Jake's piece is rich and flavorful. It moves well and offers us a collection of instantly relatable and understandable characters without getting bogged down in tangents or details. Plus, it's a really funny piece.
This piece works where most other montages fail: it doesn't sacrifice vivid images and a common thematic thread by trying to offer too much variety. Great balance here.
Some other random thoughts:
Respect: It's easy to make fun of people in a piece like this. Jake manages the humor well--he highlights what's funny without making the subjects look like idiots. Excellent editorial judgment.
Music: When I first heard some music underneath this piece, I thought I'd regret its presence. However, Jake uses it lightly and only to help the piece's pacing. It works.
Fund drives: It was mentioned that this piece could be useful in fund drives. I thought the same thing myself while listening, but I think it would have to be reedited to be truly useful in that context. While Jake presents us with perfect characters from which we can build fundraising messages--we would need for them to reveal a bit more about their motivations in order for this to become a fundraising pitch. A little more about "why" they do what they do. Even though their behavior seems odd, their motivations are probably no different than most core listeners'--which makes the connection for a fundraising appeal.
Uses: This piece would be a good drop-in during a larger program and offers lots of possibilities for thematic connections (public radio, fans, embarrassing admissions, etc).