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January 14, 2021
People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at 9:00 am on KRCB-FM Radio 91 / Streaming @ norcalpublicmedia.org / On-demand with the FREE KRCB…
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January 08, 2021
In life, in death, and in the bedroom, there's always someone whose job it is to decide if you measure up. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at 9:00 am on KRCB-FM Radio 91 / Streaming @ norcalpublicmedia.org / On-demand with the FREE KRCB…
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January 01, 2021
In these dark, combative times, we attempt the most radical counterprogramming we could imagine: a show made up entirely of stories about delight. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at 9:00 am on KRCB-FM Radio 91 / Streaming @…
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December 25, 2020
This holiday season, we bring you a show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at 9:00 am on KRCB-FM Radio 91 / Streaming @…
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December 18, 2020
Stories of people trying to chip away at huge problems — a massive wildland fire, a raging pandemic — where no matter how hard they work, the problem keeps crashing down on them. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at 9:00 am on KRCB-FM Radio…
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December 11, 2020
To celebrate our 25th year on the air, we spend an hour with people who also turned 25 this year. Talking with them about their dreams, fears, and anxieties, large and small. And how they're making their way through the world right now. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm;…
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Dec 04, 2020
Just a few years before he got the internship at NPR that started him in radio, our host Ira Glass had another career. He performed magic at…
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Dec 04, 2020
Hear an excerpt from a story from 1998, during the early days of the show. It’s about a teenager who’s doing drugs and selling drugs and realizes his…
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Nov 27, 2020
The way we eat has been changing— we go out less, we order in more, we cook more. So for this week, right after Thanksgiving, we bring you stories of…
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Nov 20, 2020
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…
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Nov 13, 2020
This week, stories of people who have unexpected changes of heart on This American Life. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm;…
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Nov 06, 2020
Stories in the wake of this week’s historic election. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday morning at…
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Oct 30, 2020
One week before the election, we have stories about people trying to live in the unreality that defines this moment. Election officials combat a…
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Oct 23, 2020
Stories of people who unexpectedly find themselves stuck in small spaces—an elevator, an attic, an orchestra pit—and try to make sense of their new…
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Oct 16, 2020
Stories about people who are worried (or not worried enough!) about what's hurtling unstoppably towards them. This American Life is heard every…
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Oct 09, 2020
People tossing words out into the world impulsively, to ignite and burn over decades. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm;…
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Oct 02, 2020
Both inside and outside the justice system, there sometimes stares at us the question: Are your peers really the best people to decide your fate?…
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Sep 25, 2020
Stories of people who are tied together, but imagine radically different futures. In one case, a movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim…
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Sep 11, 2020
At a time when going to the movies is mostly out of the question, we bring the movies to you. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00…
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Sep 04, 2020
Writer Sarah Vowell and her twin sister re-trace the "Trail of Tears" — the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land by…
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Aug 27, 2020
We hear from students, educators, and parents across the country navigating the chaos of starting a new school year in the middle of a pandemic. This…
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Aug 20, 2020
When you’re the only one who can see something, sometimes it feels like you’re in on a special secret. The hard part is getting anyone to believe…
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Aug 14, 2020
Beaches are open in some places, but if you're worried about whether it's safe to go, we'll bring the beach to you this week. First, the story of one…
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Aug 07, 2020
From the moment we wake up in the morning there are a trillion rules — big and little — governing our lives. But sometimes, we encounter one we just…
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Jul 30, 2020
Cole, the son of one of Ira’s staffers, rides the school bus for the first time. You’ll hear his unbridled glee! Ira plays a story that exemplifies…
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Jul 24, 2020
This week, we celebrate pre-coronavirus summertime fun: at amusement parks! Ira Glass takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City,…
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Jul 17, 2020
This week on This American Life: Sandy moves out of the city, wanting a life away from other people. The guide for their new life is their Uncle Bob.…
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Jul 10, 2020
As China's new national security law tightens its control over Hong Kong this week, we return to our episode about last fall's anti-government…
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Jul 03, 2020
