This American Infographic
March 17, 2010 3:51 AM   Subscribe

This American Infographic. This American Infographic is a web site where the goal is to make an infographic on every This American Life ever made.
posted by filmgeek (24 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
This American Life......Act 2.........People.......and how far they'll go for their pets.......

How do you quantify awkward halting pauses?
posted by chillmost at 4:03 AM on March 17, 2010




I have to say that I think it's funny that every video episode of This American Life is still available from China, despite our lengthy discussion.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:29 AM on March 17, 2010


Only the inhaling from an hour of All Things Considered.

That's awesome. I'd also like to see an infographic of the rise in advertising on NPR, both between shows and during them. (An "interview" the morning homunculus had with Gillette when their infinity-bladed razor came on the market a few years ago comes to mind.)
posted by DU at 4:29 AM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm not totally convinced by some of these. This is a problem with infographics in general: they usually aren't all that interesting if the data aren't interesting. Pretty and vacuous is pretty vacuous. (I'm thinking specifically of the Poultry Slam infographic, which is mostly 103 little dots, some text, and a distribution line of searches from Google.)
posted by OmieWise at 5:01 AM on March 17, 2010


Well, its This American Infographic. I'm Ira Glass. Today on our show: Data Points. Stories of people who know the 'x', and are engaged in desperate searches for the 'y. Our program today in three acts. Act 1: Standard Deviation, the story of a high school student everybody thought was a dweeb, until he showed them their dweeb inside. Act 2: Infinite regression. It's a story by Scott Carrier, so chances are it involves living out of his car and eating a lot of Ramen. Act 3: Colorful lines. In this act, David Sedaris tells the story of his mother's desperate attempts to keep him in neutral toned clothes, so he wouldn't turn gay. Stay with us.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 6:14 AM on March 17, 2010 [38 favorites]


I think this is totally fucking awesome.
posted by rollbiz at 7:07 AM on March 17, 2010


That inhaling thing made me stab out my eardrums with an icepick. Now I'm deaf, and can no longer listen to All Things Considered. Thanks.
posted by nevercalm at 8:01 AM on March 17, 2010


l33tpolicywonk, you forgot "when our program continues."

I sat next to Ira Glass one time at dinner in the East Village. It is so odd hearing him having a normal conversation. You keep expecting "Act 1: In which I pick at my food, while jealously gazing at yours....Act 2: Noodles and broth, how a wonderful combination can turn dangerous in the wrong hands...Act 3: the joys of a simple yet perfect beer...when our dinner continues."
posted by lackutrol at 8:43 AM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


These are great.
posted by MarshallPoe at 8:53 AM on March 17, 2010


How do you quantify awkward halting pauses?

I was going to go for "nasal voices," but this works just fine.
posted by brundlefly at 9:03 AM on March 17, 2010


Hipsters love colorful, content-free infographics. Hipsters love This American Life. It's like holding a mirror up to a mirror.

(As a side note, I think TAL is pretty great, and I know nothing of what hipsters like. They make for a nice internet pinata though.)
posted by Turkey Glue at 9:18 AM on March 17, 2010


I love TAL, but dear lord, every episode is a parade of speech impediments. Now, don't get me wrong, I likes me the speech impediments. Sedaris, Vowell, Kine: These, I like. And the normals tend to be droney and boring, so, hey, bring on the lisps.

But Ira. Hooo, boy. A) Why's he gotta put a half-G before every L? Weird! B) Dude races through everything, no matter how brief the sentence, and still never manages to finish without trailing off. Why not just take a breath every now and then? (Are you trying to avoid embarrassing audio collages, Ira?)

This post is excellent, btw.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:10 AM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Aw... I have to wait over a year before he gets to my episode? Lame.
posted by TrishaLynn at 10:28 AM on March 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


TrishaLynn - Your episode just got moved to the top of my to-do list.
posted by ejfox at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2010 [2 favorites]


I was once told I sounded just like Ira Glass. As I tend to speak rather quickly in a nasal sort of mumble, I could not for the life of me discern if this was a credit or a complaint.

I still don't know. :(
posted by cavalier at 11:16 AM on March 17, 2010


Aw... I have to wait over a year before he gets to my episode? Lame.

Holy crap, I remember that episode! Neat, TrishaLynn!
posted by brundlefly at 11:22 AM on March 17, 2010


Of course, l33tpolicywonk, when he comes back from the break, of course, he says this (of course):

"It's This American Life, I'm Ira Glass. Each week on our show, of course, we choose a theme..."

Why "of course"?? Is it supposed to be self-evident if you've never heard the show before? Is anyone thinking "well, OBVIOUSLY they choose a different theme each week and bring us stories on that theme. I mean, what other possibility is there?"
posted by desjardins at 12:23 PM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


I love TAL, but dear lord, every episode is a parade of speech impediments.

I'm not sure those qualify as speech impediments so much as distinctive voices.

I'm a little baffled by this infographic. Why is Ethiopia highlighted? I'm sure it would make sense if I listened to the episode, but shouldn't infographics make sense in and of themselves?
posted by ekroh at 12:31 PM on March 17, 2010


dejardins, that "of course" is a fairly common English interjection which means "I realize many or most of you already know what I'm saying." Asking about it the way you did is the equivalent of buttonholing people who pepper their sentences with "like" and demanding they explain what exactly is the simile they're attempting.
posted by straight at 12:43 PM on March 17, 2010


Also, what is the greyscale bar across the top of each infographic with times on it?
posted by straight at 12:45 PM on March 17, 2010


I took that bar to be a breakdown of the length of the different stories in the episode.
posted by ekroh at 12:58 PM on March 17, 2010


straight - while I'm aware that my annoyance is irrational, I never hear anyone else use "of course" in this way, and his use is the same in every show.
posted by desjardins at 2:28 PM on March 17, 2010


So am I the only one who thinks Ira's voice is great? It's different, certainly, but that's not at all a bad thing.
posted by reductiondesign at 3:17 PM on March 17, 2010


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