What is Actually Maximal Americanness

This American Life celebrates the 250th anniversary of The United States of America with episode 890: Maximal Americanness.

Baseball in 2026 bugs me too much because of ABS or the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System. I hate it. I actually have stopped watching most baseball this year because I am so bugged. Then This American Life tried to defend it and claim it is an American thing to like to complain. That may be true, but I think an American Thing is to have technology, invention, and a meritocracy. Not to hold yourself back artificially.

The ABS system lets players challenge ball and strike calls a few times per game. Pablo Torre on TAM claims that is great because it is fun to get to complain and have drama about human decisions. This is nonsense. If we have a robot that can call balls and strikes with 100% precision we need to use it on every pitch of the game. Calling balls and strikes is not a judgement call. The definition of the strike zone is precise. I do not want a "human element" involved. That only makes things worse.

In the Olympics should we have a human judge at the finish like of the 100 meter dash or at the end of the 50 meter freestyle swimming event? We could let them use their best judgement to decide who is the winner. Or we could use technology and slow motion to decide with 100% accuracy who the winner of the race is. No one would argue for a human judge to have a human element in selecting the winner of a sprint. Similarly, let's use 100% accuracy to call balls and strikes.

Having the technology to do something perfectly and then not using it is decidedly un-American.

So what is actually Maximal Americanness? It is probably This American Life. Still my original and favorite podcast of all time.