This American Life
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.
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Recent Episodes
900: Talk Me Into It
Nov 02, 2026It’s the midterms! This week’s show is about people changing their minds and not changing their minds — and the people trying to do the persuading. Start a Life Partners free trial to watch our new...
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This episode explores the challenges of political persuasion as the midterm elections approach. Through three compelling stories, the show examines how people attempt to change voters' minds in different contexts: a volunteer fighting prejudice to support a Muslim candidate in Detroit, a complex scheme to manipulate Montana's Senate race that backfired spectacularly, and a Republican organizer in Pennsylvania who believes polls are wrong about Hispanic voter support for Trump.
- Fighting Prejudice for a Muslim Candidate in Detroit
- The Ben Franklin Close: Classic Sales Manipulation
506: Secret Identity
Oct 26, 2026A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juárez. All have secret identities — but not all of them chose those identiti...
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This American Life explores secret identities in various forms - from a talking Paul Bunyan statue operated from inside, to a young man convinced by delusions that he worked for the CIA, to a high school mascot who transforms when she puts on her tiger costume, and finally to a mysterious vigilante in Juarez targeting bus drivers.
- Inside Paul Bunyan: The Man Behind the Mask
- The Fake CIA Agent: Delusional Disorder and Plausible Delusions
489: No Coincidence, No Story!
Oct 19, 2026We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones that we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encoun...
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This American Life presents a special episode dedicated entirely to coincidence stories, featuring remarkable tales of unexpected connections, chance encounters, and seemingly impossible events. Guest host Sarah Koenig explores over 1,300 listener submissions, examining how coincidences shape our lives, challenge our skepticism, and make us wonder about fate, meaning, and the nature of probability itself.
- Introduction: The Poopa Troopers Miracle
- Grandma in the Background
427: Original Recipe
Oct 12, 2026We discover what we believe might be the original recipe for Coca-Cola…and share it with you! When this episode first aired in 2011, it made international headlines. This, and another story about tell...
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This American Life investigates one of the world's most famous trade secrets: the original recipe for Coca-Cola. After discovering what appears to be the authentic formula in a 1979 newspaper clipping that matches a recipe in Coca-Cola's own archives, the team attempts to recreate the iconic beverage and conduct blind taste tests. The episode also features a cautionary tale about authentication in the world of rare documents, when a dealer nearly loses everything after being deceived by forged JFK-Marilyn Monroe papers.
- The Secret Formula Discovery
- The Recipe Book's Origins
899: Reaching Out
Oct 05, 2026Sayre Quevedo’s invented a way to do a podcast that feels completely new. He’s been recording nearly all his conversations for years, and the result is something that captures a person’s life in a raw...
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In this deeply personal documentary series, Sayre Cavado chronicles his and his twin brother Connor's decision to find and meet their biological father after 28 years. Through extensive recordings of personal conversations, phone calls, and daily life, the story captures the complex emotions, sibling dynamics, and mounting tension as they attempt to make contact with a man who has never acknowledged their existence, all while living just minutes away from his Los Angeles barbershop.
- The Decision to Search for Their Birth Father
- Discovery: DNA Test Reveals Father's Identity and Proximity
898: An Argument
Sep 26, 2026Nikole Hannah-Jones made an argument 10 years ago in The New York Times Magazine that became famous. She wrote about choosing a public school for her daughter, Najya, in one of the most racially and e...
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Nicole Hannah-Jones, a prominent journalist and Howard University professor, confronts the decade-long consequences of her controversial educational choice for her daughter Nadja. Ten years after publishing a widely-influential essay about choosing a segregated, high-poverty public school for her daughter, Nicole reunites with producer Hanna Joffe-Walt to examine how that decision actually played out. The episode features raw, honest conversations between Nicole and her now-16-year-old daughter, who has very different views about their school experience. What emerges is a powerful exploration of sacrifice, idealism, parental choices, and the persistent inequality in American public education.
- The Original Choice and Its Impact
- Elementary School: The Foundation Years
897: Intergenerational Space Travel
Sep 21, 2026People braving the true final frontier — the gap between people born at slightly different times. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. (00:00:00) Prolog...
