There is no British equivalent to This American Life, a fact both puzzling and sad. It's not as if the format is tricky. Each week, the radio show takes a theme – families, school, business conventions – then tells stories about it. Acts is what presenter Ira Glass calls them: a grand term that just about fits. David Sedaris has recalled his career as a Christmas elf in a department store, Starlee Kine has tried to find out what makes the perfect break-up song. Tales are usually small, yet told with the conviction that they really matter. It is on big, complex themes that this approach is most satisfying: the sub-prime crisis, or even patent law. Produced by public radio, episodes are often wildly popular podcasts. This is storytelling as a public service, in which the way listeners are told things is treated as of comparable importance as what they are told. The result is enchanting, and makes one wonder why the BBC offers nothing similar.