This American Life

This American Life

Each week we choose a theme. Then anything can happen. This American Life is true stories that unfold like little movies for radio. Personal stories with funny moments, big feelings, and surprising plot twists. Newsy stories that try to capture what it’s like to be alive right now. It’s the most popular weekly podcast in the world, and winner of the first ever Pulitzer Prize for a radio show or podcast. Hosted by Ira Glass and produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago. read less

Our Editor's Take

The world is a complex place full of personal and powerful stories. All it takes is a little effort and curiosity to reveal their potent magic. This American Life is a radio show and podcast that excels at that—discovering and telling compelling, captivating stories.

With a storied history beginning in 1995, This American Life is a legendary public radio show. It's journalistic in nature but so much more in practice. It's storytelling with a flair for the funny, the fascinating, and the meaningful.

Full of gripping drama, larger-than-life people, and compelling concepts, this podcast is striking. Its 2.3 million downloads per episode are a testament to its provoking production and wide-reaching appeal. With an enormous collection of episodes in the books, there's no shortage of content to enjoy.

With Ira Glass as longtime host, This American Life is entertaining yet philosophical. It tells intimate true stories while asking timeless and pertinent questions. The profound impact of the program is evident. It has won prestigious awards, including the first Pulitzer Prize for a podcast or radio program.

This show remains cutting-edge and fresh despite its impressive longevity. Perhaps it is the unique approach to storytelling that maintains the appeal. It is unafraid to try new things and push the limits of what a show can be, both in content and form.

This American Life has spawned a myriad of related shows, TV included. Whether a diehard lover of podcasts or a newcomer to the format, every listener should have this show on their radar. With a reputation for excellence and standard-setting history, this is podcast gold.

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Start Here

We leave the normal realm of human error and enter the territory of huge breakdowns. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Jack Hitt tells the story of a small-town production of Peter Pan in which all the usual boundaries between the audience and actors dissolve entirely. (6 minutes)Act One: Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues. (18 minutes)Act Two: The first day on the job inevitably means mistakes, mishaps, and sometimes, fiascos. A true story, told by a former rookie cop. (13 minutes)Act Three: Comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the time he ruined a cancer charity event by giving the worst performance of his life. Here's a hint: He improvised. About cancer. (10 minutes)Act Four: Journalist Margy Rochlin on her first big assignment to do a celebrity interview: Moon Unit Zappa in 1982. Midway through the interview: fiasco! (7 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

Episodes

We leave the normal realm of human error and enter the territory of huge breakdowns. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Jack Hitt tells the story of a small-town production of Peter Pan in which all the usual boundaries between the audience and actors dissolve entirely. (6 minutes)Act One: Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues. (18 minutes)Act Two: The first day on the job inevitably means mistakes, mishaps, and sometimes, fiascos. A true story, told by a former rookie cop. (13 minutes)Act Three: Comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the time he ruined a cancer charity event by giving the worst performance of his life. Here's a hint: He improvised. About cancer. (10 minutes)Act Four: Journalist Margy Rochlin on her first big assignment to do a celebrity interview: Moon Unit Zappa in 1982. Midway through the interview: fiasco! (7 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away

850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away

The tiny thing that unravels your world. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks to Chris Benderev, whose high school years were completely upended by an impromptu thing his teacher said. (8 minutes)Act One: For Producer Lilly Sullivan, there’s one story about her parents that defines how she sees them, their family, and their history. She finds out it might be wrong. (27 minutes)Act Two: For years, Mike Comite has replayed in his head the moment when he and his bandmate blew their shot of making it as musicians. He sets out to uncover how it all went awry. (13 minutes)Act Three: Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war. A few weeks ago, one woman watched from afar as everything in her home country changed forever – again. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

849: The Narrator

849: The Narrator

Banias is an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza. And she has a story to tell — many stories, in fact. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: While on the phone with reporter Maram Hamaid in Gaza, producer Chana Joffe-Walt gets interrupted by Maram’s daughter––Banias, eight, who grabs the phone from her mother and starts telling us about her life. The narrator arrives. (8 minutes)Part One: Banias, an 8-year-old in Gaza, tells us about her life––her friends, the games she plays, the things she cares about. Everything but the war going on around her. (25 minutes)Part Two: Banias talks about the war. (20 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

One call to a very unusual hotline and everything that followed. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks about a priest who set up what may have been the first hotline in the United States. It was just him, answering a phone, trying to help strangers who called. (2 minutes)Act One: The Never Use Alone hotline was set up so that drug users can call if they are say, using heroin by themselves. Someone will stay on the line with them in case they overdose. We hear the recording of one call, from a woman named Kimber. (13 minutes)Act Two: An EMT learns he was connected to the call, in more ways than he realized. (16 minutes)Act Three: Jessie, who took the call, explains how she discovered the hotline. She keeps in touch with Kimber. Until one day, Kimber disappears. (16 minutes)Act Four: We learn what happened to Kimber after she called the line. (10 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

