Appearing on This American Life has been a career boost for many writers and storytellers. One such case is that of Jonathan Goldstein who had the opportunity to work on the popular show with Ira Glass in 2000. Since then Goldstein has gone on to host his own radio program, Wire Tap, which debuted in 2004.

This month Wire Tap is tackling the unsavory characteristics of the Seven Deadly Sins. The most recent episode was dedicated to Envy. You’ll hear Joseph Epstein author of Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit describe this deadly sin as the “corroding, small, secret little vice that eats you up from within.”

A quarrel featuring author David Rakoff, a chat with Starlee Kine and a few minutes inside the brain of a frustrated man on a train prove that Envy does indeed have a terribly corroding affect on both thoughts and emotions.

My Pick of the Week: Envy

Jeanne Lyons

This week has been all about love and love lost. Few of us go through life experiencing one without the other, that is why we at First Person Arts have had so much content relating to heart-ache. I thought I would continue this seasonal theme with my Podcast Pick of the Week!

What do a Rumspringa, a dub of weed, a flying rock and a diary have in common? They all support the uncertainty of love in the collection of stories aired this week on This American Life.

Love can lead us into twisted circumstances. It can challenge our sense of reason and have us act in a way that seems ludicrous in hindsight. In a special This American Life Valentine’s Day episode called What I did for Love, the storytellers share to what extreme they went for the sake of love. The stories raise questions about choice, commitment, deception and the price of snooping to discover the truth.

My Pick of the Week: What I did for Love

Jeanne Lyons

In a favorite TedTalk of mine called Try Something New for 30 Days, computer scientist Matt Cutts inspired me to incorporate new healthy habits into my life. Cutts suggests that aspiring small and sustainable changes increases the likelihood that those changes will stick.

My first habit change: Have a glass of water first thing in the morning. Success! My next habit: Stretch for 10 minutes a day. Failure. One day, having not stretched before bedtime and feeling warn-out, I chose to sleep rather than to stretch.

It is easy to slip-up when no one is holding you accountable but yourself. To come out on top you must have the capacity to finish a goal simply because you’ve defined it as such. Some find this process excruciating and look for other means of motivation like a Commitment Device.

Steve Levitt describes a Commitment Device as a deal one makes with the current self and the future self. It is an incentive to stay on track because the Commitment Device is a steep punishment should the current self flounder.

In the Freakonomics podcast episode Save me from Myself, authors Steven J Dubner and Steve Levitt explore the effectiveness of Commitment Devices. They present several case studies including Adam Scott, author of The Cold Turkey Diaries, who was determined to give up 42 vices for 30 days or else mail a check for $750 to someone he despises: Oprah.

My Pick of the Week: Save me from Myself

Jeanne Lyons

Karina’s Pick: Clueless

With my first broken heart in my hands, the result of a nasty breakup in my sophomore year of high school, I sought solace in the Vallery Girl mannerisms and superficial splendor of Cher from Clueless. In fact, I seem to recall watching it everyday for about a week.

It was silly without being dumb, and reminded me that new love is right around the corner, possibly in the form of your step-brother. (Which always weirded me out a little, but if Paul Rudd was my step-relative, I’d probably relax about that too).

Liz’s Pick: High Fidelity

Because John Cusack’s character is such a mess, he makes you feel better about every mistake you ever made and every weirdo you ever dated. Love wins in the end, but it’s hard won, so it’s not annoying.

Other reasons: that Beta Band song, that chick from the Cosby Show, that moment when John Cusack hugs Laura from behind at the end, appearance by The Boss, and my one and only – Jack Black.

Dan’s Pick:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch

It’s about a young boy who makes a huge sacrifice for someone he loves – only to be abandoned, thrown over for someone else. But that breakup is just the beginning of the story, which I won’t give away here – suffice it to say that no matter what you’re going through, or what you’re trying to get up the courage to do, Hedwig will make you feel better, and inspire you to do what needs to be done.

Becca’s Pick:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I’m not a big time movie watcher, and the movies I do catch are not usually ones that fall under the ‘break-up’ umbrella in terms of theme. But…one I have seen and do enjoy is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Non-linear and character driven narratives always score points with me. Plus, those potato head dolls are adorable. And midnight ice skating dates on non-regulated natural ponds are hot. I appreciate the idea of memory as a weave that can be unraveled – a net in which we are all individually and relationally suspended. What happens when one thread gets cut? Cut? Gets cut? When one. Thread gets cut. Cut. Cut! CUT!

Like music, storytelling has the ability to influence mood and bring to surface feelings from the audience that may otherwise be stifled. When listening to a story we willing subject ourselves to the possibility of swelling up with tears, of going flush with sentimentality, of getting punched in the gut with anger or of feeling a waft of inspiration.

In a short, rather simple story from the podcast Whisper Cities, Sam Greenspan exposes The Communist Daughter, a Toronto bar that you may have otherwise never heard of. The story is brief but the use of descriptive words and live music recorded on site develops vivid imagery for the listener.

The Communist Daughter garnered in me a longing for an era and lifestyle that I have never known. It left me wanting to travel and explore and to practice my jazz singing. While listening I envisioned a romantic speakeasy where the company is close-friends and the instruments are passed around the room from one musician to the next.

I chose this podcast because it reminded me that sharing a simple short story can awaken the senses of a listener and create an opportunity for introspection. I hope that The Communists Daughter can awaken something in you.

My Pick of the Week: The Communist Daughter

Jeanne Lyons