TAL looking for ideas

The latest from Julie Snyder at This American Life.
-mia

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Dear This American Life contributors,

I'll be sending out a complete Theme List in the next few weeks but in the meantime we need help with a story we've already got in production. If you have a suggestion for a possible interviewee for this story, could you let us know?

We're looking for someone who has basically the same political views as their parent (liberal or conservative) but as their parent ages – and has the time to watch more and more cable TV news – the parent's views have become more extreme. And, to the kid, more annoying.

This story is sort of a radio "cover" version of a piece that recently ran on the Frum Forum web site. The author writes:

"Over the past couple of years, I’ve been keeping track of a trend among friends around my age (late thirties to mid-forties). Eight of us (so far) share something in common besides our conservatism: a deep frustration over how our parents have become impossible to take on the subject of politics. Without fail, it turns out that our folks have all been sitting at home watching Fox News Channel all day – especially Glenn Beck’s program….Even though we’re all conservatives, I found myself having to steer our phone conversations away from politics and current events. It wasn’t that I disagreed with their opinions – though I often did – but rather that I found the vehemence with which they expressed those opinions to be so off-putting."

With the author's help, we're looking for adult children who may have similar experiences — either with Fox News watchers or devotees of MSNBC and the like — who have found themselves exasperated listening to their parents' parrot O'Reilly/Maddow talking points or conspiracy theories. What would be even better would be if the parents would want to be interviewed as well. And then they can bitch about their apathetic, closet-conservative/liberal children.

I promise this will be fun and won't be trash-talking. I promise!

Anyway, if you are experiencing this phenomenon or know or anyone else who may be game to talk, will you let us know? You can send emails to the producer of this piece, Jane Feltes, at jane@thislife.org.

Thank you so much!

Best,
Julie Snyder
This American Life
julie@thislife.org

Julie Snyder
Senior Producer
This American Life
153 W. 27th Street, #1104
New York, NY 10001
(212) 624-5012

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