Everybody’s Got a Story

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One of the things that I am most passionate about is the human experience. I love hearing people’s stories, and I have a sort of addiction with seeking out the ones that tug at your heart strings. I am a voracious reader of memoirs, and obsessive documentary-watcher. My favorite shows are Intervention and Hoarders on A&E, not just for the simple fact that watching Hoarders motivates me to scrub my bathroom, but because it tells an incredible story of human dysfunction and emotion.

If I won the lottery tomorrow and knew how to work a camera, I think my dream job would be a documentary film maker. Since I am lacking both of those two factors, I’ll just have to settle on watching new documentaries.

Speaking of documentaries, if you like them, check out this great post from my friend Shannon Albert here. That post tipped me off to this excellent documentary on MSNBC by a woman who’s mother is a hoarder. The documentary shows the pain that her mother’s extreme mental illness had on her and her siblings. Here it is, in case you are interested:

Recently, I have stumbled upon some incredible audio-documentary series  mostly by listening to NPR.

Here are some of my favorites:

This American Life
This American Life is a spectacular audio documentary program broadcast by Chicago Public Radio. It plays new episodes on weekends on NPR (I think), and I somehow manage to always catch the middle of a program while running errands. The show is so good that I wish I had a longer car trip to take, just so I can finish listening. Then I end up sitting in my car, like a schmuck in front of Ralph’s, postponing doing my grocery shopping because I have to listen to how the radio program ends. Each hour episode is themed, and usually has three short stories. They are incredibly well done, and I’m currently obsessed with them. While doing research for this article, I found that there is a TV show called This American Life, which was made for Showtime. You can download them on Itunes (for $1.99 an episode). I can barley stand to finish writing this because I am so excited to go watch the two I just bought.

Here are a couple great episodes to start with:
Somewhere Out There

This is the most recent episode. I caught the middle part of this episode about two stories of transgendered children, while running errands. And once again, I was stuck in my car, unable to stop listening to it.
Switched at Birth
This is one of their most popular episodes that had such a great story that it takes up the entire hour. It is about two families whose daughters were accidentally switched at birth in the hospital. The crazy part is that the two families were friends, and one of the mothers realizes the mistake right after coming home from the hospital and decides not to tell anyone until 40 years later.

RadioLab
Radiolab is another audio non-fiction program.  It’s quirky, quick-paced and science based stories brings out my inner geek. The program is brilliantly edited, with sound effects cut into the show in a way that sucks you into the story. It tells a story, while teaching you science based concepts in every episode.

I really enjoyed the most recent episode called Animal Minds, from January 12th. You can go to their home page, and listen to episodes in their entirety, for free.

The Moth

I randomly found The Moth by listening to NPR, once again. The Moth is a New York based live storytelling project. The stories are shorter snippets for those of you without an attention span for the hour long shows. I highly recommend the first story that I ever heard, spoken by comedian Anthony Griffith called “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” But be warned, it’s a tear jerker.

You can listen here, although you have to sign up for a free account to listen to the episode in it’s entirety (it’s worth it).
The Moth: Hour 1
Or, check out there official website, where you can listen to short episodes free:
Listen Here

Finally, if you have been living under a rock and never heard of PostSecret you must check it out. I get positively giddy every Sunday that I remember that new secrets are up. Postsecret is an art project where people anonymously write their secrets on postcards and mail them to it’s creator, Frank Warren. Every Sunday, he posts the best ones. They are shocking, sad, funny, and poignant. And better than anything, they make you feel not so alone by simply reading them.

So tell me in the comments, what’s your favorite memoir, or documentary?

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