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Barely Related: The Little Prince trailer, Serial winds down
Remember when "squee" was a thing? Is it still a thing? Because we're feeling a little bit like doing that today. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Popular podcast 'Serial' will be broadcast on British radio
If you haven't heard the This American Life podcast Serial, then you've probably heard people endlessly banging on about how great it is. Despite its massive popularity in the US, the first country to syndicate the real-life murder mystery show will actually be in the UK. The BBC will broadcast the first season of the series on digital radio station Radio 4 Extra, one per day, in the run up to the finale. The first show airs on Sunday December 7th at 9:00pm, presumably with the conclusion airing on December 18th. One thing to note, of course, is that given the BBC's strict policy against advertising, it's likely that the Mail... Kimp? gag that opens each installment won't survive the trip across the Atlantic. [Image Credit: Serial / This American Life / WBEZ Chicago]
Barely Related: Twin Peaks returns, so does Ghostbusters
Hello, weekend! It's so lovely to see you again. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Peripheral Vision 008: Seth Lind on why radio won't die
"The death of radio has been foretold pretty much since its invention," Seth Lind explains. "Especially since the invention of television. Why would you listen to radio since the invention of television? One of the main answers to that is you can do other things while you're listening to radio. You can't watch the Colbert Report while driving." It's a question This American Life's director of operations gets more times than he cares to mention -- when will the internet finally put the last nail in radio's coffin? After all, Lind is the digital gatekeeper of one of public radio's most beloved shows, helping Ira Glass and co. explore new distribution platforms. Internet streaming has played a large role in the show's success in recent years -- as has the podcast, a perennial list topper over on iTunes. "Currently two-thirds listen on the radio and one-third listen elsewhere via the internet, whether that's podcast or streaming," says Lind. "Radio is pretty flat, but digital is growing, so I wouldn't be surprised if, in a couple of years, it's even. But I've honestly been surprised at how durable radio has been." This American Life's latest platform launches this week, an attempt to keep up with new listening habits that are emerging online, a sort of marriage of the always-on delivery method of radio, with the flexibility of digital. "Our 2013 This American Life product is a 24 hour stream of episodes," says Lind. "It basically will be a digital radio station that will play This American Life around the clock. What the 24 hour stream will do is take advantage of platforms like radio streaming apps like TuneIn and I Heart Radio -- and possibly the new iTunes Radio. It will find listeners who just want to turn on a channel and have the content come to them. This way you can pull up the app or go to a player and there will always be an episode playing. You won't be able to chose what it is. It will just be a story faucet."
Marketplace reporter visits Foxconn factory in China
Marketplace's China correspondent Rob Schmitz is known as the man who uncovered the falsehoods about Foxconn factory conditions being told by Mike Daisey in his play, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. As a follow-up to the report, Schmitz got an inside look at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen. You can watch his teaser video and visit Marketplace's website for additional details about his visit.
Foxconn won't sue This American Life, Daisey
Late last week, radio show This American Life retracted an episode published in January that showcased Mike Daisey's performance of The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (our review). The show was removed when TAL discovered inaccuracies in Daisey's account, one of which suggested Daisey himself met with workers who were poisoned by n-hexane. A report from Reuters confirms Foxconn will not sue This American Life or Daisey, even though these bogus claims were hurtful to the company. Foxconn spokesperson Simon Hsing told Reuters, "Our corporate image has been totally ruined. The point is whatever media that cited the programme should not have reported it without confirming (with us)." He added, "We have no plans to take legal action... We hope nothing similar will happen again."
Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: New iPads, theatrical revelations, and special guest Christina Warren
The green beer taps may have run dry, but that's no cause for despair: the TUAW Talkcast is here to soothe your headache and recommend you take it easier next year. Tonight, of course, we want to talk about the new iPad -- so if you've got one, come on over and flaunt it! We'll also review Friday's bombshell announcement from Ira Glass and This American Life that the show has retracted its January episode featuring excerpts from monologuist Mike Daisey's Apple-centric show. Several of the more dramatic stories included in the show turn out to be of questionable veracity. And, of course, we'll talk about the surprise financial call scheduled for tomorrow morning. We're also pleased to welcome a special guest this week, our friend and former TUAW contributor Christina Warren, now covering the entertainment world over at Mashable. Let me just say it right now: you all are not ready for this. Brace yourselves. Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy (you know those headphones that came with your iPhone?), you can connect via the free Zoiper, X-Lite or Blink SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Whoopsie Daisey: This American Life episode on Foxconn's iPad factories 'partially fabricated,' retracted
Last month, we reviewed Mike Daisey's "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs", a monologue in which the storyteller opines on his trip to China and his time with workers in a Foxconn iPad plant. Daisey's story was the basis of an episode of PRI's "This American Life," and now the show has retracted that episode when additional fact-checking revealed that a number of Daisey's claims were fabricated. This American Life host Ira Glass was understandably upset, saying that "Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast. That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake." You can read the show's full transcript here. Daisey isn't as quite as repentant, claiming that his work was "not journalism" and therefore "operates under a different set of rules and expectations" from a journalistic endeavor like This American Life. This American Life noted two of the worst fabrications in Daisey's monologue -- first, where he claimed to have met a group of Foxconn employees who were poisoned by n-hexane in Shenzhen, China. Apple's factory audits have uncovered a similar occurrence, but it happened over a thousand miles away in Suzhou. The second, and much more egregious, fabrication was about one of the most dramatic sections of Daisey's work. In this section, Daisey talks about meeting a factory worker whose hand was mangled on an iPad production line, and showing the worker a finished product that he had allegedly never seen. The interpreter who accompanied Daisey told a fact checker that she never witnessed anything like that encounter. You can read Daisey's response to the retraction of the show here.
'This American Life' issues retraction episode over Foxconn report
This American Life is airing a new episode today titled "Retraction." The title and show are a direct response to the January 6th edition of the popular public radio program titled "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory," an adaptation of a one-man show that helped put Cupertino's involvement with Foxconn back in the public spotlight. "Regrettably," the show's producers write in the description of this week's episode, "we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated." The hour-long show has been dedicated to clearing up some of the misconceptions, including an interview with Mike Daisey to discover "why he misled This American Life during the fact-checking process." For his part, Daisey responded on his personal blog, explaining, "What I do is not journalism." Daisey adds: My show is a theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge. It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity.An MP3 file of the episode will be made available for download on Sunday.
'This American Life' tackles patent trolls, lives to broadcast about it
The financial crisis, DIY cryogenics, the love songs of Phil Collins -- This American Life has taken on a lot in its 15-plus years on public radio. This week the Ira Glass-helmed show tackles a matter close to our hearts: the patent wars. The show has devoted the entirety of episode 441 to the seedy world of patent trolling. The TAL team focuses in on the practices of Intellectual Ventures, a name that should ring some bells and rattle some bank accounts around these parts. Check out the link to episode below -- and why not subscribe to the podcast while you're there? You can thank us later. [Thanks, Brandon]
Cinemassively: This American Hero
We're subbing in for our regular machinima blogger, Moo Money, who is AFK for the next little while. Today for Cinemassively, we're bringing you a video we stumbled across recently and really enjoyed. For those who are fans of the Chicago Public Radio show This American Life, this machinima made by SuperZuck took elements from both TAL and City of Heroes and presented (the beginning of) a day in the life of an old-school hero turned filmmaker. Tasty shades of meta. While this is only part one of the work, we are definitely interested in seeing more machinima of this nature! Paragon City holds many heroes, each with a different story, and reasons all their own. Excellent work, SuperZuck, and congrats on your first-place win in Molotov Alva's "Your Virtual Life" machinima contest! We look forward to the rest of this "episode."
John Hodgman on being recognized as PC
This past week's episode of the best thing on the radio, This American Life (available free via the podcast until Monday, then streaming or via audible.com) features longtime TAL contributor and 'PC' John Hodgman on the perks and perils of being a TV personality. Hodgman's segment, the first one on the hourlong show, features his observations and experience now that he's recognizable.Best moment? His description of his rock star reception at the Apple Store Soho. Priceless.Thanks to those who sent this in.
