The Next Big Thing

Ever wonder what it would’ve been like to experience This American Life before it was an institution? Before it had its own TV show and was shown in movie theaters and had national tours? Before its contributors became best-selling authors and voices of animated movie characters?

Then start listening, right now, to The Sound of Young America. Because my bet is that Jesse Thorn, the show’s brainy, riff-tacular host, is going to be around for a long, long time.

First things first: The Sound of Young America is not like This American Life. At all. There are no themes, no stories about those themes. It’s an interview show that’s earned a comparisons to another public radio program, Fresh Air, but they’re similar only in the way that the New Yorker and The Onion are similar—you could say that they’re both smart weekly publications that comment on the news, but that sort of misses the point. In his own words, it’s show about “things that are awesome.”

Jesse’s interviews tend to be with the kind of cult-comedy folks like Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Joel Hodgson and Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig. Occasionally, he brings on quirky guests like baseball stats guru Bill James and 43 Folders guy Merlin Mann. He asks smart questions, and many of the conversations go off on bizarre tangents, like one with Rock On author Dan Kennedy on putting out forest fires in space. Self-indulgent? Yes. Endearing? Totally.

There’s not a whiff of cynicism in this podcast. And the quick wit and unapologetic nerdiness of the host and (often) his guests make for a kind of exuberance that most people don’t usually associate with public radio shows.

It’s true that he’s already building the foundation for a This American Life-style empire—there’s a Web site, a blog, live shows, and merch. But I’m pretty convinced that the empire, just like the things on his show, will be awesome.