Description
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
- 2025 / 7 / 20864: Chicago HopeThe story of the most commonly performed surgery, and what goes wrong with it – terribly wrong – 100,000 times a year in the United States. We’re excited to bring you the first episode of The...
- 2025 / 7 / 18Bonus: Nancy's Deep CutsIra 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...
- 2025 / 6 / 29863: Championship WindowPeople on a mission to achieve their goals before their window of opportunity closes. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi goes...
- 2025 / 6 / 22862: Some Things We Don't Do AnymoreOn his first day in office, President Trump decided to freeze all U.S. foreign aid. Soon after, his administration effectively dissolved USAID—the federal agency that delivers billions in food, medicine, and...
- 2025 / 6 / 1861: Group ChatConversations across a divide: Palestinians who are outside Gaza check in with family, friends, and strangers inside. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue:...
- 2025 / 5 / 25860: Suddenly: A Mirror!A show about people who are suddenly confronted with who they are. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: Guest host Aviva DeKornfeld tells Ira Glass about...
- 2025 / 4 / 27859: Chaos GraphPeople immersed in chaos try to solve for what it all adds up to. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: A scientist who is used to organizing data starts...
- 2025 / 4 / 13858: How to Tell a Dumb American StoryA couple devises a strategy to get their daughter's killer prosecuted and to get attention for other Native families. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium...
- 2025 / 3 / 30857: Museum of NowArtifacts and exhibits of this particular moment we are living through. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Exhibit One: Ira talks to producer Emmanuel Dzotsi, who...
- 2025 / 3 / 16856: You’ve Come to the Right PersonSometimes, life’s biggest mysteries require one very specific person to answer them. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: 7-year-old Miles has lots of...
- 2025 / 3 / 2855: That’s a Weird Thing to Lie AboutUnnecessary and outrageous lies that make you wonder — why lie about that in the first place? Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Kasey, a woman who...
- 2025 / 2 / 23854: Ten Things I Don't Want To Hate About YouZach Mack and his dad try to mend a rift between them in a very unusual way. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira Glass introduces Zach Mack’s story....
- 2025 / 2 / 23854: Ten Things I Don't Want to Hate About YouZach Mack and his dad try to mend a rift between them in a very unusual way. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira Glass introduces Zach Mack’s story....
- 2025 / 1 / 19852: Pivot PointPeople living in that in-between moment before everything changes. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Kirk Johnson tells Ira about a strange choice he...
- 2025 / 1 / 12851: Try a Little TendernessIn the new year, stories of people trying a radical approach to solving their problems. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira meets two sisters who got...
- 2024 / 12 / 22850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk AwayThe tiny thing that unravels your world. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks to Chris Benderev, whose high school years were completely upended...
- 2024 / 12 / 15849: The NarratorBanias is an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza. And she has a story to tell — many stories, in fact. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: While on the phone...
- 2024 / 11 / 24848: The Official Unofficial RecordHow do you count almost 12 million votes if you’re not the government? This week, we bring you the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of...
- 2024 / 11 / 10846: This Is the Cake We BakedWith Donald Trump’s victory this week, many people looked at the election results and thought, yeah, this is the country I thought it was. For some people, that was a hopeful thing. For others, kind of the...
- 2024 / 10 / 16A Big AnnouncementIra 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.
- 2024 / 10 / 13843: A Little Bit of PowerSo much of the fight for the presidency is coming down to battles for small slices of voters who can help throw swing states to one candidate or another. Abbas Alawieh, a leader in the Uncommitted movement,...
- 2024 / 10 / 6842: 51 DaysChen Almog-Goldstein was kidnapped by Hamas along with her three youngest children on October 7, 2023. This week, she tells the story of their life as hostages in Gaza. Prologue: The 251 hostages taken by...
- 2024 / 9 / 22841: My Senior YearOne kid comes to America as an exchange student and commits herself to the senior year experience. Prologue: We talk to high school seniors in Salt Lake City who are trying to have the perfect year. (5...
- 2024 / 9 / 15840: How Are You Not Seeing This?People trying and struggling to see what another person sees. Prologue: Guest-host Tobin Low talks to comedian Tig Notaro about a jarring ride to school with her son. (6 minutes)Act One: Producer Aviva...
- 2024 / 6 / 2832: That Other GuyPeople tethered to one particular other person, whether they want to be or not. Prologue: Guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi talks to Leroy Smith about how one high school basketball tryout forever changed Leroy’s...
- 2024 / 3 / 24827: All the King's HorsesThe 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...
- 2024 / 3 / 17826: Unprepared for What Has Already HappenedPeople 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...
- 2024 / 3 / 3825: YousefA 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...