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This episode explores how people navigate the vast distances between generations, trying to understand each other across age divides. The show features stories of a wedding toast that haunted a family for decades, middle schoolers using podcast comments as their secret chat room, a man returning to his teenage dream job to find how it's changed, and a mother reconsidering how she does her daughter's hair after talking with her own mother.
- Middle Schoolers Hijack NPR Podcast Comments as Their Secret Chat Room
- A Daughter Confronts Her Mother About a Wedding Speech That Haunted Them for 30 Years
646: The Secret of My Death
Sep 14, 2026Cryptic messages on a cell phone and a teeter-totter at a construction site: these are clues people found, trying to make sense of a death. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for ou...
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This American Life presents three stories about people trying to understand deaths through limited evidence and emotional detective work. The episode explores how we piece together meaning from what's left behind - texts, memories, and eulogies - when someone dies, and how those fragments often reveal unexpected truths about both the deceased and those left grieving.
- The Brick That Almost Was: A Childhood Near-Death Experience
- Dear Dealer: A Sister's Letter to Her Sister's Killer
449: Middle School
Sep 07, 2026As the new school year begins, we have stories today from all over the country about people lurching their way through their middle school years – the years when you're figuring out so, so much. We go...
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This episode of This American Life explores the unique challenges, social dynamics, and developmental changes that define the middle school years. Through stories from across the country, the show examines why these years are so formative yet difficult, featuring perspectives from students navigating friendship drama, making new connections at dances, coping with major life transitions, and teachers finding creative ways to help struggling kids.
- Understanding the Middle School Experience
- The Developmental Science of Middle School
896: I Know What You Need
Aug 31, 2026Moments when it seems obvious what to do for someone else, so of course you jump in and try to help — and what happens after that. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premiu...
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This episode explores the complex dynamics of helping others when you think you know what they need. It begins with a heartwarming story about a generous family who helps a waitress confronting customers who walked out on their check. The show then shifts to more complicated scenarios: adult children using AI girlfriends and technology to manage their father in memory care, chatbots desperately trying to escape an automated loop, and school nurses successfully containing a measles outbreak through empathetic communication rather than confrontation.
- The Generous Strangers Who Helped a Waitress Get Justice
- Managing a Parent with Dementia Through Technology and Deception
206: Somewhere in the Arabian Sea
Aug 24, 2026The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has been in the news over an extra-long deployment that's taking a toll on its crew. Back in 2002, we explored life aboard another aircraft carrier, the USS Jo...
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This American Life episode from early 2002 documents life aboard the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. Producers Ira Glass, Alex Bloomberg, and Wendy Dorr spent time with the 5,000+ crew members, most of whom never see combat but work grueling 12-hour shifts doing everything from filling vending machines to launching fighter jets. The episode captures the unique culture of living on a floating city at war - the monotony, danger, camaraderie, and surprising mundanity of military life at sea.
- The Everyday Reality of War: Support Jobs and Daily Life
- Joining Up: Jessica Phillips' Journey from Barnes & Noble to Boot Camp
895: Label Maker!
Aug 17, 2026Labels are powerful. They can distill you down to a single word. They can get stuck on you without your permission. And sometimes, when they get taken away, they can upend your entire life. On this ep...
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This episode explores how labels shape our lives and identities, from immigration status to medical diagnoses to how we remember loved ones. The show features three stories: a Haitian nursing assistant facing the end of her temporary work permit, a comedian's decade-long quest for an autism diagnosis, and a writer reflecting on how to describe his late wife beyond what made her different.
- Introduction: The Power of Not Labeling
- Temporary Protected Status: Marie's Last Days at Work
443: Amusement Park
Aug 10, 2026We head to some of the happiest places on earth: amusement parks! Ira Glass takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, where the young staff – coached by a funny, fun-loving boss just...
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This American Life takes listeners on a delightful journey through amusement parks across America, from behind-the-scenes operations to personal stories of summer jobs, romance, and misadventure. The episode showcases the unique culture of amusement parks through the eyes of dedicated employees, nostalgic visitors, and the colorful characters who make these places come alive. From an incredibly passionate games manager to carnival workers and human paintball targets, the show reveals the surprisingly complex world that exists behind the cotton candy and roller coasters.
