This American Life

     This is a very interesting podcast that I was not aware of before today. It presents everyday situations and/or issues that are affecting Americans around us and we may not even be aware of. Initially, I believed this was going to be your typical “I’m going to vent” type of podcast until I started realizing the magnitude of the information being presented to the general public. An example of this (and the main reason why I chose this podcast as one of my favorites) can be seen in the episode “532: Magic Words”.

     In “Magic Words”, Ira Glass (host of This American Life podcast) invites Jake Halpern (reporter) to speak about a very unique case that he witnessed unfold in a magistrate court in Georgia. The aforementioned case involves your typical blue collar hard working couple that was being sued by a collection company for a debt that the couple did not recognize.

     The collection company acquired the debt from a credit card company for a cheap price and was set in collecting the money. The issue was that the couple did not recognize the charges (over $3500) and asked to see evidence on how those charges came to be. At this point the representing lawyer informed the court that his clients (Collection Company) were going to drop the charges. The reason was simple; they did not have any evidence to present the court and were betting on the fact that 90% of these types of lawsuits are never challenged. This is how these types of companies make their money.

     I highly recommend this podcast and this specific episode. It is very interesting! For more information, find the RSS feed for  This American Life on the right side of my blog.