This American Life is a weekly radio show I started listening to last year when I thought I was going to be living in the US. The show consists of stories about weird or life changing experiences. It can be a bit white, liberal, middle-class at times. But, there are some really memorable shows that I want to share with any poor people reading this. So, when I start talking about the armadillo in the bath, you don't think I'm a psycho.

(You can stream the shows directly from the site or download them using the instructions here.)

307: In the Shadow of the City Act 1
This is about a Polish guy looking for adventure, who ends up shipwrecked on an island in New York harbour. He has to devise all these castaway style tricks to stay alive, all the time the Empire State building is just across the harbour. And there are duck shoes, listen to it for the duck shoes. Also, he thinks that badgers have deep hidden secrets.

154: In Dog We Trust Act 3
This guy lives with his mentally retarded brother and his brother's pet armadillo. Unfortunately, the brother gets mad one day and tries to drown the armadillo. Luckily, those things are amazingly resilient. This story is fiction, and thank god, because the ending is really fucked up.

268: My Experimental Phase Prologue
Nancy Updike convinces herself for two years that she is a lesbian. She comes out to all her friends and family, and gets involved in gay rights activism. However, it turns out she just hates men. Un-coming out can be pretty embarrassing.