- Cole Lindbergh: The Amusement Park Lifer
- The Sweet 16 Tournament and Competition Day
894: I Couldn't Help but Notice
Aug 02, 2026People dealing with new, glaring, massive changes happening right where they live. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: Rick Cole, a city coun...
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This episode features stories of people who witness disturbing changes around them and refuse to stay silent. In Act One, a city council member in Pasadena confronts a military exercise conducted without proper public notice. Act Two follows a birth emergency in rural Maine after a hospital closes its labor and delivery unit, requiring heroic efforts from medical staff. Act Three presents a Russian filmmaker documenting the rollout of propaganda in his school after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, showing what it's like to watch authoritarianism take hold in real time.
- Military Exercises in Pasadena Without Warning
- Emergency Birth After Hospital Closure in Rural Maine
893: Testosterone
Jul 26, 2026Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered everyone over 30 in the military to have their testosterone tested. That inspired us to rerun this classic episode where everyone at This American Life teste...
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This American Life reruns a 2002 episode about testosterone after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered military personnel over 30 to test their testosterone levels. The episode explores how testosterone affects personality, behavior, and identity through personal stories, workplace testing among staff members, and interviews with people who've experienced dramatic changes in testosterone levels. The show examines whether hormones determine who we are or if we have more agency than we think.
- Why This Show Matters: A Teenager's Encounter with Feminist Literature
- Living Without Testosterone: Total Loss of Desire
892: Trapped on a Bus
Jul 19, 2026People on journeys they did not intend! Or agree to! Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: A woman on a nighttime bus ride wakes up to discover...
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This episode explores situations where people find themselves trapped in circumstances beyond their control, from a rogue bus driver to international espionage, mental health struggles, Cuba's energy crisis, and an infamous tree-felling crime. Each story examines how people respond when normal rules and expectations completely break down.
- The Rogue Bus Driver
- Living with Bipolar Disorder and the Spy Next Door
891: The Test Case
Jul 12, 2026Some people in this country think Antifa is a dangerous domestic terror organization. Some think that’s a complete myth. This week we go to the federal trial where, for the first time, the government...
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This episode covers the first-of-its-kind terrorism trial of alleged Antifa members following a July 4th, 2024 protest at a Texas ICE detention center. Nine defendants faced material support to terrorism charges after a police officer was shot during a protest involving fireworks and demonstrators in black clothing. The trial became a test case for the Trump administration's claims that Antifa is an organized domestic terror group, though what was actually proven in court differs significantly from the government's broader narrative.
- The Incident at Prairieland Detention Center
- The Government's Antifa Narrative
890: Maximal Americanness
Jul 05, 2026On this country's 250th birthday, we bring you stories about the most American people, places, objects, and social norms that make this country what it is. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners t...
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128: Four Corners
Jun 28, 2026We try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners, in four different states across the nation. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for o...
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A rerun from 1999 examining American life through stories centered around four different street corners across the nation, exploring themes of history, love, community, and identity. The episode weaves together intimate narratives that reveal what it means to be American, from the economic origins of Chicago to personal relationships, cemetery friendships, and the immigrant experience.
- Chicago's Corner: The History of America at Michigan and Wacker
- Louisville's Corner: The Geography of Unspoken Love
889: There’s Something About Hail Mary
Jun 21, 2026We spend an hour in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, behind and desperate, with people trying any damn thing they can think of. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our...
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This episode explores desperate situations where people resort to extreme measures—from experimental medical treatments to last-minute legal appeals to messages thrown over prison walls. The three stories examine what happens when conventional options fail and people must attempt seemingly impossible Hail Mary passes, including a woman's dangerous quest to cure mysterious symptoms, death row lawyers racing against an execution deadline, and immigration detainees using bottles to communicate with the outside world.
- Ora's Medical Mystery and Dangerous Treatment
- Introduction to The Last 12 Weeks: A Death Row Case