David Rakoff Reads Personal Story During Live Stage Performance of This American Life (May, 2012)

By now, you know that David Rakoff, a prizewin­ning humorist cham­pi­oned by David Sedaris, died Thurs­day night after two pub­lic bat­tles with can­cer. Rakoff cul­ti­vat­ed a fol­low­ing among lis­ten­ers of This Amer­i­can Life, the beloved radio show host­ed by Ira Glass. In May, he made one of his last appear­ances on the show when TAL pre­sent­ed “The Invis­i­ble Made Vis­i­ble,” a live stage per­for­mance beamed to movie the­aters nation­wide. Here, Rakoff reads the sto­ry, “Stiff as a Board, Light as a Feath­er,” about “the invis­i­ble process­es that can hap­pen inside our bodies…and the vis­i­ble effects they even­tu­al­ly have.” You won’t want to his miss his poignant last dance. It’s yet anoth­er reminder of why he’ll be sore­ly missed. We’d also rec­om­mend spend­ing time with his appear­ances on NPR’s Fresh Air.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ira Glass on the Art of Sto­ry­telling

David Sedaris and Ian Fal­con­er Intro­duce “Squir­rel Seeks Chip­munk”