All posts tagged: Mike Birbiglia

When Hollywood Put World War III on Television

When Hollywood Put World War III on Television

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The ABC made-for-television movie The Day After premiered on November 20, 1983. It changed the way many Americans thought about nuclear war—but the fear now seems forgotten. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: A Preview of Hell We live in an anxious time. Some days, it can feel like the wheels are coming off and the planet is careening out of control. But at least it’s not 1983, the year that the Cold War seemed to be in its final trajectory toward disaster. Forty years ago today, it was the morning after The Day After, the ABC TV movie about a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. Roughly 100 million people tuned in on Sunday night, November 20, 1983, and The Day After holds the record as the most-watched made-for-television movie in …

How Mike Birbiglia Got Sneaky-Famous

How Mike Birbiglia Got Sneaky-Famous

Early next year, on January 24, the comedian Mike Birbiglia will perform in Walla Walla, Washington, for the first time since the night in 2005 when he nearly died after sleepwalking—sleep-running—through the second-story window of his hotel room at a La Quinta Inn. He’d been having issues with sleepwalking for years, and on this night, he was dreaming that a missile had been fired on his infantry platoon, so he took drastic evasive measures. He crash-landed on the grass and started running, until he realized he was awake, and in his underwear, and covered in blood and shards of glass, one of which was embedded in his thigh, a centimeter from his femoral artery. “I know,” he says whenever he recounts this moment onstage, responding to the gasps from the audience. “I’m in the future too.” Birbiglia first told this story at the climax of his 2008 breakthrough off-Broadway solo show, Sleepwalk With Me. He’s made five Netflix specials, and with each one, the rooms get bigger, the runs get longer, and the storytelling grows …