This American Life

By: This American Life
  • Summary

  • 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.
    Copyright 1995-2025 This American Life
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Episodes
  • 332: The Ten Commandments
    Apr 20 2025

    For Easter weekend — and the end of Passover! — stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments.

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    • Host Ira Glass reads from the Ten Commandments. Not the original Ten Commandments, but some of the newer, lesser-known ones. There's the Miner's Ten Commandments of 1853, the Ten Commandments of Umpiring, and the Ten Commandments for Math Teachers — just to name a few. (4 minutes)
    • Commandments One, Two and Three: As a boy in religious school, Shalom Auslander is informed that his name, Shalom, is one of the names of God, and so he must be very careful not to take his own name in vain. (9 minutes)
    • Commandment Four: Six houses of worship in six different cities, each with its own way of honoring the Sabbath. (3 minutes)
    • Commandment Five: When Jack Hitt was 11, he did the worst thing his father could have imagined. Neither Jack nor his four siblings will ever forget the punishment. (6 minutes)
    • Commandment Six: Alex Blumberg talks to Lt. Col. Lyn Brown, an Army Reserve chaplain who served two tours in Iraq. Brown talks about what "thou shalt not kill" means to soldiers on the battlefield. (6 minutes)
    • Commandment Seven: In the book of Matthew, Jesus says that looking lustfully at a woman is like committing adultery in your heart. Contributor David Dickerson was raised as an evangelical Christian, and for many years tried not to have a single lustful thought. (9 minutes)
    • Commandment Eight: Ira talks to a waiter named Hassan at Liebman's Deli in the Bronx about some audacious thefts he's witnessed in his years in the restaurant business. (3 minutes)
    • Commandment Nine: Chaya Lipschutz wanted to donate one of her kidneys to a stranger. But to save a stranger's life, she had to break the commandment against lying. And the person she had to lie to was her mother. Chaya talked to Sarah Koenig. (8 minutes)
    • Commandment Ten: Ira talks to seventh-graders about the things they covet most. (4 minutes)

    Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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    1 hr
  • 858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story
    Apr 13 2025

    A couple devises a strategy to get their daughter's killer prosecuted and to get attention for other Native families.

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    • Prologue: Mika Westwolf was killed in a hit-and-run on a Montana highway. Her parents thought the driver might get away with it. The driver was white. Mika was a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation. (1 minute)
    • Act One: Mika’s parents, Carissa Heavy Runner and Kevin Howard, share recordings of their interactions with law enforcement. (8 minutes)
    • Act Two: Carissa and Kevin take matters into their own hands. (20 minutes)
    • Act Three: The county prosecutor explains why he let Mika’s killer out of jail. Will Carissa and Kevin's efforts pay off? Sierra follows them to court. (33 minutes)

    Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • 668: The Long Fuse
    Apr 6 2025

    People tossing words out into the world impulsively to ignite and burn over decades.

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    • Prologue: Host Ira Glass plays a strange voicemail left by a 96-year-old surgeon about a letter that was written five decades ago. (6 minutes)
    • Act One: Producer Lilly Sullivan reports out that voicemail. (13 minutes)
    • Act Two: On his deathbed, a wealthy man in Toronto decides to make some trouble. Hundreds of babies are involved. Stephanie Foo tells the story. (25 minutes)
    • Act Three: Cyclist Mike Friedman said something to cyclist Ian Dille in the middle of a race that ate at both of them for years. Jared Marcelle tells the story. (12 minutes)

    Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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    1 hr and 6 mins

What listeners say about This American Life

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ten years on and this is still my comfort show

I've been listening to TAL for around ten years now. I've listened to hundreds of different episodes and some I've gone back to and listened to 2, 3, maybe 6 times. Every episode is different so some stories will grab you, and others won't, but there's episodes that will stick with you for life (for me, it's the Mormon guy in Utah who had to give up his kids). This is my go-to podcast, my comfort show - and I'm not even American!

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Superb

Brilliant quality. Each episode is a standalone deep dive into a topic. Often moving and funny, always interesting.

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Don't be put off by the title

Although some episodes shine more brightly than others, almost all episodes are brilliant. Usually the episodes are thematically linked with 2 or 3 parts. There are episodes that stay with you for weeks or months. Please don't be put off by the name, it's one of my favourites (alongside Radiolab, Titting off and we can do hard things.

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