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Author: This American Life

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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.
221 Episodes
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800: Jane Doe

800: Jane Doe

2023-05-2801:15:363

Five years after the #MeToo explosion, what’s happened in the lives of the women who stepped forward and went public with their stories? We tell the story of a teenager who spoke out against one of the most powerful people in her state, and what happened next. Prologue: Some powerful and well known men lost their jobs after #MeToo. But what about the women at the center of all this who’ve been way less visible after they told what happened to them? We hear about big and small ways the aftermath of coming forward continues to pop up in their daily lives. (10 minutes)Act One: Back in 2021, a 19-year-old intern at the Idaho state legislature reported that a state Representative named Aaron von Ehlinger raped her. She went by the name Jane Doe. There was a public ethics hearing and Ehlinger resigned. State legislators talked about how proud they were of their ability to do the right thing so quickly. But the story that the public knows is very different from what actually happened to Jane. She talks about it in-depth for the first time. (25 minutes)Act Two: Jane Doe walks into a public ethics hearing at the Idaho state capitol and navigates the aftermath. (23 minutes)Act Three: Jane Doe sent some questions for us to ask Chanel Miller. For years, Chanel was known as Emily Doe. She wrote a victim impact statement that millions of people read. (A swimmer at Stanford University named Brock Turner sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.) She talks about how she decided to come out with her real name and who Emily Doe is to her now. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
508: Superpowers

508: Superpowers

2023-05-2158:005

We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.)  Host Ira Glass talks to comic artist Chris Ware, who thought about superheroes a lot of the time as a kid. He invented his own character and made a superhero costume, which he wore to school under his regular clothes. Everything went fine until he realized he would have to change for gym class. (6 minutes)Act One: John Hodgman conducts an informal survey in which he asks the age-old question: Which is better: The power of flight or the power of invisibility? (14 minutes)Act Two: Kelly McEvers with the story of Zora, a self-made superhero. From the time she was five years old, Zora had recurring dreams in which she was a 6'5" warrior queen, who could fly and shoot lightning from her hands. She made a list, pages and pages long, of all the things she could accomplish to actually become that superhero: martial arts, evasive driving, bomb defusing. By the time she was 30, most of her list had been checked off. She was as close to a superhero as any mortal could hope to come. But her dream had changed. (17 minutes)Act Three: Ira talks with Jonathan Morris, the amazingly funny and charming editor of the website "Gone and Forgotten," an internet archive of failed comic book characters. Jonathan explains what makes a new superhero succeed, and what makes him tank. (9 minutes)Act Four: Of course you can’t be a superhero without a supervillain trying to destroy you. And the most interesting supervillains, of course, are the ones who think that they're the real heroes, not the guys in the capes. Glynn Washington tells the story of Evil D. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
799: The Lives of Others

799: The Lives of Others

2023-05-1401:04:1011

Looping 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 Lilly Sullivan goes to Utah to investigate the mystery of the hot vet. (8 minutes)Act One: We do the thing the people in town would rather die than do – spill the crush to the legendary Dr. Artz himself. Lilly Sullivan reports. (8 minutes)Act Two: Producer Alix Spiegel talks to one of her closest friends, Sarah Blust, about the time Sarah met a stranger who, unbeknownst to her, had already spent years thinking about her. (29 minutes)Act Three: There are certain jobs where thinking about someone else’s life is just built into it. Aviva DeKornfeld has a theory that petsitting is a job like that. She talks to a couple of pet sitters to find out. (14 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
798: Leaving the Fold

798: Leaving the Fold

2023-05-0701:03:489

A 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 Bobby Kennedy. Plus other stories of people who try to leave some moment in their life behind, which can be hard. Prologue: Ira explains the premise of this week’s show, where most of the stories were first broadcast in 2004. (3 minutes)Act One: Alex Blumberg tells the true story of Jerry Springer's life before he was a talk show host. It's the story of an idealistic and serious Jerry Springer, a progressive politician, and the most popular mayor ever of a certain American city. (31 minutes)Act Two: Ira talks with Shalom Auslander, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew and who made a pivotal break with his faith at a Rangers game. (6 minutes)Act Three: The journalist E. Jean Carroll is in court this week with her rape case against Donald Trump. In 2020 she published a series of stories interviewing women who’ve accused President Trump of sexual assault or harassment. At the time, she felt like these stories had been so widely covered that people had gotten used to them and ignored them. Which seemed sort of incredible to her. Back then she adapted one of the stories for our show and we’re replaying it today, a frank conversation with another one of the president’s accusers, Jessica Leeds, who also testified in Carroll’s case against Trump. (16 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
It's funny the things that go through your head during a disaster. Prologue: Host Ira Glass has fallen off his bike a number of times at this point. He reflects on what goes through his head as he’s going down. (2 minutes)Act One: Producer Ike Sriskandarajah revisits a maritime disaster that left an impact on a group of friends from his youth. What he learns forever changes their impressions of that day. (23 minutes)Act Two: When to leave Twitter is a question lots of executives faced when Elon Musk took over the company — those who weren't immediately fired, anyway. We hear an insider’s account from the man who ran Trust & Safety at the company, until he couldn’t stand it anymore. (28 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
796: What Lies Beneath

