It was big news when the much-beloved radio program "This American Life" made the leap to television. Thanks to the infusion of attention (and, presumably, cash) from Showtime, Ira Glass and his cohorts also made their podcast available for free (three cheers!), refreshed their site (huzzah!), and encouraged "beloved producer and beleaguered music supervisor" Jane Feltes to blog about the tunes they use on the boob-tube version. This might be the coolest thing nobody knows about the show. Every Thursday after an episode airs, Jane recounts how they decided on the music and how she nearly had a nervous breakdown making it happen. Each post ends up being a surprisingly dramatic behind-the-scenes look at TV production and the "yelling/begging/whining" that goes into licensing soundtracks. Plus, as anyone familiar with "This American Life" knows, their music is great.
