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.
116 episodes transcribedWe 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...
We 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 internati...
Sayre 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 i...
Nikole 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...
People braving the true final frontier — the gap between people born at slightly different times. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up...
Cryptic 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 thi...
As 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...
Moments 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 thisamerica...
The 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 explore...
Labels 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...
We 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 youn...
People dealing with new, glaring, massive changes happening right where they live. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium...
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered everyone over 30 in the military to have their testosterone tested. That inspired us to rerun this classic...
People on journeys they did not intend! Or agree to! Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: A woma...
Some 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 feder...
On this country's 250th birthday, we bring you stories about the most American people, places, objects, and social norms that make this country what i...
We 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 th...
We 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 this...
It’s the late 1960s, and a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death with the new science of cryonics. But free...
Regular people trapped inside Greek myths. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: When a mysteriou...
