This American Obsession

As if it weren't perfectly obvious to everyone around me, I have a pretty healthy obsession with public radio. It probably makes perfect sense given that I am a DJ on a public radio station, but even with that distinction, I'm taking it to a whole new level.

Like most NPR junkies, I start my morning with Morning Edition and ride home from my day job to All Things Considered. Saturday mornings aren't complete without Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Car Talk.

But by and large, my biggest public radio obsession is This American Life. I cannot go a week without Ira Glass and his amazing group of authors, interviewers, and essayists. In fact, it's gotten to be that I can't go a day without them. Thus, I began a sort of personal challenge to listen to every single episode in the now 13 year run of the show. Podcasting and a day job where I spend a good chunk of time researching has made this feat a bit easier to accomplish.

So intent am I on this, I've even made myself a little spreadsheet of all the episodes so that I neither miss nor repeat any. Currently, I've listened to roughly 54 out of 367 so I'm about 15% there as of today.