- 2024 / 2 / 25824: Family MeetingYour mother and I have something we want to talk with you about. A family sits down to discuss one thing. But then the true purpose of the meeting emerges. (9 ½ minutes)Act 1: For one kibbutz-dwelling family...
- 2024 / 1 / 28822: The Words to Say ItWhat 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...
- 2024 / 1 / 21821: Embrace the SuckPeople 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...
- 2023 / 12 / 24820: It Wouldn’t Be Make-Believe If You’d Believe In MeA major political party in a major swing state bets on a new leader: a total political outsider. How does that work out for them? Prologue: In 2022, Michigan Republicans ran anti-establishment candidates who...
- 2023 / 12 / 22819: Special Bonus Podcast — Yousef’s WeekOne of our producers, Chana Joffe-Walt, had a series of conversations with a man in Gaza over the course of one week. They're so immediate – and particular to this moment in the war in Gaza – that...
- 2023 / 12 / 17818: Stand Clear of the Closing DoorsIn the last year and a half, New York City has scrambled to try and provide shelter and services to over 150,000 migrants. We take a look at how that’s going. Prologue: In the middle of the night, host Ira...
- 2023 / 12 / 3817: The Cavalry Is Not ComingWhen you realize that help is not on the way, what do you do next? Prologue: Saddam Sayyaleh’s job right now is trying to get trucks filled with aid into Gaza and he knows it’s nowhere close to what’s...
- 2023 / 11 / 26816: Poultry SlamDuring the highest turkey consumption period of the year, we bring you a This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds—real and imagined—and their mysterious hold...
- 2023 / 11 / 19815: How I Learned to ShaveThings our dads taught us, whether they intended to or not. Prologue: Ira talks about the time his dad taught him to shave, and how unusual that was. (5 minutes)Act One: When Jackie read the obits for the man...
- 2023 / 11 / 12814: 814: Parents Are PeopleWhat happens when you realize the people in charge don’t have the answers. Prologue: Guest Host Chana Joffe-Walt asks her kids when they first encountered adult fallibility. (8 minutes)Act One: A middle...
- 2023 / 11 / 5813: Is That What I Look Like?You've been seeing yourself, getting to know what you look like, your whole life. So why does it often take an outsider to see things about you that are obvious, and set you straight? Prologue: Guest...
- 2023 / 10 / 22812: The Bear at the End of the TunnelPeople who have a good, long time to think about what they’re doing, look hard at what’s ahead of them, and decide to keep moving forward anyway. Prologue: Brothers Wes and Jeff spent a winter tagging black...
- 2023 / 10 / 1811: The One Place I Can’t GoSpots we’re avoiding in our private maps of the world. Prologue: Guest host Bim Adewunmi talks to her cousin Kamyl about a funny thing Kamyl did when she was small, regarding a dog named Foxy. (4 minutes)Act...
- 2023 / 9 / 17810: Say It to My FaceFriends and ex-friends finally talk about the one thing between them they've been avoiding. Prologue: Host Ira Glass tells a story he’s never told anyone before, about something someone said to him. (4...
- 2023 / 9 / 10809: The CallOne call to a very unusual hotline, and everything that followed. 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,...
- 2023 / 8 / 20808: The Rest of the StoryLegendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey had a popular show called “The Rest of the Story.” Today on our show, we do just that. We hear from people who, whether they want to or not, find themselves...
- 2023 / 8 / 6807: Eight FightsNadia's family is split between Russia and Ukraine, which is pretty common. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, it didn’t just start fighting on the battlefield. It sparked family conflict, too. An intimate...
- 2023 / 7 / 30806: I Can't Quit You, BabyPeople on the verge of a big change, not wanting to let go. And the people who give them the final push. Prologue: Guest Host Sean Cole gets some scary news about his health, and decides to quit smoking. (5...
- 2023 / 7 / 16805: The Florida ExperimentGovernor Ron DeSantis is running for president on the argument that he'll do for America what he's done for Florida. So what's it like in Florida? Prologue: Florida is now the fastest growing...
- 2023 / 6 / 25803: Greetings, People Of EarthHumans encounter non-human intelligences of various kinds and try to make sense of them. Prologue: Ira has some thoughts about our country’s long history of alien invasion movies. (2 minutes)Act One: In this...
- 2023 / 5 / 14799: The Lives of OthersLooping thoughts about people you barely know, or don't know at all. Prologue: We get a tip that an entire town is consumed by a huge, elementary-school-style crush on a local veterinarian. Guest host...
- 2023 / 5 / 7798: Leaving the FoldA week after Jerry Springer’s death, we go back to a story we first broadcast years ago, about a side of Springer most people don’t know and can’t imagine: his years as an idealistic politician in the mold of...