This American Life...listen to it!

As my university career comes to an end I have been wondering exactly why I had chosen journalism as the major of my eight-year BA. After several false starts I enrolled at St. Thomas University in Fredericton in a pursuit to be a professional writer, or in a more exciting title, a professional storyteller.

While in recent months my desire to be a journalist has waned a bit, my desire to tell stories is as strong as it has ever been. My first year class with Michael Camp focused on great storytellers and the eras of strong journalism specifically. From the war years to the civil rights movement to Watergate, etc. Writers like Tom Wolfe, Ernie Pyle, Hunter S. Thompson inspired me and caused my general exuberance regarding writing.

The biggest problem is it seemed like we were studying history as opposed to current events, which are the core of journalism. My detachment is understandable considering my feeling that my colleagues and I were entering a world where we would be stuck reporting on procedural happenings like the courts and council meetings.

Until recently, this still seemed like the most likely way of achieving my goal and it wasn't very appealing. Philip Lee showed us a documentary from The Wire detailing the death of newspapers.

"Great," I thought. "I have chosen the hindenburg equivalent of a career."

Then a couple weeks later -- yesterday -- he showed us a brief clip from the television version of This American Life. My friend Veda Stelmanis had told me about the show and its host Ira Glass. She told me it was the best show or one of the best -- I really should avoid hyperbole as much as I use it.

The clip he showed was about inner city kids in North Philadelphia who owned and trained horses. They rode horses throughout Philadelphia. It was beautiful and deliberate. The clip wasn't put together with quick cuts, it was picturesque.

I went online. This American Life has radio podcasts available for free download and I have placed links at the bottom of this page. Check it out for humour, information and even just a way to kill an hour in a semi-productive way.

Also, in case you didn't notice, I have a pod-list of Definitely Not the Opera there as well from CBC. Another good way to kill some time through entertainment and information. Shows like this have rejuvenated my desire to tell stories, but not necessarily in a journalistic forum although it is no longer ruled out either.

Enjoy.