. The story was featured almost a decade later on NPR's This American Life , "The Feather Heist". Rist pleaded guilty to

2183-466: The mixing and editing. Since October 2006, the program has offered a free podcast feed to the public. Under this arrangement, each show is made available to podcast feeds and aggregation programs Sunday evening at 8 p.m. ET, allowing radio stations a 43-hour window of exclusivity to carry the episode. After seven days, the link to the MP3 is removed from the podcast feed. Older shows can be streamed online via

2242-404: The official show website, and a DRM-encrypted download available through Audible.com , which charged $ 4 per episode. In early 2006, the program began to offer MP3 copies of each episode, which could be streamed from the show's website using a proprietary Flash player. Aware that more people were listening through headphones and so could hear mistakes more clearly, the production sought to improve

2301-507: The ornithological library (Department of Library and Information Services) of The Natural History Museum, but these are not open to the public. There are small special themed exhibitions throughout the year showcasing specimens not normally on display, and activities for youngsters. On 24 June 2009, a theft occurred from the museum involving the removal of 299 brightly coloured stuffed birds, mostly male trogons and quetzals from Central and South America , as well as birds of paradise from

2360-520: The program became self-distributed with Public Radio Exchange delivering new episodes to public radio stations. A television adaptation of the show ran for two seasons on the Showtime cable network between June 2007 and May 2008. Each week's show has a theme, explored in several "acts". On occasion, an entire program will consist of a single act. Each act is produced by a combination of staff and freelance contributors. Programs usually begin with

2419-643: The radio story and the monologue were fabrications. WBEZ canceled the planned live performance and refunded all ticket purchases. Airing that day, This American Life devoted the week's show (titled "Retraction") to detailing the inconsistencies in "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs". The show includes interviews between Rob Schmitz, the reporter who discovered the discrepancies, and Daisey's translator in China, Cathy Lee, as well as an interview between host Glass and Daisey. Daisey apologized for presenting his work as journalism, saying "It's not journalism. It's theater," but refused to acknowledge that he had lied—even in

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2478-517: The registry for 2020. It was the first podcast episode ever chosen for inclusion in the registry. Discussions of a television adaptation of TAL date back to at least 1999. However, the show's creative team was unsure of what the show would "look like" and, with so much money on the line, turned down offers. In January 2006, Showtime announced it had greenlit six episodes of a new series based on TAL . The announcement noted that each half-hour episode would "be hosted by Ira Glass and [...] explore

2537-474: The second is used to show temporary exhibits, the third crocodilians , crustaceans , fishes , insects , large mammals and marine invertebrates , the fourth accommodates kangaroos and odd-toed ungulates , the fifth holds bovids , hippopotamuses , pigs and marine mammals , and finally the sixth gallery contains amphibians , bats , various British mammals, domestic dogs , ratites , lizards , snakes , turtles and small mammals. The Museum also contains

2596-500: The series had a contract for a total of 30 shows over the four years, but after two seasons Glass announced that he and the other creators of the show had "asked to be taken off TV", largely in part to the difficult schedule required to produce a television program. He went on to state that the show is officially "on hiatus", but would like to do a television special at some point in the future. The episode "The Anatomy of Doubt" based on reporting by ProPublica and The Marshall Project

2655-409: The show in July, and that May, Glass announced that the staff would be distributing the show themselves, with Public Radio Exchange doing the technical legwork to deliver the audio to the radio stations. On October 1, 2014, the show produced a spinoff, Serial , a season-long exploration delivered as a podcast series. In 2015, Glass became the sole owner of This American Life ; WBEZ continued as

2714-504: The show primarily represents the perspective of its "predominantly white, upper-middle-class, educated audience." He also said the show is "didactic ... extracting from the stories of others a lesson that is then instilled on the audience." In 1999, more than 800,000 people listened to This American Life each weekend on 332 public radio stations. By 2019, the show broadcast to 2.2 million listeners each week, with an additional podcast audience of 3.6 million. WBEZ-FM received

2773-475: The show ranges from gloomy to ironic, from thought-provoking to humorous. The show often addresses current events, such as Hurricane Katrina in "After the Flood". Often This American Life features stories which explore aspects of human nature, such as "Kid Logic", which presented pieces on the reasoning of children. The majority of interviews with subjects never make it to the air, as many as 80 percent, because

