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

  • 689: Digging Up the Bones

    Dec 08 2019

    There's a lot that can be gained from unearthing the past -- learning about oneself, learning about others. But, it doesn't always go how you'd expect.

  • 252: Poultry Slam 2003

    Dec 01 2019

    During the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's - the highest turkey consumption period of the year - we bring you an annual This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds, real and imagined, and their mysterious hold over us. 

  • 291: Reunited (And It Feels So Good)

    Nov 24 2019

    Stories about getting back together with your parent, your spouse, your ... Brahman bull. And how it never goes the way you think it's going to.

  • 688: The Out Crowd

    Nov 17 2019

    Reports from the frontlines of the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" asylum policy. We hear from asylum seekers waiting across the border in Mexico, in a makeshift refugee camp,  and from the officers who sent them there to wait in the first place. 

  • 687: Small Things Considered

    Nov 10 2019

    Stories about being little. Secret writings in tiny letters. The power of a very small number. And a medication that's supposed to cure shortness. 

  • 686: Umbrellas Up

    Oct 20 2019

    For over 100 days now, protesters in Hong Kong have taken to the streets every weekend. What it’s like to live through that.

  • 685: We Come From Small Places

    Oct 13 2019

    The staff goes to one of the biggest parties in New York City, the Labor Day Carnival and the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn.

  • 684: Burn It Down

    Sep 29 2019

    Stories of people who decide the only way forward — for real change — is to burn everything to the ground.

  • 683: Beer Summit

    Sep 22 2019

    Two people, sitting down over a beer, hashing out their differences and understanding where the other guy is coming from. Hard to imagine these days, right? It's so rare right now that someone is curious enough to actually see the other person's point of view. This week on the show, beer summits. Including going behind the scenes of the most famous one ever.

  • 682: Ten Sessions

    Aug 25 2019

    What if someone told you about a type of therapy that could help you work through unhealed trauma in just ten sessions? Some people knock through it in two weeks. Jaime Lowe tried the therapy—and recorded it.