Listening+to+Great+Creative+Nonfiction

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This American Life is one of the greatest things ever. I mean that. Like ice cream and pizza and summertime good. This American Life is a National Public Radio program that airs on the weekends. It is a collection of stories--almost always nonfiction, though they read the occasional short stories. This is would probably more likely be called journalism, but it's a particular kind of journalism--narrative journalism. Mostly they just tell great, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes crazy, but always poignant stories about regular people living their everyday lives in, you guessed it, America.

You can listen to these essays (that's really a loose interpretation of the project of the show) for free. You can even download the free podcast. These are spoken pieces. Some are really like an essay read outloud. Some employee interview in ingenious ways. They could really help you figure out your job as an essayist.

This past weekend's story (27 February 2011) was about a guy who was jailed for a murder he didn't commit for over twenty years and was only set free because all the various people involved on both sides of the situation did the right thing--and how often does that happen. Amidst being furious at the injustice of the story you find yourself marveling at how the world might be if people were brave enough to do what they ought to do all the time. Anyway, it's a great story.