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.

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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

790: You're It

1/29/2023
Sometimes you raise your hand. Other times you’re just the only one left.

Duration:00:59:50

789: The Runaround

1/22/2023
People being dodged, delayed, and evaded—and what they do to put an end to it.

Duration:01:03:02

174: Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Milestones

1/15/2023
They mean something, whether we want them to or not.

Duration:01:00:08

788: Half-Baked Stories About My Dead Mom

1/8/2023
Writer Etgar Keret tries to come up with the stories that capture his late mother, Orna Keret—but it’s hard, he says, because she’s like Maria in West Side Story and she’s also like Thanos from the Avengers. He ends up with a series of very short stories — most just a few paragraphs long — that give glimpses of different sides of her. These written stories are interspersed with off-the-cuff stories he tells host Ira Glass.

Duration:00:59:46

598: My Undesirable Talent

1/1/2023
San Francisco’s Spider-Man burglar was remarkable. He dropped into buildings from skylights, leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble. This week, his story, and stories of other undesirable talents.

Duration:01:00:23

787: Baby's First Christmas

12/25/2022
People experiencing Christmas in brand new ways, giving the holiday even more meaning.

Duration:00:59:42

757: The Ghost in the Machine

12/18/2022
People use machines to find people they lost.

Duration:01:00:28

402: Save the Day

12/11/2022
Stories about one person single-handedly taking charge of a situation gone wrong.

Duration:00:59:54

786: It's a Game Show!

12/4/2022
Something we’ve never done before: true stories told in the form of a game show.

Duration:01:04:49

785: Through the Looking Glass

11/27/2022
People trying to coax each other across the line, from one side to the other.

Duration:01:02:40

351: Return to Childhood

11/20/2022
People who try to revisit their childhoods—what they find and what they do not find.

Duration:00:59:52

732: Secrets

11/13/2022
Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.

Duration:00:59:32

784: Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map

11/6/2022
Not long ago, Republicans in Ohio passed a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in the state. And then a funny thing happened. The same Ohio Republicans drew electoral maps that violated their own constitutional amendment. They’ll be using them in this week’s midterm elections. We try to understand how that could happen.

Duration:01:02:01

783: Kids These Days

10/30/2022
We hear from kids who are dealing with some of the country’s most contentious debates. Debates that are supposedly about them.

Duration:01:04:59

754: Spark Bird

10/23/2022
Stories about birds and the hearts they sway, the havoc they wreak, the lives they change.

Duration:01:03:26

782: Family Dig

10/16/2022
Two people go on excavations of their families’ pasts. Including the first episode of the new podcast, “We Were Three,” hosted by our longtime producer, Nancy Updike, and from Serial Productions and The New York Times.

Duration:01:02:40

781: Watching the Watchers

10/9/2022
People taking it upon themselves to keep an eye on those in charge.

Duration:01:00:22

780: Setting the Record Straight

10/2/2022
Getting to the facts can be difficult, but it’s always the right thing to do. Except when it isn’t.

Duration:00:59:36

750: The Ferryman

9/25/2022
Getting from Point A to Point B—with expert assistance.

Duration:01:00:51

779: Ends of the Earth

9/18/2022
An exploration of the very upper limits of what you do for someone you love.

Duration:01:06:02

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