We spend a month at a Jeep dealership on Long Island as they try to make their monthly sales goal: 129 cars. If they make it, they'll get a huge…
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Jun 26, 2020
The number of Covid-19 patients is dropping and Michigan has started opening up. But it’s still been intensely difficult for the staff in the ICU at…
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Jun 19, 2020
This week on This American Life: In the wake of George Floyd, people everywhere are demanding that police departments change not just their rules,…
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Jun 05, 2020
In this moment of sorrow, protest, and rage in the wake of George Floyd’s death, we offer this as a break from the dreadful present: our show about…
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May 29, 2020
This week on This American Life: Lissa Yellow Bird searches for missing people. She's great at it. But then, her niece goes missing. For the first…
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May 22, 2020
This week on This American Life: Remember the days when you could go to a bar or barbershop and watch sports…. with other people? Sports stories from…
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May 15, 2020
Reports from the frontlines of the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" asylum policy. We hear from asylum seekers waiting across the border in…
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May 08, 2020
This week on This American Life, during a time when everyone feels like they’re living in a holding pattern, stories of people stuck in some unusual…
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May 01, 2020
While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town, destroying about a third of it. When…
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Apr 17, 2020
This week on This American Life: In China, Uyghur families are being cut off from the outside world, put into reeducation centers, forced labor, and…
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Apr 10, 2020
Stories about people shading in the whole picture, when before there was only a sketch. This week on This American Life: In this moment when social…
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Apr 03, 2020
This week, stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the…
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Mar 27, 2020
This week on This American Life: A husband and wife are quarantined in their tiny 500-square-foot apartment, both very sick with coronavirus. Also…
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Mar 20, 2020
This week on "This American Life"… the staff creates the episode from their apartments and houses, with host Ira Glass in quarantine. In this moment…
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Mar 13, 2020
Things do not seem fine at all, but it’s hard to say why. This week on This American Life: Kristen, a single mom, decides to secretly record her home…
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Mar 06, 2020
Some information is so big and so complicated that it seems impossible to talk to kids about. This week, stories about the vague and not-so-vague…
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Feb 14, 2020
This week on This American Life: Growing up in Russia as the only black person in her town, Yelena always dreamed about who she might date if she…
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Feb 07, 2020
We return to our story about Abdi Nor from 2015, with some news about his life today. When we first broadcast the story, Abdi was a Somali refugee…
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Jan 31, 2020
This week on This American Life: In these dark, combative times, an attempt at radical counterprogramming. It’s a show made up entirely of delight.…
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Jan 24, 2020
A different kind of #MeToo story, about several women who worked for the same man. They tell us not only about their troubling encounters with him,…
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Jan 17, 2020
This week on This American Life: Imagine finding a new hobby and realizing that to do this hobby right, according to the ways of the masters, you…
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Jan 10, 2020
No this is not a reference to "The Good Place." Stories of people contemplating other universes much like our own, with one small but important…
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Jan 03, 2020
Intimate and personal dispatches from two very different battlefields: A small town in the Syrian war. And the U.S. opioid epidemic. Each came from a…
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Dec 26, 2019
This week on This American Life: When we go home to our families, sometimes we buy them devices. It’s a good distraction. We can watch them arguing…
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Dec 19, 2019
No Christmas can ever be as good as the ones you had as a kid. But this week we go all in and bring the joy, the spontaneity, the sense that anything…
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Dec 12, 2019
This week on This American Life: In 1980's New York City, rent is rising: it seems out of control, and residents struggle to keep up. So Jack Hitt…
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Dec 05, 2019
This week on This American Life, the country of Greece has this problem. Their cemeteries are too crowded. What that means is that three or four…
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Nov 29, 2019
During the period of the year with the highest turkey consumption, we bring you a This American Life tradition: Stories of turkeys, chickens, geese,…
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Nov 22, 2019
Hear the story of a couple who were unhappy for 27 years. He had a temper, she never really loved him. And then they split up. Divorced. And then,…
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Nov 15, 2019
This week on This American Life: The nine-year-old boy who’s like the king of the tent city that sits right across the Mexican border in Matamoros…
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Nov 07, 2019
This week on This American Life: Dylan had always been small for his age. So his parents got him human growth hormone. His dad knows how it looks. ……
