Season Two out now.

This American Life continues to inspire me. It’s about average folks with average tastes, and telling stories “at human scale.” Listen to this great talk from Ira from back in 2007 but just released via the Gel Conference website.
I then realized Season Two of the television adaptation of This American Life is available for order. So I got a copy of that on order and searched for some reviews. For those always looking for story ideas, see if you can avoid the obvious emotionally gripping stories and pull something sweet out of the usually mundane, like this list of Season Two.

My major takaways from his Gel talk was: Human Scale. Broadcast journalism (TV news) puts stories at a different scale than we experience them. He talks about the funny weather guy at the end who makes a joke, or the sports blooper reel. He’s all about wedding the two, where stories are full of surprise, emotion, suspense, humor – elements of the human experience that help us connect with each other. It’s these elements that need to be told in stories. But for those of us brought up in ‘the system’ have developed habits that don’t lend themselves to this kind of storytelling too easily.

For a photographer, it’s easy to capture funny moments, but how would you build suspense? Only over time. And that takes taste, which was a quick but profoundly important comment he made: most producers for This American Life have a pretty good sense of taste. They know what stories will resonate with a broad crowd, with everyday people. The have mastered the art of Subtle. It’s Subtle that Seth Godin mentions in his new book “Tribes“:

“Smarts and Style will beat the machine … We want novelty and style. If you want us to follow, don’t be boring.”

The new audience of the internet age celebrates and rewards Subtle narratives. But as most things, there’s risk involved. You either get a huge response, or deadpan nothing. Go big or go home. Start experimenting and trying to throw in elements of surprise, build suspense, make things funny when they should be, and learn the art of the narrative arc. Start simple with your family or friends. Try and tell them a story over dinner. Chances are, if you’re a good conversationalist over dinner, then you’ve got what it takes to tell a good story. Then it’s just a matter of perfecting that in the edit bay and being vulnerable to honest feedback in the production phase. Or something like that…