On March 22rd, the public radio program This American Life will make its debut as a television show on Showtime. Apparently, Ira Glass, the creator of TAL has had plenty of offers to turn the radio program into a t.v. show but he couldn’t figure out a way to make in compelling enough to do it. In essence, he faced the dilemma that I’m facing with my documentary film Open Secret: how do you visualize a story about something that has already happened?

Nearly every This American Life story is told in retrospect but they almost always work because of the simple intimacy of being told a story. It’s trickier, though, when the story has to be shown. But from the looks of the trailer for the show, I think Ira and company might have found a way to do it. It looks like their going to stylize the hell out of it and create images around the stories that are suggestive and evocative rather than literal.

Watch the trailer for the new This American Life t.v. program.