796: What Lies Beneath

2023-04-1601:02:274

Summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep. Prologue: A beloved drawing goes missing from Mr. Ablao’s third grade classroom. The class holds a funeral for the drawing, which accidentally unleashes a much bigger feeling than anyone anticipated. (13  minutes)Act One: The musicians in the orchestra for Phantom of the Opera tell reporter Jay Caspian Kang about what it’s like to play the exact same music every single night—for decades. And how they’ve learned to make their peace with it. (26 minutes)Act Two: Producer Elna Baker’s mom doles out some very harsh feedback for her daughter, which goes unnoticed for ten years. (15 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
795: Nine Months Later

795: Nine Months Later

2023-04-0901:04:175

It’s been nine months since Roe v. Wade was overturned. We talk to people who wanted abortions right when the laws were changing in their states. They had to wait for appointments, for money to travel or abortion pills. And during that waiting, a lot of interesting things happened. We see how much life has changed, nine months later. Prologue: Nine months ago, these people wanted abortions. But then, the laws changed. They had to wait to get an appointment, figure out how to get out of state or order abortion pills.  In that waiting, other things happened. (5 minutes)Act One: In the months following the court’s decision, two women are stalled getting abortions. Reporter Caroline Kitchener follows Kae and Taylor in those early months, as they try to figure out what to do. And we see what happens when both women each come into contact with the anti-abortion movement. (19 minutes)Act Two: Doctors say one effect of the new bans is people seeking abortions much later into their second trimesters. Caroline got interested in a girl like that in Oklahoma. (18 minutes)Act Three: It’s been nine months since the first group of people who wanted abortions couldn’t get them in their states. How have their lives changed, or not. (12 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
794: So Close and Yet So Far

794: So Close and Yet So Far

2023-03-2601:03:486

People ​so close to each other, ​in ​extremely intimate situations​,​ who are also a million miles apart. Prologue: Valerie Kipnis tells Ira about riding the subway, shoulder-to-shoulder with someone she knows quite well, pretending she doesn’t see him. (8 minutes)Act One: How much can you trust whether somebody who you think is close to you really is close to you? Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr.’s been thinking about that question since a recent visit with some of his childhood friends in Sierra Leone. (37 minutes)Act Two: Comedian Tig Notaro has the story of someone as close as her actual bedside yet who, in another way, is impossibly far away. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
793: The Problem with Ghosts

793: The Problem with Ghosts

2023-03-1201:02:037

The ghosts that visit us, the ghosts that never do, and the ghosts that walk among us. Prologue: Chaunte Vaughn’s mother recently died of Parkinsons. Even though Chaunte doesn't believe in ghosts, she is visited by her mom's ghost multiple times. And, to Chaunte’s disappointment, everything her mother's ghost has to say seems pointless. (8 minutes)Act One: Reporter Chenjerai Kumanyika visits Savannah, Georgia to learn about the city’s popular ghost tours. He’s heard the tourist attractions actually include the brutal reality of slavery. What he finds is more sinister and complex than advertised. (23 minutes)Act Two: Abby Stein’s youngest sister got married last month, the last of 13 kids in their family. At the wedding, an uninvited guest showed up. (12 minutes)Act Three: In the 1920s, at the height of the Spiritualism movement, a friendship blossomed between two men with opposing views on the topic: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Houdini was a skeptic. Conan Doyle was the de facto leader of the movement. On a vacation in Atlantic City, the famous author tried to help his skeptical friend talk to the ghost of his beloved mother. Sean Cole reports. (13 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
792: When to Leave

