This American Life
The show I was interviewed for is called The Spokesman, hosted by Ira Glass and can be found here for 7 days. It is in three 'acts'. I'm act 1, introduced by Ira Glass at 8.30 minutes in. The interview begins at 9 minutes in.
Does anyone know a way to *capture the show so I can listen to it after the 7 day period has ended? ( *if that's legal?) EDIT: Thank you - got it taped. Cheers.
EDIT again - and to those who emailed & said this was a wild story, and had I thought of writing a book about it - yes, it is, ( but all wierdly true) yes, I have, it's called Out of The Tunnel and it is just out and available from amazon.co.uk , who will ship to the US. ( Not on US amazon yet, but we're working on it. If you all ask for it, they'll stock it too.Maybe. It's a small indie publisher, and a small print run, but we're all happy to scramble if you want a copy)
And thank you. I have had some totally lovely messages, anxious to reassure me you believe I do exist. You sweethearts. I love America.
EDIT again: and now they have updated the programme notes to link the blog and book, so now I look like a rabid publicity hound banging on about the book. I am sorry. All I can say is...read this, and forgive me.
edit again: thank you for this incredibly helpful link about recording stuff from Politics at the Parish pump
Does anyone know a way to *capture the show so I can listen to it after the 7 day period has ended? ( *if that's legal?) EDIT: Thank you - got it taped. Cheers.
EDIT again - and to those who emailed & said this was a wild story, and had I thought of writing a book about it - yes, it is, ( but all wierdly true) yes, I have, it's called Out of The Tunnel and it is just out and available from amazon.co.uk , who will ship to the US. ( Not on US amazon yet, but we're working on it. If you all ask for it, they'll stock it too.Maybe. It's a small indie publisher, and a small print run, but we're all happy to scramble if you want a copy)
And thank you. I have had some totally lovely messages, anxious to reassure me you believe I do exist. You sweethearts. I love America.
EDIT again: and now they have updated the programme notes to link the blog and book, so now I look like a rabid publicity hound banging on about the book. I am sorry. All I can say is...read this, and forgive me.
edit again: thank you for this incredibly helpful link about recording stuff from Politics at the Parish pump
Labels: conspiraloons, this american life, wierdness
posted by Rachel at 9:36 am
Hi Rachel. Two things - (1) you should be able, as a participant in the show, to get them to send you a copy of the interview. If you don't ask, you don't get!
Alternatively, and purely as a back up you understand, you should be able to record it in real time using Audacity (for the PC) or similar apps via your soundcard. You might need to do a little trial and error to get it to work but I've taken back ups of BBC programs in the past.
Yup I think Parky is right. As long as you aer only listening to it for your own purposes creating a back-up is fine. It depends whether you're using a PC or Mac but there are a number of pieces of software you can use. Audio Hijack Pro is good for the Mac, easy to download install and do what you're trying to do
I'm uncertain whether this works differently in the U.S. and the UK, but This American Life is available via iTunes as a free podcast here in the States. If you subscribe to the feed, you can download the episode (which IS out there - I heard it today), and then unsubscribe if you'd like, sync the episode to a personal audio device, or simply burn it to a CD. Voila.
Hiya, you did great!
Thanks for sharing your story.
You can get free podcasts from the site...or what Matt said.
Rachel-- your segment on the show is excellent. I look forward to reviewing your blog.
As far as This American Life (one of the finest radio shows on the air), they keep all their shows archived for free-- to download and keep it and throw on an ipod or something, head to the page and right-click on "Get Free MP3" and click on some variation of "Save As..."
Then save to your desktop or My Documents or whereever else.
Just finished listening to the latest TAL episode.
Thank you for sharing your story. It was very informative to listen to!
Hi, Rachel - I, too, just heard your story on TAL. I podcast it all the way down here in Sydney (as an expat American, I have to get my TAL fix).
Anyway, thanks for sharing your story - and your unfortunate run-in with the tinfoil hat nutjobs.
Cheers!
