I don't know if you have been paying attention, but if you haven't noticed, we are in the middle (beginning? end? lost indefinitely inside?) of a severe economic recession.

Banks are failing. Businesses are failing. BIG banks and BIG businesses are failing. The State of California is failing. Homeowners are failing. And about half my friends are out of work.

Most of us, if we have listened to ANY form of mass media or have or had a job are well aware of this. And you may even have a decent idea of how it all came to be. The bad mortgages. The bad derivatives. The housing bubble. Somebody blames Greenspan. Somebody blames Bush. Somebody blames Fannie May. Somebody blames Wall Street. And suddenly everybody is right or everybody is wrong.

And in reality, well, both those ideas are true.

Over the last year, "This American Life" has done a fantastic job of collecting the information and reporting on the whole, big, hairy, ugly mess in a way that makes it all almost make sense. These stories aren't about pointy fingers or burning torches. They are an explanation for those of us who lack a degree in finance and are sick to death of the people with the pointy fingers and burning torches telling us who is to blame and what we should think.

These episodes, remarkable in this day and age as it might sound, seem at least to this admittedly financial layman to be a fair and reasoned approach to the whole, damn thing.

So I encourage, you, if you are a citizen, if you are curious, take a few hours over the next few days, and listen to these four podcasts. Some of this isn't surprising. Some of it is downright shocking. And when taken together, the whole lot of it makes this mess appear almost understandable - if not inevitable.

A Giant Pool of Money : The Mortgage crisis explained.
Another Frightening Show about the Economy : The big, bad bailout.
Bad Bank : The banking crisis explained.
The Watchmen : The regulators explained.