This American Life

By: This American Life
  • Summary

  • 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.
    Copyright 1995-2024 This American Life
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Episodes
  • 850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away
    Dec 22 2024

    The tiny thing that unravels your world.

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    • 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.org

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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • 849: The Narrator
    Dec 15 2024

    Banias is an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza. And she has a story to tell — many stories, in fact.

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    • 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.org

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    58 mins
  • 809: The Call
    Dec 8 2024

    One call to a very unusual hotline and everything that followed.

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    • 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.org

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    1 hr and 2 mins

What listeners say about This American Life

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ten years on and this is still my comfort show

I've been listening to TAL for around ten years now. I've listened to hundreds of different episodes and some I've gone back to and listened to 2, 3, maybe 6 times. Every episode is different so some stories will grab you, and others won't, but there's episodes that will stick with you for life (for me, it's the Mormon guy in Utah who had to give up his kids). This is my go-to podcast, my comfort show - and I'm not even American!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Superb

Brilliant quality. Each episode is a standalone deep dive into a topic. Often moving and funny, always interesting.

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Don't be put off by the title

Although some episodes shine more brightly than others, almost all episodes are brilliant. Usually the episodes are thematically linked with 2 or 3 parts. There are episodes that stay with you for weeks or months. Please don't be put off by the name, it's one of my favourites (alongside Radiolab, Titting off and we can do hard things.

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