Hey, it's Ira Glass. Here's a free sample of the newest bonus episode that we made for our

This American Life Partners. It starts this way. Hey, everybody, Ira here. I went to a high

school graduation last year around this time, and can I say, chat CBT has not been good for graduation speeches though honestly like most

graduation speeches were pretty bad before AI right like I don't know that's my experience going

to graduations maybe it's been yours too though I think graduation speeches are bad for reasons that are really built in and

nobody's fault. When students give them, understandably, they feel like they have to say something

about the experience that they just went through, being in school. And unless something very

unusual and dramatic happened that year in school with that particular class, those stories

all kind of, you know, just sound the same. Then there's a section acknowledging and thinking teachers and

parents, and there should be a section like that. Like, no question. Of course there's a section

like that. But that's another section that you can kind of predict how it's going to go from the

moment it begins.

And then there's a section, always, about the future and the promise of the journey that we're

heading out on today, taking our first steps, the grand adventure the graduates are heading out on,

which is really hard to do without falling into a lot of puffy platitudes.

It's just a very difficult kind of speech to make interesting and alive and fun to hear.

And when somebody does a good one, and there are some really great ones out there,

it's usually some of the, you know, like Steve Jobs or Michael Lewis,

people with surprising lives, telling surprising stories from their lives and having surprising

thoughts that go with those stories. It's hard to do well. And when we get to graduation season,

like we are entering right now in May, I don't think I'm the only person who goes to those

things, dreading the speeches.

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