Submission Guidelines
Before You Get Started...
We highly recommend the "Tools"
section on Transom.org; there, you'll find a wealth
of material to get you started, especially if you're new to radio.
We also strongly suggest you follow-up by reading Ira
Glass's Radio Manifesto, along with former intern and now-contributor
Hillary Frank's essay, "How
to Get on This American Life."
This American Life broadcasts fiction and non-fiction,
monologues and documentaries. If something has appeared in print or on the
radio elsewhere, it can still appear on This American Life.
We also commission original reporting and original fiction.
We broadcast poetry, but that's rare. We also do an occasional radio drama,
but if anything, that's even rarer. We find that it's hard to do poetry
or drama on the radio without sounding corny.
If you're a reporter with a story to pitch, include some samples of your
work with your pitch letter.
What makes the show different from most other programs on public radio is that.....
The stories we broadcast tend to have a very strong narrative.
These are stories about a character or characters who are thrown into situations
that shed light on something larger. The stories are constructed as a series
of scenes or anecdotes (unlike most radio reporting). Often the characters
change over the course of the story. Sometimes the entire story involves
a writer or reporter (or character) going into situations to try to figure
out the answer to some question.
An illustration of how This American Life is different from other
radio shows:
During the 1996 Presidential elections, All Things Considered
did many reports on the disagreements within the Republican party. These
were standard news stories: we heard quotes from moderate and right wingers
of various types. Experts weighed in.
This American Life broadcast Dan Savage's first person
account of how he--a life-long Democrat--decided that the best way to combat
the extreme right wing of the Republican Party would be to join the Republican
Party himself. His story detailed scene after scene of what happened at
Party meetings in Seattle. The scenes were funny, surprising, and took us
deep inside a world most of us know only in the most superficial way. Dan
is gay, and a number of moderate Republicans pulled him aside to tell him
that homophobia and intolerance are just gimmicks the Party uses to mobilize
the rank and file, but that really, deep down, the Republican Party has
nothing against homosexuals. So Dan started introducing gay rights resolutions.
These were voted down by huge margins.
In contrast to the All Things Considered news accounts,
Dan's story was a drama, a narrative of one person who goes on a quest.
There was a natural conflict: gay liberal among the conservatives. It shed
light on much larger themes: the direction of the Republican Party, the
way Party members see themselves and their political involvement.
The material we most often reject is writing that lacks a narrative. A lot
of it is good, vivid writing, but without a real story to it. Often it's
recollections about some person the writer knew, or some time in their own
lives. Often there are interesting anecdotes, but without any driving question,
or real conflict. There's nothing bigger at issue and nothing surprising
revealed. In many of these stories, the characters are all the same at the
end of the story as they were at the beginning. No one learns anything.
No one changes.
The stories that fit most easily into This American Life
are accounts of people who had some experience that changed them, or accounts
of an incident that illustrated some broader idea. It's best if these are
surprising, if they run counter to what we might expect.
We also like found texts and tapes: found letters, old recordings from people's
attics or from thrift stores. We've done a number of shows with material
like this. Again, these work best when the materials tell a story or illustrate
some larger theme or idea.
Sometimes people send us "commentaries" like you hear on Morning
Edition or All Things Considered. These tend to
be brief essays, without real scenes or characters. We don't usually run
material like that.
What we are looking for:
- Work that surprises.
- Work that's funny. Especially work that's both funny and sad.
- Writing that works like journalism--even if it's fiction. That is, it describes and documents real things that happen to people.
Stories on This American Life are usually
six to twelve minutes long, though we've been known to go as long as an
hour on one story and as short as a minute and a half. Don't worry much
about length. If we like something, we make the time. If we like it and
think it should be shorter, we discuss that with you.
You may send your material in these formats:
- Printed copy (does NOT need to be accompanied by audio – a printout of your story or script is sufficient)
- CD (must be accompanied by a transcript/script)
- DAT (must be accompanied by a transcript/script)
- Audiocassette (must be accompanied by a transcript/script)
We do not accept submissions on minidisc, or micro
or mini cassettes.
If you have a story pitch – meaning that you have an idea for a documentary
story that you'd like to report yourself or have us report – you can
email those pitches to storypitch@thislife.org.
If you have a written story or essay or produced documentary or
interview, send your material to:
Submissions
This American Life
WBEZ
848 E. Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
We take a horrendously long time to acknowledge and respond to submissions
– sometimes up to six months. Please be patient, and don't email the
web staff; they are unable to track status.