If there are any US-based readers out there wondering about ordering the book, I successfully ordered it from Amazon UK using the link on Rachel's side bar, and had it shipped to the wilds of West Virginia. Shipping is a little pricey but absolutely worth it. The cheapest option (air mail) is very quick (actually faster than UPS ground most times), considering it's shipping across the Atlantic: mine arrived three days ahead of the date on Amazon tracking.
Kudos to TAL for picking up Rachel's story and broadcasting the interview. Rachel, the other radio show in the US that would make a great venue for your story (and plugging the book) is Fresh Air. You might ask your publicist (ermmm... that's Miff, isn't it?) to contact them.
Hey Rachel!
It's been a long time since I was able to stop by - sorry to hear about your Mum, glad she is getting better though :)
Great news about the book - I'll be buying it at the weekend. Sorry I missed you on Richard and Judy.
Hope life continues to be positive for you - God knows you deserve it!!
Love Helibags
It may not be available from Amazon.com, but I've just bought your book via Amazon Japan (and read it in a single sitting.) I was deeply moved by your writing. Thank you for your honesty, clarity, passion for truth, and hopefulness!
The option to right-click the "Get Free MP3" goes away after a few days, so make sure you go and get it immediately!
The link is up there as of this posting, but it won't be for long.
You can make an audio CD of it using iTunes (Mac or Windows) once you have it downloaded.
Great segment on TAL, very interesting. And I don't think you come off at all like a publicity hound. You have a book, you want people to read it, seems perfectly fine to me.
Rachel, I heard the story on This American Life. Unfortunately, arguing with conspiracy theorists is rarely fruitful. As Jon's interview with the former MI5 worker shows, they don't really want to hear the objective evidence.
Further, many of them truly do not understand what constitutes evidence and fact and cannot separate what they want to be true from what the evidence suggests to be true.
Its good you've given up trying to convince them... it just wastes your time. Keep on living!
Nick
xunil2@gmail.com
Hi, Rachel,
I heard about your story from my mom, and immediately listened to my saved podcast of last week's This American Life. I hope you downloaded a really good MP3 version. If you had to record a streaming audio feed, and didn't get a good copy, email me and I'll burn you a CD.
So, about the conspiracy theorist wankers. You probably know this, but their delusions and paranoia are symptoms of mental illness [http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20050125-000003.html] and all their BS about government plots is just an attempt to explain the dysfunctional firings of their neurons. I’ve seen this nonsense first-hand with one of those ridiculous “9/11 was an inside job” people. I attended a showing of a University of Texas film class’ documentaries, where one was made by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Instead of interviewing experts, or coming up with a single fact contradicting the official report, he only had interviews with his friends and his mother (!). The real giveaway about his mental state was a segment where he filmed himself holding a giant “Investigate 9/11” banner at a Barack Obama rally here in Austin. He showed this feat repeatedly, and from several angles, including local TV news footage. I realized that getting attention was really what it was all about for him. It sickened me that someone was using the suffering of others to satisfy their own narcissism, but he’s really to be pitied, like all other people with personality disorders, who think that they are always right, that they are the only sane ones, and it’s always everyone else’s fault. Educating people about mental illness may be the only way to counter their insanity.
Be assured that the rational, empathetic people of the world do acknowledge your existence and the horrors you witnessed, and support you in your efforts for more communication and transparency in government inquiries into all terrorist attacks and their handling. I personally applaud your bravery, your strength of character, and your resolve to carry on with your mission. Brava, Rachel!
I just listened to the TAL episode. What a fascinating piece! It gives a real window into the mentality and intractability of conspiracy theorists. You're amazing for facing them head on and doubly amazing for staying strong. I'm very sorry to hear about your mum.
This program replayed today and I wanted to share with you our group in the US that works to debunk the mirror conspiracy, 911. You've no doubt heard of the 911 'truthers'. Shayer is the spitting image of the leaders of the 911 truther group with just a different conspiracy date and location.
As a forum member of the James Randi Educational Foundation, you have my empathy and support. You can find me as 'skeptigirl' on the JREF forum. I started a thread on the Ira Glass piece discussing you and Ronson. I've left the links out because I don't know if your blog blocks posts with links. But you can easily find the forum by Googling JREF forum. Perhaps you already know about it.
skeptigirl