Sometime last year, an editor tweeted about an episode of This American Life. It was about middle school. I listened to the show and was immediately hooked on the program. I eagerly await the podcast each week, and consider it one of the highlights of my listening week. It’s an amazingly inventive, creative, entertaining program and I highly recommend it.

This past week, there was a truly fascinating story about a boy (who is now grown) and the science fiction/fantasy author, Piers Anthony. If you’re a writer, you must listen to this. If you’re not a writer, you’ll still like it. The episode is called Show Me the Way. Each program is divided into three acts, and the segment I’m referring to is Act II, but the whole show is great, and sometimes they make more sense if you listen to all three acts anyway. I dare you to listen and not get hooked on this program!

The best thing is, you can download previous episodes as podcasts (they used to be free, but it looks like they’re charging .99 cents now – you can still stream them for free though). Don’t be put off by any of the subject matters either. Even ones that seem like they might be boring are handled so creatively and adeptly, they’re fascinating – like the one on conventions.

Are you already a fan of the show? What was your favourite episode?