This American Life
Chicago Public Media
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...
Location:
Chicago, IL
Networks:
Chicago Public Media
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.
Twitter:
@thisamerlife
Language:
English
Website:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
Email:
web@thislife.org
Episodes
885: Bless This Mess
4/12/2026
At a time when the U.S. government is trying to make American history tidier, we try to learn from the mess. Including the untold, messy story of Paul and Essie Robeson.
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Duration:01:01:38
212: The Other Man
4/5/2026
What happens when a new guy comes on the scene and changes the way everyone relates to each other?
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Duration:01:02:33
884: The Idiot
3/29/2026
M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times.
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Duration:00:59:50
883: Call Your Parents
3/22/2026
In the early days of the radio show, Ira did a series of interviews with his parents that completely changed his relationship with them. This week, he returns to those interviews.
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Duration:01:00:19
882: Give a Little Whistle
3/8/2026
Two lawyers who work for ICE step forward and lift the curtain on what is really happening inside our immigration system right now.
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Duration:01:02:04
208: Office Politics
3/1/2026
Stories of high drama from America's workplaces — surprising, emotional places full of the greed, jealousy, and ambition of real politics.
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Duration:01:01:13
881: I Want What I Want
2/22/2026
People deciding to do things that most of us do NOT choose to do.
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Duration:01:01:14
75: Kindness of Strangers
2/8/2026
An episode from our show's early days: Stories about what happens when strangers are kind — and when they're not.
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Duration:01:00:33
880: What Is Your Emergency?
2/1/2026
911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.
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Duration:00:59:16
879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar
1/18/2026
When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.
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Duration:01:00:37
The Americans Outside My Window
1/12/2026
In this special mini-episode -- an extra episode this week! -- we hear from someone in Venezuela with a very specific take on last week's U.S. attack.
Duration:00:19:20
878: New Lore Drop
1/11/2026
People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know, and suddenly everything looks very different.
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Duration:01:00:08
Christmas and Commerce
12/24/2025
Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, originally broadcast in 1996 when our show was only a year old. Including David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries" about the seasons he spent working as an elf at Macy's.
Duration:01:02:04
877: The Making Of
12/21/2025
How one block in Portland, Oregon became a movie-set war zone that lots of people think is a real war zone.
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Duration:01:01:24
255: Our Holiday Gift-Giving Guide
12/14/2025
The vexing difficulty of finding the perfect gift.
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Duration:01:01:04
876: Bigger Than Me
12/7/2025
When history comes knocking, you have to figure out what to do.
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Duration:01:00:05
875: I Hate Mysteries
11/23/2025
What’s in the box? What’s in the $%&ing box?!?
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Duration:01:02:53
874: Under One Roof
11/16/2025
What’s great about living in a family is that everyone sees everything differently. Also, that’s what’s awful about living in a family. We go behind closed doors with two families.
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Duration:01:06:02
873: Got You Pegged
11/9/2025
Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, and suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter—and sets out to prove it. This and other stories about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others.
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Duration:01:02:29
872: Winners
11/2/2025
America loves winners—now more than ever. But how do you get to a win in 2025 America? We get up close and follow someone trying to build a big win for herself and thousands of others like her.
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Duration:00:58:46