792: When to Leave

2023-03-0501:05:252

People staring down that hardest of questions: Is now the time? To leave? Prologue: Russian forces have besieged the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Shelling is constant. Most residents have fled. But there are holdouts who haven’t left yet. Producer Valerie Kipnis introduces guest host Nancy Updike to a volunteer evacuator, Kuba Stasiak, who is trying to get the remaining people out safely. (13 minutes)Act One: Dr. Amelia Huntsberger loves everything about her rural town in northern Idaho. Her OB-GYN practice. Her patients. Her family. But for almost a year, she’s been fighting a losing battle, and realizing that she and her family might soon have to pull up stakes and leave. (28 minutes)Act Two: Masha Gessen has fled their home country, Russia, twice. First as a teenager, then again as an adult. Both times, the country had become unlivable for Masha. Now Masha is watching and reporting on Russians leaving the country in droves, and reflecting on their own reasons for leaving when they did. (13 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
The Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade began with a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi abortion clinic. On the day Roe was overturned, we were there. Stories from the center of this moment of history, the day it happened. Prologue: Host Ira Glass reminds us that, before they change the country, all major Supreme Court cases start with just a person, in a place. (3 minutes)Act One: Documentarian Maisie Crow has been following the fight to stay open by the Jackson Women’s Health Clinic, for ten years. Now the Supreme Court decision is forcing their doors shut for good. She brings us inside as the staff prepares for the day the decision comes down, and then lives through it. (20 minutes)Act Two: Our producer Zoe Chace goes to Fairview Heights, Illinois, where Planned Parenthood has opened a massive new abortion clinic just across the river from Missouri. Abortion is banned in Missouri and lots of the surrounding states now that Roe has been overturned. Illinois is gearing up to get lots and lots of patients now. (5 minutes)Act Three: Zoe Chace spends time with a lawmaker in Missouri on the day Roe fell who’d worked her whole life for this moment and can’t believe it’s really here. (5 minutes)Act Four: Host Ira Glass walks through possible next steps with a pro-life activist who worked on the Texas SB8 bill, that set a precedent for enforcement of abortion bans throughout the country. (8 minutes)Act Five: Rebecca Grant introduces us to an abortion pill smuggler, who walks us through her undercover operation to mail pills to people who want medication abortions in places where it's hard to get them. (9 minutes)Act Six: Emma Green spends time with Anja Baker, who’s working on preparing Mississippi for the influx of babies it will have to absorb now that abortion is illegal in that state. (9 minutes)Act Seven: Maisie Crow is back to take us inside the Jackson clinic once again, as they rally themselves to see all the patients they’d scheduled for the next month to come in in the next ten days, before the ban goes into effect. (3 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
Kids do not like being told it’ll make sense when they’re older. They’re pretty sure the grown-ups are wrong.
Getting from A to B via Z.
672: No Fair!

672: No Fair!

2022-06-1201:04:283

Stories of very small injustices and also one very big one.
772: The Kids' Table

772: The Kids' Table

2022-06-0501:01:364

Kids navigating hairy situations all on their own, with no help from grown-ups.
771: The Parents Step In

771: The Parents Step In

2022-05-2901:02:52

Government isn’t doing much to prevent school shootings. So parents are jumping in: parents whose kids have died in mass shootings, in the wake of each shooting. They take practical, effective action — and they get results.
638: Rom-Com

638: Rom-Com

2022-05-2201:02:59

The one thing you know for sure when you're watching a romantic comedy is that it's going to turn out okay in the end. When you're living one? Not so much. This week, stories that unfold like rom-coms.
605: Kid Logic

605: Kid Logic

2022-05-1558:362

Kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions.
770: My Lying Eyes

770: My Lying Eyes

2022-05-0801:05:49

People staring squarely at the truth, and still finding it hard to believe what they’re seeing.
A man finds himself thrust into a new world he didn’t necessarily ask to visit. He takes a look around.
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Comments (3027)

ID28342291

Briben' takes another fall. Is this even news anymore?

Jun 1st
Reply

Big Ball of Yarn and Depression

I hope that the monsters who mocked and filmed the teenage girl who was raped will have the worst, most miserable lives they possibly can. They don't deserve one day of happiness.

May 29th
Reply

President Trump is Dominating

May 29, 2020: President Trump was evacuated from the White House after it came under attack by Democrats protesting the death of George Floyd. Hundreds of police were injured and millions in property damage was inflicted. Just sayin'...

May 29th
Reply (2)

Maria Skorobogatov

Awesome episode!

May 29th
Reply

I DO Know

BREAKING: 2/3 of Americans say the reelection of Joe Biden would be a "disaster" - CNN poll.

May 26th
Reply

Michelle Sawall-Kneale

such fake information about the heartbeat and ultrasound. it's absolutely a heartbeat. my Dr laughed when I told him about this statement

May 25th
Reply

Bribin' Biden

Serious question: as Black Lives Matter inc heads to bankruptcy, soon to be no more, what did black America get out of it?

