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Sinclair met Glass at aThis American LifeChristmas party and they became fast friends.
Its understandable that Sinclair feels an affinity withThis American Life.
Nonetheless, theyre eager to break certain patterns to make it stay modern and stave off repetition.
All of us agree that the show feels the best when were doing something that weve never done before.
Were acutely aware of our own show.
Blichfeld confirms that they confront similar issues in theHigh Maintenancewriters room.
Accordingly, Cycles went through many different versions before landing on the one that went to air.
It seemed inherently powerful and very specific to people making podcasts.
Theyre journalists, theyre recording this stuff and using that as their primary source.
Were making up fake shit and taking truth to re-create it.
Glass, however, has a different view of their method.
The inefficiency on the front end, that part was exactly the same.
But the similarities mostly end there.
Theres a strict procedure to producing and recording even the most personalThis American Lifestories thatHigh Maintenancedoesnt explore.
For one thing, pitches of that natureundergo a stringent vetting process.
Some people on staff were like, Wait a second, her dad fell off a bleacher andlived?
Is that a true story?
Where is the level of skepticism that we would actually bring to these pitches?
Glass concedes that critical nature had to be elided for get through certain plot points.
Still, he and the staff had strong reactions to Yaras journalistic practices.
The thought that thats what journalists do, or what we do, seemed just deeply wrong to them.
Were doing actual reporting, even if its on personal stories.
He also stresses that no one would actually bring in a tape of a stoned conversation for staff review.
They might play it for their editor to be like, Is there anything here?
and the editor would be like, No, theres nothing here.
They wouldnt assemble six people in a room.
(He also says that Sinclair and D.P.
Ashley Conner photographed the staff in an aesthetically pleasing light: They lit us very beautifully.
Everybody looked great.)
Sinclair has more conflicted feelings aboutHigh Maintenances future, or at least his involvement in it.
I probably want a little more time to just go be a human being and live a life.
Sinclair does look toThis American Lifeas an example of sustainability thatHigh Maintenancecould replicate.
It has to keep reinventing itself, Sinclair insists.
It has to be the same and a little bit different.
We have to let things die and compost and give life to something else.