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Nov 01, 2019
Stories of people who are lost, histories that are lost, and things that are lost. This show was recorded onstage in front of audiences on a…
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Oct 18, 2019
This week on This American Life: Catherine’s packing her knapsack to take to a protest in Hong Kong. She brings water, first aid kit, and… makeup, so…
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Oct 11, 2019
We go inside one of the biggest parties in New York City. People come from all over the world. There are masks, feathers, rivalries that go back…
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Oct 04, 2019
A story about doubt: how it germinated, spread, and eventually took hold of an entire community, with terrible consequences. A collaboration with The…
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Sep 27, 2019
Stories of people who decide the only way forward, for real change, is to burn everything to the ground. We go to Amsterdam where the boss of the…
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Sep 20, 2019
OK, picture this: A local Democrat’s club that’s also a bar, filled with Democrats, watching a Trump rally on TV … when all of a sudden, they spot…
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Sep 13, 2019
Stories of people breaking the rules fully, completely and with no bad consequences. Some justify this by saying they’re doing it for others, or for…
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Sep 06, 2019
This week on This American Life: Starlee and Robin were getting to be friends. You know how it is. People are busy, so little time to talk, explain…
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Aug 30, 2019
Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. In this show, we'll bring you stories of people who are just passing…
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Aug 23, 2019
This week on This American Life: When people go into therapy, everybody knows it can take years, right? You talk and you talk, and you talk. But…
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Aug 16, 2019
This week on This American Life. The doctor who created Frankenstein thought he had things under control. So did the guy in the movie “Jurassic Park”…
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Aug 09, 2019
A kidnapping victim in Colombia spends his nights listening to a radio station that plays messages from the families of the kidnapped. That and other…
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Aug 02, 2019
Exactly how incompetent you are. What your ex’s best friend really thinks of you. The approximate time that you will die. Some things in life are…
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Jul 26, 2019
Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful — whether in a survival manual, a song lyric, or a slur. This American Life is heard…
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Jul 19, 2019
Many Americans have dreamy and romantic ideas about Paris, notions which probably trace back to the 1920s vision of Paris created by the expatriate…
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Jul 12, 2019
People go on missions to save young girls from danger. But sometimes they get so caught up in the mission that it overshadows the girl herself. This…
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Jul 05, 2019
This country is crawling in presidential candidates right now and they're bumping into each other in Des Moines and yelling over each other in Miami.…
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Jun 28, 2019
It's the late 1960s, and in the new technology of cryonics, a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death. But…
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Jun 20, 2019
Stories about people who accidentally bump into unsettling facts of history in settings meant to teach them history. What they end up learning is…
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Jun 13, 2019
People coming face to face with unfiltered versions of themselves and what that tells them about who they are. Growing up, there was always one thing…
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Jun 06, 2019
Credit: Matt ChaseThis week on This American Life: LaDonna works security at an airport, a job she really loved, except for her supervisors. They did…
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May 30, 2019
This week on This American Life: In high school, Gary Gulman didn’t want to be a football player. Then he got this phone call from two coaches who…
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May 22, 2019
Our entire show this week is one long story, sort of a real-life Hardy Boys mystery.
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May 01, 2019
The This American Life producers document one day in a Chicago diner called The Golden Apple, starting at 5 a.m.
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Apr 24, 2019
Stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus.
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Apr 10, 2019
The way people talk about being fat is shifting. With one-third of Americans classified as overweight, and another third as obese, and almost none of…
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Apr 03, 2019
Stories of very small injustices and also one very big one. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday…
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Mar 27, 2019
The enduring appeal of connecting dots that probably should not be connected. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating…
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Mar 20, 2019
A man in 1717 has a midlife crisis, and decides he's going to leave his family and go be a pirate.
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Mar 13, 2019
Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every…
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Mar 06, 2019
Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them.
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Feb 27, 2019
The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee may have to fight to protect Mueller's investigation and make his report public.
