Some people maintain that writing is a lonely business. In my experience, that’s not necessarily true. When I sit down to write, I am joined by a crowd of internal negative voices: the infernal censor, the cranky critic, and the whiner who keeps reminding me of all the other things I could or should be doing.

No list about audio storytelling would be legit without This American Life. These are the masters and I can’t imagine a person who could listen and not be enchanted. I might not be able to be friends with that person. Ira Glass, an early adopter of hipster eyeglasses makes vocal ticks like hesitating feel sexy. Early contributors like Sarah Vowell and Starlee Kine set the tone for the smart, introspective, funny tone of the show and really changed the way we think of radio with their atypical radio voices.

Language pulls us along and we swim with the current or against it or diagonally. It’s bigger than any of us and has a lot to do with how we think of ourselves, how the young women in Elizabeth House think of themselves and their children. Think of the words in the mouths of powerful people in your own life that have changed you, maybe a little, maybe for a lifetime: Good, Bad, Lazy, Yes, Stupid, Pretty, Fat, Brilliant, Lovely, Never, No, Wonderful.

The rumours are true: we’re turning ten years old this fall! We know, we know, we don’t look a day over three.

We’ve got quite a few plans to mark our anniversary. We’ll be celebrating all year leading up to our autumnal birthday: at the beginning of each month, a different carte blanche editor will share their own Top 10 list on the blog.

Sorry, everyone else, but when Canadians apologize to you it’s not an expression of deference. Unlike “eh”, which means to Canadians what it means to everyone else—it’s an invitation to polite disagreement, the opposite of the British “don’t they?” or “aren’t they?”—the Canadian “sorry” means something more like “Ah jeez, I’ve got to deal with this idiot?” (Say it in a Fargo accent to get the full effect.)