From the lovely folks at TAL. -mia
We've gotten hundreds of great pitches from you since we sent out our call for stories last Friday for the "This Week" show. Thank you so much. Now, we’re reissuing the call for help in hopes of filling some holes in our lineup. And, you guys: this show is going to be so much fun. Please be a part of it!
Just to remind you about the project, here's what we're doing: the show is for next week and the theme is “This Week,” meaning the show is united by the simple fact that all of the stories take place in the seven days prior to broadcast. It’s kind of a “news” show and kind of not. We’re hoping for a mix of more traditional, topical stories (a school board fight, a drug bust, even a weather-related story) and more personal, specific stories (a break-up, someone losing a job, moving to a new school, etc).
The eligible dates for this “This Week” show are Saturday, December 1st through Friday, December 7th. If you know of anything interesting happening – to you or someone you know – between Dec 1st and Dec 7th, we want to hear about it. It can be anything that matters to the people involved – just so long as something, however tiny, is at stake: a first date, a championship game, an audition, a medical diagnosis, the first day of a new business, or the last day of a dying one.
What we’re especially hoping for now are some lighter stories. Funny would be good. We’re also short on political stories – a local politics or news story would be great. Is some huge fight over a stoplight coming to a head the first week of December in your town? Is there any election aftermath playing out in your county in an interesting way?
Even if you don’t know of anything now, please keep your eyes and ears open and, if possible, even make your own recordings. Most smartphones have recording capabilities so if you come across some scene or event or even just are having an interesting conversation, record it! If you think it’s something we might want – just even as a small clip – email us and let us know what you’ve got and we may ask you to send it. (A note here: you can’t tape anyone secretly. All parties must know they’re being recorded for possible broadcast.) One of our favorite moments from the last “This Week” show was only a few seconds long. It was from a student on a class trip who taped a chaperone telling the kids: Please don’t push each other into the Grand Canyon. It went like this:
Ira Glass: So much has happened this week. What else? In the Grand Canyon on Wednesday, high school freshman were on a class trip.
Lauren: This is Lauren. We're walking down the trail to go to the Grand Canyon right now.
Teacher: Now. I know you wouldn't push anybody over the edge. But just don't even pretend to do it. OK? It's something we want to avoid. OK?
That’s the kind of stuff we’d love to hear.
Please send your pitches to: thisweek@thislife.org . You can also use that address to let us know if you have tape you’d like to email or upload to our server.
Thank you so much, again, for helping us make this show happen.
Sincerely, Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder