In some respects I consider myself an early adopter, or at least an early finder. I’m constantly reading tech blogs that keep me up to date on the newest gadget that the world could really do without, but seems so, well, cool. In other ways, I feel like I’m late to the party. Take Tivo. It began in ’98 or ’99, but we didn’t see the light until 2004. Then again, I found the Pioneer Tivo DVD Recorder right when it came out, and it’s, well, really cool.

Onward. I started listening to NPR recently, mainly in the mornings. Then I heard about this show, This American Life, and how it began as an NPR radio only show and was moving to TV on Showtime. Alas, I don’t have Showtime, but, hallelujah, they’re streaming the show online for free. I watched the premiere episode last week. It’s brilliant. It’s brilliant if you like true, unique stories told with fairly stunning visuals. I especially appreciated "The Best Gig Ever," which featured the Improv Everywhere group, which, if you haven’t heard of them, you should seriously check out their website. (I forgot about this one: "Even Better Than the Real Thing" – they staged a fake U2 concert on top of a building).

So. I was late to the intellectual party that is NPR. I was, however, right on time for a great show. Go watch it.

P.S. A day after I wrote this post, I found this interview. I must be psychic, because the article starts talking about Ira Glass being a late bloomer, as well as those "lab-rats" who had never heard of the radio show, but found the radio show through the TV show.

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