As the title indicates, this week’s installment of our Sunday Video Series features a link to an audio clip instead of the regular embedded video format.

In fact, I’ve done this once before, and when I did, it was from the same source, This American Life (TAL), a weekly radio show produced by Chicago Public Media and distributed by Public Radio International.

TAL’s July 22nd episode, “When Patents Attack!“, hits on an extremely important and timely topic – patents. The 60-minute show begs the question of whether or not patents are being used in the tech industry to, as the Constitution states, “promote the useful arts and sciences,” or are they being used to take advantage of the system, becoming a tool for lawsuits and an obstacle for innovation.

The interviews TAL contributors capture with players involved in this “patent war” along with the cases they present, including one as recent as July, make for an excellent piece of investigative journalism that has already caused a stir in the industry. The articles, blog posts and tweets that have followed in the wake of TAL’s episode, such as a post on Geek Wire interviewing one of TALs sources, are evidence of this episode’s impact. 

I encourage you to take a listen to this 60-minute podcast by visiting thisamericanlife.org.

For more on the topic, check out the follow up podcast from NPR’s Planet Money: “The Tuesday Podcast: The Patent War“.