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.
Episodes
901: Is Your Blue My Blue?
The doomed project of trying to translate what’s in your head into someone else’s head.
Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new video, A Night of Stories and Improv.(00:00:00) Prologue: A while back, Ira woke up with double vision and learned that he had cataracts. After his cataract surgery, he realized the color blue looked very different to him. Now he always wonders: does everyone s
900: Talk Me Into It
It’s the midterms! This week’s show is about people changing their minds and not changing their minds — and the people trying to do the persuading.
Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new video, A Night of Stories and Improv.(00:00:00) Prologue: In Detroit, Rose Johnson tries to convince other Black voters to vote for Abdul El-Sayed. Her friend isn’t having it. (7 minutes)(00:07:30) Act
506: Secret Identity
A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juárez. All have secret identities — but not all of them chose those identities for themselves.
Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new video, A Night of Stories and Improv.(00:00:00) Prologue: Ira attempts to solve perhaps the most unsolvable mystery at the Trees o
489: No Coincidence, No Story!
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones that we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall.
Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new video, A Night of Stories and Improv.(00:00:00) P
899: Reaching Out
Sayre Quevedo’s invented a way to do a podcast that feels completely new. He’s been recording nearly all his conversations for years, and the result is something that captures a person’s life in a raw and complicated way that’s rarely heard. His new show Reaching Out also documents his mutually judge-y relationship with his twin brother as they set out to find their long-lost birth father.
Want t
898: An Argument
Nikole Hannah-Jones made an argument 10 years ago in The New York Times Magazine that became famous. She wrote about choosing a public school for her daughter, Najya, in one of the most racially and economically segregated school systems in the country: New York City. Nikole chose a regular public school, one that most wealthy and middle-class parents wouldn’t consider, and she challenged other pa
897: Intergenerational Space Travel
People braving the true final frontier — the gap between people born at slightly different times.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.(00:00:00) Prologue: Last fall, some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify. They made no sense to the staff reading them – until someone from a younger generation cracked the code. (11 minutes)(00:12
896: I Know What You Need
Moments when it seems obvious what to do for someone else, so of course you jump in and try to help — and what happens after that.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.(00:00:00) Prologue: Devon Taylor tells host Ira Glass about a time she confronted people who stole $100 from her. (12 minutes)(00:12:01) Act One: We get to an age when we find ourselves
895: Label Maker!
Labels are powerful. They can distill you down to a single word. They can get stuck on you without your permission. And sometimes, when they get taken away, they can upend your entire life. On this episode: labels and the havoc they wreak.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.(00:00:00) Prologue: Sara and Ethan have been dating for 10 months. They see ea
894: I Couldn't Help but Notice
People dealing with new, glaring, massive changes happening right where they live.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.(00:00:00) Prologue: Rick Cole, a city councilmember in Pasadena, CA, talks to Ira about how he responded to a surprise nighttime military exercise in his neighborhood this June – complete with helicopters, gunfire, and flash bangs. (5
Ira (Reluctantly) Gives a Graduation Speech
Ira always hated commencement speeches. Then he felt like he had to give this one.
thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners
New Lore Drop
People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know and suddenly everything looks very different.
An Update from Ira
Ira Glass shares some news about This American Life
To sign up as a Life Partner, visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners
Bonus: Nancy's Deep Cuts
Ira Glass talks with longtime producer Nancy Updike about the most personal stories they have put on the radio. This is a sample of the bonus episodes we regularly release to our This American Life Partners.
To gain access to all the bonus episodes AND help us keep making This American Life, join at thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.
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.
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