This American Life

By This American LifeSociety & Culture News Arts

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61 min
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This American Life episodes

March 31, 2024 587: The Perils of Intimacy
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 more and more paranoid, until she realized she knew exactly who the thief was. (5 minutes)
Act One: Ira’s conversation with Rachel Rosenthal continues. She tells the story of why it took her so long to break up with her boyfriend, even after she figured out that he had stolen from her. We heard about Rachel's story via the podcast Risk! (9 minutes)
Act Two: Producer Neil Drumming conducts an experiment to find out: can two adults, both new in town, become friends, with the right help? (16 minutes)
Act Three: Comedian Kyle Mizono, in a live performance, tells about the time she met her hero, spent a week working with him every day, and it went really well. And then, she emailed him. (10 minutes)
Act Four: A short story by Lydia Davis about trying to calculate the cost of a love affair. The story is read by actor Matt Malloy. (12 minutes)
1 hr 3 min
March 24, 2024827: All the King's Horses
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 minutes)
Act Two: Reporter Dana Ballout sifts through a very long list—the list of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas War—and comes back with five small fragments of the lives of the people on it. (10 minutes)
Act Three: A skateboarding legend makes a final attempt at a high-flying trick. (6 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
1 hr 1 min
March 17, 2024826: Unprepared for What Has Already Happened
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 poisoned after reporting on Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, and how she kept not believing it was happening. Bela Shayevich translated this story from Russian and reads it for us. (21 minutes)
Act Two: A recording of comedian Tig Notaro in the process of trying to catch up to the present and absolutely not being able to. (8 minutes)
Act Three: Producer Zoe Chace with a political fable that she noticed playing out last week in North Carolina. (11 minutes)
Act Four: Producer Tobin Low finds a group of people with a special relationship with the idea of catching up. (10 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
1 hr 3 min
March 10, 2024 304: Heretics
The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson. He was a rising star in the evangelical movement when he cast aside the idea of hell and, with it, everything he'd worked for over his entire life.
Carlton Pearson's church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the reverend. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse: He stopped believing in hell. (2 minutes)
Act One: Reporter Russell Cobb takes us through the remarkable and meteoric rise of Carlton Pearson from a young man to a Pentecostal Bishop: From the moment he first cast the devil out of his 17-year-old girlfriend, to the days when he had a close, personal relationship with Oral Roberts and had appearances on TV and at the White House. Just as Reverend Pearson's career peaked, with more than 5,000 members of his congregation coming every week, he started to think about hell, wondering if a loving God would really condemn most of the human race to burn and writhe in the fire of hell for eternity. (30 minutes)
Act Two: Once he starts preaching his own revelation, Carlton Pearson's church falls apart. After all, when there's no hell (as the logic goes), you don't really need to believe in Jesus to be saved from it. What follows are the swift departures of his pastors, and an exodus from his congregation—which quickly dwindled to a few hundred people. Donations drop off too, but just as things start looking bleakest, new kinds of people, curious about his change in beliefs, start showing up on Sunday mornings. (23 minutes)
1 hr
March 03, 2024825: Yousef
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, Yousef tries to get his sisters to safety, in Rafah. (29 minutes)
Act Two: Yousef is managing a camp of 60 people in Rafah, including his youngest sister, who is 8 months pregnant. Every day there’s talk that Israel will launch a ground assault in Rafah. Yousef and his sister make a plan for her to give birth safely, but it doesn’t go according to plan. And all 60 people in the family are looking to Yousef to tell them where they should go next and how to stay safe. (27 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
1 hr 7 min
February 25, 2024824: Family Meeting
Your mother and I have something we want to talk with you about.
Prologue: A family sits down to discuss one thing. But then the true purpose of the meeting emerges. (9 ½ minutes)
Act One: For one kibbutz-dwelling family in Israel, the decision of where to land after the October 7th attacks goes back and forth… and back… and forth. (28 minutes)
Act One: For one kibbutz-dwelling family in Israel, the decision of where to land after the October 7th attacks goes back and forth… and back… and forth. (28 minutes)
Act Two: An excerpt from “Belles Lettres," a short story by Nafissa Thompson-Spires from her book Heads of the Colored People, performed by actors Erika Alexander and Eisa Davis with a cameo from our colleague Alvin Melathe. (14 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
59 min
February 18, 2024 653: Crime Scene
Every crime scene hides a story. In this week's show, we hear about crime scenes and the stories they tell.
Medical Examiner D.J. Drakovic, in Pontiac Michigan, explains how every crime scene is like a novel. (5 minutes)
Act One: Reporter Nancy Updike spends two days with Neal Smither, who cleans up crime scenes for a living, and comes away wanting to open his Los Angeles franchise, despite the gore — or maybe because of it. (12 minutes)
Act Two: Actor Matt Malloy reads a short story by Aimee Bender, from her book “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt," about what can be and cannot be recovered from a crime scene, or from anywhere. (12 minutes)
Act Three: Sometimes criminals return to the scene of their misdeeds — to try to make things right, to try to undo the past. Katie Davis reports on her neighbor Bobby, who returned to the scene where he robbed people and conned people. This time, he came to coach little league. (22 minutes)
1 hr 1 min
February 11, 2024 791: Math or Magic?
When it comes to finding love, there seems to be two schools of thought on the best way to go about it. One says, wait for that lightning-strike magic. The other says, make a calculation and choose the best option available. Who has it right?
Prologue: When guest host Tobin Low was looking for a husband, he got opposing advice from two of the most important people in his life, his mom and his best friend. (8 minutes)
Act One: Zarna Garg had a clear plan for how she was going to find a husband. Things did not go as she expected. (17 minutes)
Act Two: People who fall in love at first sight often describe it as a kind of magic. One of our producers, Aviva DeKornfeld, is skeptical of these sorts of claims. And also a little envious. (10 minutes)
Act Three: Calvin is an 11 year old who is learning what love is all about, the hard way. (7 minutes)
Act Four: Writer Marie Phillips believes that magic is not just reserved for the beginning of a relationship. In fact, she says the real magic can be found in the end, once you decide to finally leave. (8 minutes)
Coda: Tobin Low tells us which camp he falls in — math or magic. (2 minutes)
57 min
January 28, 2024 822: The Words to Say It
What it means to have words—and to lose them.
Prologue: Sometimes we don’t want to say what’s going on because putting it into words would make it real. At other times, words don’t seem to capture the weight of what we want to say. Susanna Fogel talks about her friend Margaret Riley, who died earlier this week. (6 minutes)
Act One: The story of a woman from Gaza City who ran out of words. Seventy-two days into the war, Youmna stopped talking. (27 minutes)
Act Two: For years there was a word that Val’s mother did not want to use. Val sets out to figure out why. (22 minutes)
59 min
January 21, 2024 821: Embrace the Suck
People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.
Prologue: A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated. The strange thing is, it helps her. (9 minutes)
Act One: Two college friends try to stop Donald Trump’s primary season momentum by convincing New Hampshire voters to vote against everything they care about. Producer Zoe Chace follows along. (22 minutes)
Act Two: When producer Ike Sriskandarajah tries to sleep-train his baby, a neighbor decides to call the police. Later, Ike thinks, "I can work with that." (9 minutes)
Act Three: A story by producer Boen Wang about how to get through a summer of bad days. (9 minutes)
59 min

