This American Life
This American Life
283 people rated this podcast
This American Life
This American LifeEpisodes
This American Life
This American Life
283 people rated this podcast
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Episodes of This American Life
Mark All
Iowa has three million people and a million come to their State Fair, each with their own goals and dreams for the fair. We hang out with some of them, to see if they get what they hoped for.Prologue: A big bull, a giant slide, and cowboys on
The one animal we can’t seem to live without, even when we really, really want to.Prologue: At the announcement of New York City’s inaugural rat czar, we meet Darneice Foster, who despises the rats outside her apartment. And host Ira Glass int
Stories about birds and the hearts they sway, the havoc they wreak, the lives they change.Prologue: Ira goes out birding with birder extraordinaire Noah Strycker, who tells the dramatic story of the bird that changed his life: the turkey vultu
When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down.Prologue: Ira goes out with a letter carrier, ‘Grace,’ as she delivers mail on her route. He learns about the people who bring us our mail and also how people treat their
In a crisis, when all logic suggests that you get away from the dangerous thing, how will you respond?Prologue: Ira talks to two members of a recreational swimming club who intentionally swam straight toward a shark that had just bitten their
Humans encounter non-human intelligences of various kinds and try to make sense of them.Prologue: Ira has some thoughts about our country’s long history of alien invasion movies. (2 minutes)Act One: We’ve witnessed a revolution in A.I. since t
People rethinking some of the most important relationships in their lives — with their sister, their political party, and the nominee for president.Prologue: Ira observes that we are in a moment of national reconsideration. (2 minutes)Act One:
People so close to each other, in extremely intimate situations, who are also a million miles apart.Prologue: Valerie Kipnis tells Ira about riding the subway, shoulder-to-shoulder with someone she knows quite well, pretending she doesn’t
We head to some of the happiest places on earth: amusement parks! Ira Glass takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, where the young staff – coached by a funny, fun-loving boss just a little older than they are – truly seem t
Boen Wang has a theory that a lot of the misery in his life can be traced to a single moment that happened years before he was born. So he makes a pilgrimage to see if he’s right.Prologue: Ira talks about what it’s like to go back to 1119 Baya
It's funny the things that go through your head during a disaster.Prologue: Host Ira Glass has fallen off his bike a number of times at this point. He reflects on what goes through his head as he’s going down. (2 minutes)Act One: Producer Ike
In Rafah, Yousef is out of options and faces his toughest move yet.Prologue: Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Yousef Hammash has decided where to go next and when. In Rafah, he is out of options and faces his toughest move yet. (5 minut
Donald Trump has talked about taking retribution on his enemies since the early days of his 2024 presidential campaign. After his conviction last week in New York, his talk intensified. We try to understand what his retribution might look like
People tethered to one particular other person, whether they want to be or not.Prologue: Guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi talks to Leroy Smith about how one high school basketball tryout forever changed Leroy’s relationship to a childhood friend. (7
How they organize the chaos of the world, for good and for bad.Prologue: Ira interviews David Wallechinsky, who wrote a wildly popular book in the 1970s called The Book of Lists, full of trivia and research, gathered into lists like "18 Brains
The trial for the men accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks still hasn’t started yet. Family members of those who died that day are still hoping for some kind of accountability, more than 22 years later. This week, the sto
For years, Majid believed that if he could testify in court about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA black site, a judge and jury would give him a break. Finally, he got a chance to see if he was right.Prologue: Ira talks about the
While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town, destroying about a third of it. When they emerged from the dance, they discovered what had happened, and in the weeks that followed,
Gladiators in the Colosseum. Sideshow performers. Reality television. We've always loved to gawk at the misery or majesty of others. But this week, we ask the question: What's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you?Prologue
It can be hard to know the right moment for something to happen.Prologue: When Jordan was going into his senior year of high school in small town Utah, he and his buddies all lived together in a house, daring each other into Jackass-style pran
People taking it upon themselves to solve the tiny, overlooked crimes of the world.Prologue: Host Ira Glass bikes around Manhattan with Gersh Kuntzman, in search of illegal license plates. (11 minutes)Act One: Writer Michael Harriot reexamines
Mysteries that exist in relationships we thought couldn't possibly surprise us.Prologue: Ira talks to Rachel Rosenthal, who spent years trying to figure out who had stolen her identity. She was closing bank account after bank account, getting
The things we break and the ones we can't fix.Prologue: Ira tells the stories of three things that broke–two of them in his own family. (8 minutes)Act One: A teenage whiz kid invents a new toy for Milton Bradley. Then the trouble starts. (28 m
People waking up to the fact that the world has suddenly changed.Prologue: Jackson Landers tells the story of a very strange decision he made one summer day. (6 minutes)Act One: Elena Kostyuchenko tells the story of how she was probably poison
A series of phone calls to a man in Gaza named Yousef Hammash, between early December and now. He talks about what he and his family are experiencing, sometimes as they are experiencing it.Act One: Over the course of one week in December, Yous
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