Claim OwnershipThis American Life Radio Archive (1995 - 2014)
Subscribed: 11,816Played: 397,957
Subscribe
© Copyright 1995-2013 Chicago Public Media & Ira Glass
Description
Official free, weekly podcast of the award-winning radio show "This American Life." First-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny, and surprising. Hosted by Ira Glass, from WBEZ Chicago Public Media, and distributed by Public Radio International. In mp3 and updated Mondays.
531 Episodes
Reverse
46It’s safe to say whatever you want on the Internet; nobody will know it’s you. But that same anonymity makes it possible for people to say all the awful things that make the Internet such an annoying and sometimes frightening place. This week: what happens when the Internet turns on you?
When Jonathan Goldstein was a kid, his father gave him a book that promised to teach you how to shoot mental laser beams, win the lottery, move solid objects with your mind, make others obey your command – all through the use of mental power and magic words. This week, he revisits the book to try to unlock the secrets within.
There is a special comfort that comes from knowing someone's got your back. You can do things that just weren't possible before. You take huge risks, including some that aren't necessarily advisable. This week: stories where one person's powerlessness is transformed when they discover they have backup.
Stories of meddling, snooping, and just getting way, way up in other people's business. A cellphone hidden in a bag of chips starts a messy turf war between the FBI and a local sheriff; and a surprising handbook lets us peek into the secret world of professional cheerleading. Plus: Studs Terkel.
Gladiators in the Colosseum. Sideshow performers. Reality television. We've always loved to gawk at the misery or majesty of others. But this week, we ask the question: What's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you?
Our most ambitious live show ever! (get the video!) We pulled together a massive team of theater pros at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Opera House – nearly 50 singers, actors, dancers and musicians. The result?
Flipflops, u-turns, changes of heart, about faces. Completely changing our position — sometimes it can be our best move, sometimes it can be our worst. Either way, it's usually complicated. This week we bring you stories of people who go one way, and then, for what ever reason, turn around and go the exact opposite direction.
You've been seeing yourself, getting to know what you look like, your whole life. So why is does it often take an outsider to see things about you that are obvious, and set you straight?
Stories of people coming to terms with being in serious trouble. They need help. Figuring out how to get it, that's another problem.
Your waitress. Your colleagues at work. Your doctor. Maybe even your parents. They’re all high. All the time. That’s what it feels like anyway. This week, stories in which drug use and daily life intersect – and in which people get high in secret and then do their best to function in the non-high world.
It is a peculiar feeling to know with certainty that something big is about to happen to you. This week we watch people go right up to the edge of inevitable change. We hear from preteens about the terrifying knowledge that puberty is about to happen...any minute now.
This week, stories of people being threatened and punished with public shame. Including the story of someone who was literally tarred and feathered. It happened a lot more recently than you'd guess.
They're small. And they're cuddly. But sometimes it feels as though our babies were replaced with demon replicas — controlling, demanding, or just downright awful. This week, stories of infants and children who dominate the adults around them with their baditude, or whom adults have painted with the "bad" brush from early on.
There are lots of ways we define where we're from. And whether we're proud of it, or ashamed of it, love it, hate it, miss it or are trying desperately to get back to it — where we're from is always a big part of who we are. This week, stories of people who are, in good ways and bad ways, coming to terms with the places they call home.
Last May, a weird story made the news: the FBI killed a guy in Florida who was loosely linked to the Boston Marathon bombings. He was shot seven times in his living room by a federal agent. What really happened? Why was the FBI even in that room with him?
Mike Anderson was 36 years old, married, a suburban father of four. He owned a contracting business and built his family’s modest, three-bedroom house in St. Louis from the ground up. He volunteered at church on the weekends and coaches his son’s football team. All pretty normal, right? Except for one thing … which surfaced one day last summer.
It's January, and freezing outside. This week 5 stories from the sunny beach! Including David Sedaris telling us how losing a sister in 2013 prompted a family reunion, and an impulse buy of a lifetime — an oceanfront cottage big enough for all of them.
Jan Brady is not the only one who hated being in the middle. This week we have stories about how it sucks to be in limbo or be the mediator, but we also hear from a man who absolutely loves being in that uncertain and boring middle most of us dread — on hold, listening to hold music.
Lots of men think of themselves as "good guys." But what does it actually take to be one? To be a truly good guy. Stories of valiant men attempting to do good in challenging circumstances: in war zones, department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave 900 feet underground.
It's the thought that counts. So true. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not always so clear what that thought was. And sometimes, when it is clear, we wish it wasn't. This week, during this, the season of giving, we turn our spotlight on the givers and exactly whatever it was they could've possibly been thinking.
Top Podcasts
The Best New Comedy Podcast Right Now – June 2024The Best News Podcast Right Now – June 2024The Best New Business Podcast Right Now – June 2024The Best New Sports Podcast Right Now – June 2024The Best New True Crime Podcast Right Now – June 2024The Best New Joe Rogan Experience Podcast Right Now – June 20The Best New Dan Bongino Show Podcast Right Now – June 20The Best New Mark Levin Podcast – June 2024
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States
do any of these links work for people?
Omg that Irish accent 🙄
I didn’t move a muscle through this episode. I loved it. No matter when it was done… people will people
vetgi untilui7ih67 7iuut5jhhju4ukyyx797i9i78bcfk65453xrt6t6gii
This is such an interesting topic, but the reporter is soooooo judgmental! My god.
holy shit, the cricket is Butters! 🤣
gotta say this wonderful show.did not have a very strong start 😂
one of my favorite episodes ❤️
my blood is boiling on story number 2. that cop interrogating him is guilty of child abuse and more. deserves to be painfully executed for trying to do that to someone.
when you find out this is when #TAL actually became This American Life
So I have been doing this thing where I started listening from episode 300 onwards. I have been a listener since 2018. Well today I start on episode 1 till episode 320: What's in a number. You can't imagine the joy I have😁 More speed. More speed.
Phoebe, what do you mean... coincidence in The Netherlands?
I started listening to TAL in 2013. Today I went back to the beginning. I can honestly say, I'm glad I wasn't introduced to this show in the beginning. I don't think these episodes are "back when the show was good." You've come a long way TAL. Thank god. Now, time to fast forward a few years.
Perhaps this is a strange comment, but the tape recording "letter" from the Michigan family stirred a lot of memories. The father's voice sounds very similar to my grandfather who passed away unexpectedly last year. Hearing that Midwestern accent talking about everyday life brought me an incredible amount of comfort. Thank you, Ira.
"Vocal fry"?? Really?!?! Anyone who complains about this, lacks real problems. Personally, I'm a fan.
THEY SKIPPED OVER THE PART WHERE NPR PERSONALITIES HAVE TO START SENTENCES WITH "SO".
Please edit out mouth suck noises.. T.T
I was a bit disappointed by this episode. They spent the first 30 minutes rehashing what they had already reported on in the first episode (When patents attack pt 1).
10 NEON 20.18. GOD
Listening to this episode in 2018 adds a whole new layer of irony to the situation.