My family and I listened to this series during our commute. Part 1 was fascinating. Most of Part 2 was interesting as well—the politics and how things really went down. But then we got to the gratuitous gore. I remembered thinking that it was much like the Walking Dead series with a minimal plot line and lots of slow motion disembowelments designed simply to gross you out. We suffered through it, but then we got to the human interest story in Part 3. Can we make this horribleness any more personal? The whole thing was worse than Presidents dragging special needs folks and and crippled Veterans into their spotlight to try to win sympathy for their cause. You ruined what could have been a good thing. Needless to say we did not get more than 10 minutes into Part 3 before we abandoned it.

I listened to This American Life for more something like 13 years. Religiously. I never missed an episode—and then Ira got all political. Please stay neutral. Don't ruin a great thing!