Birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones of all sorts...and how they mean something whether we want them to or not. A live show taped for our fifth anniversary, back in 2000, when we went on the road to Boston, New York, Chicago, and L.A. Featuring house band OK Go.
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Pilgrim's Progress
Regular TAL contributor Sarah Vowell takes over the family Thanksgiving dinner by bringing everyone to New York. What results is a series of milestones and family firsts. Everyone in the family is the kind of person who prefers to be alone, so the very thing that binds them together as a family actually makes it hard for them to spend time together. (14 minutes)
Song:
Kodak Moments Of The Dead
The story of Tyler Cassity and how he's trying to remake one of our oldest rituals of commemoration.
Tyler is one of the owners of a cemetery called Hollywood Forever, and he's been introducing 20th-Century technology to American funerals, which haven't changed much since the Civil War. At Hollywood Forever, the cost of a burial includes a video of your life: to be shown at your funeral, to be viewable at kiosks on the cemetery grounds, and to be posted—for eternity—on the Internet. (16 minutes)
Happy Birthday to Us
Long-time Fresh Air host Terry Gross offers her congratulations and some words of wisdom to This American Life to help commemorate the show's fifth anniversary. (2 minutes)