This American Life-r Sarah Vowell has written a new book, The Wordy Shipmates, which is the most readable history of New England Puritan thought you're likely to come across in your lifetime. It's a bit like reading the journal of a grad student who's doing their thesis on Puritan rhetoric--with all the marginal asides and musings left poignantly in. We emailed her a few questions, and she wrote back, double-spacing after periods, which extra space we edited out to save on pixels. If you have better questions, super-genius, she's in town on Monday, October 13, at Town Hall. Hie thee hence, why doncha. more ›

at the Seattle Rep. more ›

Let's cut to the chase: the winner of a This American Life TV series poster signed by Ira Glass is Jessica. Congratulations, Jessica -- email us so we can figure out how to get your poster to you. more ›

Jonathan Raban's Surveillance is the first book in Seattlest's Book Club. If you haven't picked up your copy yet, don't forget to ask for the Seattlest Book Club discount at Santoro's Books in Greenwood and Bailey-Coy Books on Capitol Hill. more ›

Tonight's episode of This American Life is "What I Learned from TV," compiled from live performances on their tour of the same name. Pieces by David Rakoff, Sarah Vowell, and Dan Savage will be included. Seattlest went on March 7, when the live show hit the Paramount, and we can confirm that the Rakoff and Savage stories are solid. (We're also happy that Alexa Junge's piece, about her experiences as a female TV scriptwriter,... more ›

But this trailer for the TV show? It restores our faith, gives us hope, and inspires us to contemplate dropping HBO for Showtime, at least for the duration of the series. Even if Ira Glass reminds us a bit of John Cleese at the end of the video. more ›

Jesse Thorn, member of sketch comedy group Prank the Dean, produces his public radio show from his own living room in Los Angeles. At first, Seattlest thought that was code for "I am unemployed and play a lot of XBox" but it turns out he actually does have a radio show (this is still ambiguous on the "unemployed" detail), and even more to the point: it is very good. more ›

When John Moe let us know he was leaving KUOW, our first question was, "What about The Works?" more ›

The Hugo House is running an inquiry into that most terrible and divisive of subjects: childhood. more ›

"Are you disappointed that more people aren't converting to atheism after seeing your show?" That (loosely paraphrased) was the question that kicked off Ira Glass' conversation with Julia Sweeney on Saturday night. "No. I'm not really that conceited," replied Sweeney. (Again, paraphrased. We did not smuggle in a recording device.) more ›

If this were the Marvel Universe, John Gottman would be an X-Man. He's the marriage researcher who can, famously, watch a couple talk to each other for an hour and then predict with 95% accuracy whether or not their marriage is going to last. more ›

John Hodgman, Writer, has offered up fascinating insights into himself for our sister publication, Gothamist. He's created smarty-pants user-generated content for McSweeney's and This American Life. And Mr. Hodgman, Writer, has published a book, The Areas of My Expertise, in which he makes up a bunch of facts. (Like that's not a contradiction in terms. Did you think no one would notice, Mr. Hodgman? Must you lie to us to be funny?) more ›

1) Mercir (EMP Sky Church) - We started the day with some electro indie rock. With moody vocals, usually more atmospheric than lyrical, this three piece uses guitars, keyboards and a latop computer to create a rich wall of sound. more ›

Seattlest has been scrambling to come up with the reason why there's renewed interest in the abandoned Quiznos story and was about to give up and blame it on the internet winds when we came across a comment left in one of our previous posts on the subject (thanks Austinist!). more ›