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Feb 20, 2019
In Schenectady, New York, a school maintenance man named Steve Raucci works his way up the ranks for 30 years, until finally, he's in charge of the…
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Feb 13, 2019
This week, people tossing words out into the world impulsively. And how they ignite and burn.
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Feb 06, 2019
This week on This American Life: Kurt and his girlfriend had been together for 13 years.
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Jan 30, 2019
There's a community radio station in a small town in Syria. But in the current war, this town is run by extremist Islamists who decide that it is…
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Jan 17, 2019
Satan! In his many surprising manifestations, all around us. This American Life is heard every Friday night at 7:00 pm; repeating every Saturday…
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Jan 10, 2019
We revisit those moments of calm before the storm when things could have gone very differently, but instead, they went to hell.
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Jan 03, 2019
Stories from border walls around the world, where one place ends and another begins.
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Dec 27, 2018
Libraries aren't just for books. They're often spaces that transform into what you need them to be: a classroom, a cyber café, a place to find…
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Dec 20, 2018
Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, originally broadcast in 1996 when our show was only one year old.
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Dec 13, 2018
This week, the story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.
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Dec 06, 2018
This week on This American Life: There's a lawsuit over whether Harvard admissions discriminates against Asian students.
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Nov 29, 2018
Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it…
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Nov 22, 2018
Dr. Benjamin Gilmer gets a job at a rural clinic. He finds out he’s replaced someone — also named Dr.
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Nov 15, 2018
Stories of people who believe there is always a way and also those who don’t.
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Nov 08, 2018
Women are often told they have the wrong idea about their own experience.
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Nov 01, 2018
Stories of people who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else does.
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Sep 27, 2018
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make…
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Sep 20, 2018
A bunch of teenagers go missing from a town in Long Island. For months, the police treat them as runaways, ignoring the kids' parents, who keep…
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Sep 13, 2018
Yes, youʼve heard about the family separations. Youʼve heard about the travel ban.
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Sep 06, 2018
Stories about one person single-handedly taking charge of a situation gone wrong—including one man's mission to rescue two kids who were kidnapped by…
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Aug 29, 2018
Students all over are starting college this month, and some of them still have a nagging question: what, exactly, got me in? An admissions officer…
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Aug 23, 2018
An athlete prepares to leave home for a place he's never seen. An astronaut goes where no one has gone.
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Aug 16, 2018
We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No).
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Aug 09, 2018
A flute player breaks into a British museum and makes off with a million dollars worth of dead birds.
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Aug 02, 2018
This week on This American Life: Sometimes criminals return to the scene of their misdeeds to try to make things right, to try to undo the past.
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Jul 26, 2018
Just a few years before he got the internship at NPR that started him in radio, our host Ira Glass had another career.
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Jul 12, 2018
A young preacher opens a new church. A new restaurant reopens old wounds. This week, stories of people trying to build something that will last.
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Jul 05, 2018
If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, why haven’t we heard from the extraterrestrials yet? Producer David Kestenbaum explains The…
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Jun 28, 2018
Andrew Collins was a crooked cop. Over 60 cases of his were overturned when the truth came out.
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Jun 21, 2018
Democrats are pretty united in how they feel about President Trump. But they’re wrestling with each other over what their party is, and what it…
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Jun 14, 2018
A story about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American.
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Jun 07, 2018
Stories about people trying to learn something when no one is clear what the lesson is supposed to be.
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May 31, 2018
Molly FitzSimons tells the story of her father starting over. After 25 years in the same zip code, as an executive in the same company, he moved to…
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May 17, 2018
Cryptic messages on a cell phone. A teeter totter at a construction site.
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May 10, 2018
Writer Starlee Kine on what makes the perfect break-up song and whether really sad music can actually make you feel better.
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May 03, 2018
This week on This American Life: Conservative students don't feel like their ideas are welcome on campus.
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Apr 19, 2018
The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, a renowned evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who cast aside the idea of hell, and with it everything he'd…
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Apr 11, 2018
It’s one thing to weigh pros and cons. But what about when all you have is con and con? This week, people choose between two bad options, when no…
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