Many in Seattle have never heard of TBTL. It’s a podcast whose full title is Too Beautiful To Live and whose origins began in 2007 on KIRO radio here in town. It was a short-lived quirky radio show that, when cancelled, turned into a long-running quirky podcast. And despite the fact many have never listened to it, it’s got quite a following, netting some 1 million downloads per month. 

On November 28,at the Neptune Theatre, TBTL will be broadcasting its 2,000th episode live on KIRO 97.3 FM. The show will also be podcasted. 

The show has gone through several incarnations. In its current form it features its original host Luke Burbank, who NPR fans will know from Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and Live Wire!, producer Andrew Walsh and a running cast of guests–from Jen Andrews, the show’s former producer, to a guy named “The Mummy,” to Sean De Tore, the show’s heart. 

De Tore used to be a regular contributor to the program, but now comes on sparingly. He’s the guy whose first role, besides running the show’s commercials and sound drops from behind the board when it was on the radio, was telling a story on air about getting extra cash ($75-$100) by participating in a study in which he was hooked up to a very intimate apparatus and monitored while watching adult videos. De Tore is also the guy who made this absolutely classic Piñata Pete video for the show:

 

 

“I was working the night shift,” he says, “the night show at the time was a sports show: Sports Talk with New York Vinnie. And at some point, New York Vinnie got canned…Then all of a sudden this new show, TBTL, took the air. As the show progressed, I was added more and more into the fold.” 

TBTL is a conversational show that delves into the lives of Burbank and Walsh, current events and pop culture, and it does a great job at taking small, esoteric, mundane details and blowing them up–like the running tab they keep on Burbank’s weight, which fluctuates between 180 and 200 pounds. The show investigates the average and makes it stellar, which has earned it a dogged following. TBTL‘s listeners are known as “Tens,” a reference to its modest beginnings when it  only had tens of listeners. The show’s current audience is large and recently ranked as high as the 13th most-listened-to podcast on iTunes.

The tens are loyal and generous, De Tore says. Case in point: One of them sold him a gold-painted, four-door Volvo for a dollar, which he still has and is currently parked at his Ballard apartment. “People are so into this thing and they support it so much,” he says. “They’re how I got my car, how I got my computer – the tens are very giving, very nice, and they’re just weird enough.” 

On November 28, the loyal following will be able to catch their favorite podcast players telling stories, calling back old, beloved references and celebrating TBTL‘s 2,000th episode. De Tore will be running the board, contributing to segements and doing somethig he’s never done before: singing a song he co-wrote–a TBTL theme song–for the show with Seattle’s Celene Ramadan, a.k.a. Prom Queen. 

“We’re going to be doing that live on stage, which is going to be super cool.”