2832-510: The show to stations by giving away pledge drive ads he developed himself. By the end of 1999, TAL aired on 325 public radio stations, and, around that time, Rhino Records released a " greatest hits " CD of TAL episodes. In January 2011, the series was picked up by CBC Radio One in Canada . The program is shortened slightly for the Canadian broadcast to allow for a five-minute newscast at

2891-705: The story of an adolescent who took steps to become the superhero she dreamed of being, well into adulthood; and "Act V", about the last act of Hamlet as staged by inmates from a maximum security prison as part of Prison Performing Arts Adult Theatre Projects. Paramount Pictures and Broadway Video are in production on Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill , a film based on the TAL story in the episode "My Experimental Phase". This American Life ' s 168th episode, "The Fix Is In", inspired screenwriter Scott Burns to adapt Kurt Eichenwald 's book about business executive and FBI informant Mark Whitacre , titled The Informant , into

2950-450: The tape, then has the recording transcribed and makes note of any quotes of potential value in the story. He then arranges those quotes into a structured narrative. To edit each story, the reporter presents the show to other producers. Guests on the show have included Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Paterniti , who would normally command tens of thousands of dollars for an article but have settled for as little as US$ 200 per day to have

3009-471: The team looks for interviewees who recount stories in a "particular way". The end credits of each show are read by Glass, and include a sound clip extracted out of context from some portion of that show, which Glass humorously attributes to previous WBEZ general manager Torey Malatia , who co-founded the show with Glass in 1995. Glass has stated he is contractually obligated to mention station WBEZ (and previously, also former distributor PRI) three times in

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3068-473: The theft on 24 November 2010. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, and a supervision order in April 2011. The sentence was relatively low because Rist was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome . He was also required to repay £125,150, the estimated value of the stolen birds through the Proceeds of Crime Act. The police also advised that 191 intact bird skins had so far been recovered. In

3127-465: The top of the hour, although this is partly made up for by the removal of mid-program breaks, most of the production credits (apart from that of Malatia), and underwriting announcements (CBC's radio services being fully commercial-free, except when contractually or legally required). In January 2012, This American Life presented excerpts from a one-man theater show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisey as an exposé of conditions at

3186-632: Was adapted into the Netflix series Unbelievable . Stories from TAL have been used as the basis of movie scripts. In 2002 the show signed a six-figure deal with Warner Bros. giving the studio two years of "first-look" rights to its hundreds of past and future stories. One film to have emerged from the deal is Unaccompanied Minors , a 2006 film directed by Paul Feig and based on "In The Event of An Emergency, Put Your Sister in an Upright Position" from "Babysitting". Ira Glass and longtime TAL producer Julie Snyder were both executive producers on

3245-505: Was charged with the theft of two replica rhinoceros horns; real rhino horn can sell for £60,000 per kg in the Far East for its supposed medicinal qualities. Private museum Unlike a public or governmental museum , a scientific monitoring and systematic documentation is not always guaranteed. Therefore, a private museum has relevance for historical research only if it complements the national collections. Under certain circumstances,

3304-399: Was impossible sometimes to pinpoint which song people were asking about...". The show received positive reviews from the beginning. Marc Fisher with American Journalism Review drew attention to how the program's production style elicits "a sense of ease, informality and direct, unfiltered access", and "the effect is liberating". After remarking that producing so many stories each episode

3363-478: Was once the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild , and is located on the grounds of the former Rothschild family home of Tring Park . The building was constructed in 1889 to house his collection of mounted specimens and first opened to the public in 1892. The Rothschild family gave the Museum and its contents to the nation in 1937. Lionel Walter bred hybrids between zebras and horses ( zebroids ) and

3422-532: Was relocated to the Rothschild Zoological Museum from the Natural History Museum , South Kensington, London after World War II. This shows how domestic dogs have changed shape due to selective breeding and includes the tiny Russian and Mexican lapdogs as well as famous racing greyhounds . The Museum has six galleries, each one of which houses a different set of animals. The first gallery contains birds , large carnivorans and primates ,

3481-515: Was the first major public media program to use digital cinema , distributing a one-hour-long program titled This American Life – Live! to select cinemas. PRI originally conceived of the idea to serve stations around the country. This American Life Live! was presented exclusively in select theatres by National CineMedia 's (NCM) Fathom, in partnership with BY Experience and Chicago Public Radio, and in association with Public Radio International. On April 23, 2009, This American Life broadcast

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