“It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it” is a thought that enters my head every time I see a new TAL in my podcast feed. Don’t know why, but it’s starting to feel like a chore. Maybe it’s because it’s the oldest podcast I listen to. In fact, it’s the first. Started listening to it back in the mid-00s. TAL, and then Bill Simmons, Chris Hardwick, Adam Carolla…I started listening to each of them in heavy rotation when there wasn’t much else in the podcastsphere. Pretty sure I was even listening to Hardwick and Carolla when their first shows went live. But slowly but surely, they got demoted from “always listen to every episode” to “look to see who the guest is” as I needed to make room for newer and newer podcasts (or, at least, those that were new to me), Of the original four, only TAL remains as an every episode subscription. Is it because their episodes aren’t archived like the rest, making it much harder to go back and pick among episodes that I’ve missed? Maybe… (Probably.)
As for content: This is about people who take jobs other people don’t want. Sorta. More like it’s about jobs that people who listen to public radio don’t want. Like U.S. border patrol. There are actually a lot of people who want to patrol the border. Some so badly, they are taking the job upon themselves even without getting paid. (But this episode isn’t about those people, though I’m pretty sure TAL has done pieces about them in the past)
in the buds 