Podcast

This American Life

This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.

Episodes

  • 699: Fiasco!

    Apr 05 2020

    Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses.

  • 698: The Test

    Mar 29 2020

    The coronavirus has now fully arrived in the United States. This week, stories of people trying to rise to that challenge, in some pretty extreme situations.

  • 697: Alone Together

    Mar 22 2020

    This week, as the staff creates the episode from their apartments and houses, with our host in quarantine, in this moment when everyone’s reaching out to the people they love, we put together a collection of family stories, with some timely stuff at the top.

  • 696: Low Hum of Menace

    Mar 15 2020

    Things do not seem fine at all, but it’s hard to say why.

  • 695: Everyone's a Critic

    Mar 01 2020

    People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.

  • 694: Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

    Feb 16 2020

    People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.

  • 693: Abdi the American

    Feb 09 2020

    We return to our story about Abdi Nor from 2015, with some big news about his life today. When we first broadcast the story, Abdi was a Somali refugee living in Kenya desperately trying – against long odds – to get to the United States. Then he got the luckiest break of his life: he won a lottery that puts him on a short list for a U.S. visa. But before he could cash in his golden ticket, the police started raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees.

  • 692: The Show of Delights

    Feb 02 2020

    In these dark, combative times, we attempt the most radical counterprogramming we could imagine: a show made up entirely of stories about delight.

  • 691: Gardens of Branching Paths

    Jan 12 2020

    Stories of other universes that are just like our own, but with one small difference.

  • 690: Too Close to Home

    Dec 29 2019

    For the holidays, stories of families finally addressing the thorny thing they’ve never really talked about.