848: The Official Unofficial Record

848: The Official Unofficial Record

How do you count almost 12 million votes if you’re not the government? This week, we bring you the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of votes in their presidential election — and other stories of people trying to correct the official record with their own versions. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Host Ira Glass sets us up for Nancy Updike’s insider account of the recent presidential election in Venezuela. The story is an incredible national drama that plays out in thousands of polling stations across the country, with regular people trying to ensure a fair vote count that everyone can agree on. (2 minutes)Act One: Producer Nancy Updike tells the story of the people of Venezuela trying to prove who won their recent presidential election beyond a shadow of a doubt. (22 minutes)Act Two: Host Ira Glass spent America’s presidential election in the swing state of Michigan, where he found very little dispute over the ballot count from Republican poll challengers in Detroit now that they are doing the counting themselves. (8 minutes)Act Three: This story is about a creepy and dangerous creature that does all kinds of terrible things. It’s also about someone trying to set the record straight on those exact assumptions about this notorious creature. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

847: The Truly Incredible Story of Keiko the Killer Whale

847: The Truly Incredible Story of Keiko the Killer Whale

Keiko was a hugely beloved adventure park attraction. He was also captured in the wild and taken away from his mother when he was just a calf. When Hollywood learned about him, a colossal effort began to un-tame him and send him back to the ocean. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira introduces a new series from Serial Productions and The New York Times. "The Good Whale" is about the killer whale Keiko and is reported by Daniel Alarcón. (2 minutes)Act One: Daniel Alarcón takes us back to the early 90’s when Keiko lived in an adventure park in Mexico City, swimming with human friends. (43 minutes)Act Two: Producer Diane Wu travels to Minnesota, where the turkey set to be pardoned by The President of the United States later this month is having the turkiness trained out of him. (10 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

846: This Is the Cake We Baked

846: This Is the Cake We Baked

With Donald Trump’s victory this week, many people looked at the election results and thought, yeah, this is the country I thought it was. For some people, that was a hopeful thing. For others, kind of the opposite. This week, we talked with people who helped make it happen and some who are looking to what’s next. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks with Zoe Chace about watching Trump’s victory from an ecstatic room in Michigan. Then he checks in with a DC cop who was injured at the Capitol on January 6. (7 minutes)Act One: Trump has claimed that he will be able to deport between 15 and 20 million people. But neither he nor his team have spelled out exactly how they’d do it. Producer Nadia Reiman looked into what mass deportation could actually look like on the ground if and when it comes to pass. (17 minutes)Act Two: Trump won record numbers of Latino voters this year. Ike Sriskandarajah spent the day with a guy in Pennsylvania who's been working to bring Latino voters to Trump for years. (15 minutes)Act Three: Ira talks with two of Trump’s “political enemies” about their post-election plans. (8 minutes)Act Four: Ten different states had abortion rights measures on their ballots this election. Producer Miki Meek got curious about a particular kind of political ad that aired in many of those states and called up a few of the women whose stories were featured in them. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

845: A Small Thing That Gives Me a Tiny Shred of Hope

845: A Small Thing That Gives Me a Tiny Shred of Hope

A wee flame, flickering in the dark. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Who’s trying to bridge the gap between Blue America and Red America? Ira gets a glimpse of one guy who might be able to do just that. (3 minutes)Act One: A politically divided couple searches for a news source they both can trust. (26 minutes)Act Two: "June" is making a tactical decision about her vote this election. (13 minutes)Act Three: Frank Filocomo thinks people care too much about politics when it comes to dating. His dates don’t necessarily agree. (10 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Henry Dee has been locked up for most of his life, nearly 50 years. Now, he’s up for parole. Reporter Ben Austen tells the story. (19 minutes)Part 1: The parole board members puzzle through the pros and cons of releasing Henry Dee from prison and cast their votes. (26 minutes)Part 2: Reporter Ben Austen continues the story. (8 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

A Big Announcement

A Big Announcement

Ira Glass has news to share about some things happening here at This American Life. To sign up as a Life Partner, visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.

843: A Little Bit of Power

843: A Little Bit of Power

So much of the fight for the presidency is coming down to battles for small slices of voters who can help throw swing states to one candidate or another. Abbas Alawieh, a leader in the Uncommitted movement, grapples with how to get his voters the thing they want. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: When you have some power, but not a lot, how do you wield it when you’re suddenly cast into the spotlight? (4 minutes)Act One: Zoe Chace and Ben Terris follow Abbas Alawieh as he fights to broker a deal at the DNC – a way to potentially satisfy the people who voted “Uncommitted” in the primaries as a protest vote against Biden’s handling of the war in Israel and Gaza. (33 minutes)Act Two: Three weeks after the Democratic National Convention, Abbas speaks at a tense community meeting in Michigan about the Uncommitted organizers’ general election recommendation and hears back from voters on how they feel about the Democratic nominee at this point. (15 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

835: Children of Dave

835: Children of Dave

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 Bayard Street in Baltimore. (6 minutes)Part One: Boen visits Norman, Oklahoma, where he was born, to meet the man he thinks changed his parents’ lives—and his life, too. (31 minutes)Part Two: Boen’s friend, Andrew, and his parents take what he learned in Part One, throw it into a blender, and push puree. (20 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

834: Yousef and the Fourth Move

834: Yousef and the Fourth Move

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 minutes)Act One: Yousef does not even want to think about leaving Gaza. (18 minutes)Act Two: The actual price — in cash — of getting out of Gaza. (31 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.