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This American Life

Chicago Public Media

This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.

This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.

Location:

Chicago, IL

Description:

This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.

Language:

English

Episodes

691: Gardens of Branching Paths

4/18/2021
Other universes that are just like our own, but with one small difference.

Duration:01:08:30

735: Bloody Feelings

4/11/2021
Stories about the power of blood.

Duration:01:05:43

549: Amateur Hour

4/4/2021
People put in positions they’re completely unqualified to handle, but who try to make it work anyway. Including one story of a tough group of soldiers who attempt to save lives through the power of show tunes.

Duration:00:59:38

676: Here’s Looking at You, Kid

3/28/2021
Adults telling kids who they are, and kids wondering — are they right?

Duration:01:01:56

734: The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled

3/21/2021
How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?

Duration:01:01:23

695: Everyone's a Critic

3/14/2021
People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.

Duration:01:01:14

733: Warriors in the Garden

3/7/2021
This week, three men who came together to protest the murder of George Floyd. They were unified, loud, and impressive, but over time these three friends end up in three very different places.

Duration:01:05:49

635: Chip in My Brain

2/28/2021
A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.

Duration:01:06:55

732: Secrets

2/21/2021
Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.

Duration:00:59:32

731: What Lies Beneath

2/14/2021
Stories of people summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.

Duration:00:59:54

670: Beware the Jabberwock

2/7/2021
Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell.

Duration:01:09:23

489: No Coincidence, No Story!

1/31/2021
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones 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.

Duration:00:59:25

730: The Empty Chair

1/24/2021
Things we’ve lost in the past year — since the first American coronavirus case — that we haven’t talked about so much. Gossip. The chance to make new friends. And much larger stuff.

Duration:00:58:24

694: Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

1/17/2021
People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.

Duration:01:03:55

729: Making the Cut

1/10/2021
There's always someone whose job it is to decide if you measure up.

Duration:01:03:26

692: The Show of Delights

1/3/2021
In these dark, combative times, we attempt the most radical counterprogramming we could imagine: a show made up entirely of stories about delight.

Duration:01:02:53

728: Lights, Camera, Christmas!

12/27/2020
This holiday season, we bring you a show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families.

Duration:01:00:48

727: Boulder v. Hill

12/20/2020
What the day-to-day business of saving the world looks like. We visit with one group of people who are trying to rescue us from something very large, and another group trying to rescue us from something very small.

Duration:01:07:04

726: Twenty-Five

12/13/2020
To commemorate our show’s 25th year, we have a program about people who were born the year our show went on the air.

Duration:00:59:20

619: The Magic Show

12/6/2020
Just a few years before he got the internship at NPR that started him in radio, our host Ira Glass had another career. He performed magic at children's birthday parties. A powerful sense of embarrassment has prevented him from ever doing an episode on the subject, but when he learned that producer David Kestenbaum was also a kid conjurer, they decided to dive in together.

Duration:01:00:49

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