As host Ira Glass has said literally hundreds of times, “Each week on our program, we choose a theme and bring you a variety of stories on that theme.” TAL’s staying power, I believe, is its combination of reportorial curiosity—sometimes the show skews towards straight investigative journalism—and careful, even meticulous, attention to storytelling—sometimes the show skews to a bunch of really interesting short stories. TAL’s style has given rise to an audio presence which is authoritative and personal at the same time, and it’s a pretty compelling combination. Gave birth to many other excellent programs and podcasts (see, e.g., Serial and Heavyweight).