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.
Episodes
Since the war began in Iran, we've heard very little from people inside the country — and there's a reason for that. The entire country has been under an internet blackout. We worked with reporters Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour to get voice memos out of the country. Even though it was dangerous and difficult, people wanted to be heard.
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- Prolog...
Ira always hated commencement speeches. Then he felt like he had to give this one.
The casino game everyone thinks they can beat.
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- Prologue: Host Ira Glass and producer Robyn Semien get a blackjack lesson from Andy Bloch, who played for the MIT blackjack team. He teaches them the basics of card-counting, the technique that gives players an advantage against the house — enough of an advantage that most casinos will ask you to leave...
Stories of cheating, cheaters, and the cheated.
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- Prologue: Ira talks with Jessica Pressler about a phenomenon she noticed in the wedding notices in The New York Times. Couples were cheerfully telling—as part of their "meet cute" stories—how their relationships began with one of them cheating on a spouse or long-time partner. (4 minutes)
- Act One: From...
At a time when the U.S. government is trying to make American history tidier, we try to learn from the mess. Including the untold, messy story of Paul and Essie Robeson.
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- Prologue: Guest Host Emanuele Berry talks to Nichole Hill about the Black movie characters Nichole was curious about as a child. (7 minutes)
- Act One: A giant of the Harlem Renaissan...
M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times.
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- Act One: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about the surprising events that prompted them to begin rep...
In the early days of the radio show, Ira did a series of interviews with his parents that completely changed his relationship with them. This week, he returns to those interviews.
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- Prologue: Ira talks about why four conversations reveal how his relationship with his parents changed. (4 minutes)
- Act One: Ira’s mom, Shirley, is invited to lead a discus...
Two lawyers who work for ICE step forward and lift the curtain on what is really happening inside our immigration system right now.
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- Prologue: Two lawyers dive into the details of what they’ve witnessed behind the scenes in different parts of the immigration system. (2 minutes)
- Act One: Former ICE attorney Ryan Schwank explains the chaos and dysfunct...
People deciding to do things that most of us do NOT choose to do.
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- Prologue: A new documentary called The Boys and the Bees captures a moment where a six-year-old has a very unlikely wish, and his dad decides to grant it. Host Ira Glass talks with filmmaker Arielle Knight about what happens next. (9 minutes)
- Act One: John Tothill tells the story of ...
911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.
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- Prologue: A collection of 911 calls where you can hear immigration enforcement moving through different cities and leaving chaos in their wake. (9 minutes)
- Act One: More 911 calls, including people on the line with dispatchers as ICE is chas...
When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.
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- Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a...
People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know and suddenly everything looks very different.
Ira Glass shares some news about This American Life
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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.
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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