May 25th
Reply

Got em'

"We're not alleging fraud." -Rudy Giuliani on behalf of Donald Trump, while under oath testifying about the 2020 election.  "I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines. All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months." -Convicted rapist Donald Trump, 2021 "Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get covid, it's a very minor form. People aren't dying when they take the vaccine." -Convicted rapist Donald Trump, 2022 "The vaccine works." -Convicted rapist Donald Trump, 2022 "The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take their vaccine." -Convicted rapist Donald Trump, 2022 "You have many reports that say the vaccines saved tens of millions of lives and without the vaccines you would have had a thing like we had in 1917.” -Convicted rapist Donald Trump, 2023 (Love watching the desperate shrieking sore losers obediently advocate violent rape.)🤭 😘😋 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

May 24th
Reply

the "european"

26 shot in Chicago this week but the NAACP says don't go to Florida. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

May 22nd
Reply (1)

ID28342292

It's official: Briben's poll numbers lower than President Trump's at this point in his presidency, making Briben' the most unpopular president in all history. How, after all the no stop propaganda against President Trump s such a thing possible?

May 19th
Reply

ID28342292

After 6 years of non stop propaganda...Trump 56%, Biden 43%. Ouchie 😆

May 19th
Reply

Leah

Lynn is the luckiest woman in the world. I would love nothing more than to have a baby whale follow me and trust me. What an incredible experience.

May 17th
Reply

Wrecked the triggered Maga with facts.

Obedient gimps line up to advocate violent sexual battery as long as it's done by their owner Donald Trump. Apparently violent sexual assault is OK if you're obedient enough to look away.🤭 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

May 16th
Reply

John Buckner

I have to learn to ignore vocal fry. Clearly it's the fashionable mode of speech for women of the Gen-X and Millineal generations. It's the most grating habit and I've no clue why it became so prevalent. Alix's and Aviva's vocal fry speech habit is so off-putting -- akin to nails on a chalkboard -- that I had to stop listening and read the transcript. Some years back, This American Life did a show about it. What a shame that it was even ignored by staff.

May 16th
Reply

awwwww 🥰

Ahh you flipped names because you had to hide rather than face that I debunked your bull shit. What was Trumps approval when he lost sweetie? (34%) Think there's a connection? Does the population go up or down? Does that logically mean a record number of votes is absolutely commonplace? ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... GOT NOTHING HUH?

May 15th
Reply (1)

awwwww 🥰

Democrats lampoon democrat leaders on the regular, while Republicans carefully avoid acknowledging the embarrassing errors of theirs. They are not permitted to question. We've even watched Republicans become pro-government spending to avoid addressing the fact that Trump doubled the federal deficit, increased the trade deficit by half and raised the federal budget by the same (within 0.5%) ratio that Obama did. I didn't like it when Obama did similar things, why do you like it when Trump does? Obedience? 🤐 Turns out Republicans will abandon being in favor of "small government" in order to be slavishly obedient. What principle will you abandon next to desperately avoid criticizing your leadership? Or are you not permitted to discuss Trump ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

May 15th
Reply

awwwww 🥰

Ahh you flipped names because you had to hide rather than face that I debunked your bull shit. Coward. What was Trumps approval when he lost sweetie? Think there's a connection? Does the population go up or down? Does that logically mean a record number of votes is absolutely commonplace? Got nothing? Works for me. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

May 15th
Reply

awwwww 🥰

Sweetheart...darling... Biden SUUUUCKS. Your feeble obedient brain thinks that democrats don't like dunking on Biden. Biden is trash. Democrats are permitted to criticize Biden. But. MAGA are not permitted by their slave owner to criticize Ronald McDonald Trump. And that's embarrassing. You are obedient. You are a slave. You have to flop around rather than face what your rapist retard says every day. Sorry. That's your choice. You have no choice but to weep that....it can't be...Trump was supposed to win.... But he lost. Badly. With a 34% approval. Sorry. Whoops.😋Democrats lampoon democrat leaders on the regular, while Republicans carefully avoid acknowledging the embarrassing errors of theirs. They are not permitted to question. We've even watched Republicans become pro-government spending to avoid addressing the fact that Trump doubled the federal deficit, increased the trade deficit by half and raised the federal budget by the same (within 0.5%) ratio that Obama did. I didn't like it when Obama did similar things, why do you like it when Trump does? Obedience? 🤐 Turns out Republicans will abandon being in favor of "small government" in order to be slavishly obedient. What principle will you abandon next to desperately avoid criticizing your leadership? Or are you not permitted to discuss Trump

May 15th
Reply

Lin

(Shame to see th same stupid trolls are still commenting... yawn!!) A comment in relevance to this actual episode. A wonderful episode, interesting story I've never heard anything about before. Loved the musical accents of the older relatives

May 15th
Reply

😘

BREAKING: A wave of republican suicide reported after MAGA supporters saw the results of the Trump sexual assault case. Apparently the loss of plausible deniability was devastating. The majority were men who had put all their eggs in the rapist Trump basket. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Check out the loser scrolling like an LOSER with no life! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

May 14th
Reply (2)
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