About This American Life

From the publisher's feed

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…

Best of This American Life

Ranked by our users in the last 21 days

Number 1: 899: Reaching Out
Oct 51 hr 3 min
Number 2: 427: Original Recipe
Oct 121 hr 4 min
Number 3: 898: An Argument
Sep 281 hr 3 min
Number 4: 897: Intergenerational Space Travel
Sep 211 hr 7 min
Number 5: 646: The Secret of My Death
Sep 141 hr 8 min

FAQ about This American Life

What's this show about?
This American Life presents true stories that unfold like little movies for radio. Each week the show chooses a theme and then features personal stories with funny moments, big feelings, and surprising plot twists.
What's it like to listen to?
Expect a highly produced, narrative-driven experience. The show delivers a blend of journalism, storytelling, and humor, often with unexpected turns. Ira Glass's distinctive voice and editing style are integral to the listening experience.
What are recent episodes about?
Recent episodes have explored themes of city life, including stories set on the edge of civilization and in the workplace, and featured stories about immigration.
Who's behind the mic?
Ira Glass is the host and a producer of This American Life. The show is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago. Glass is known for his unique storytelling approach and his work in public radio.
How long is each episode?
Episodes are typically around 30 to 60 minutes.
When do new episodes drop?
New episodes release regularly.
What are the main topics?
Society & Culture, news, arts, storytelling, personal narratives, journalism
Who should listen to this?
Listeners interested in in-depth storytelling, news, and cultural explorations will enjoy this show. It appeals to those who appreciate narrative-driven content and a mix of humor and serious topics.