This American Life

212: The Other Man

This American Life — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0400

What happens when a new guy comes on the scene and changes the way everyone relates to each other?

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Prologue: Ira talks with Sarah Koenig about the first and only time a movie star came to her family's house when she was a kid. It didn't go well, for the celebrity or for her. The star was Robert Redford. He arrived and immediately stole all the attention her parents usually lavished on her, their youngest. Worse, they were nervous and strange around him, not themselves at all. Young Sarah was not pleased. Robert Redford paid the price. (6 minutes)
Act One: Davy Rothbart's mother is funny, rational, and by most measures, pretty normal. Except that she spends every day in the company of an ancient Buddhist monk named Aaron, who no one else can see. Davy talks to his brothers, father, and eventually his mom, and asks the question they've somehow never managed to discuss: do any of them actually believe he's real? (26 minutes)
Act Two: Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. had always lived in the shadow of his father's name. But just before his primary, an aide delivered strange news: a second Jesse Jackson had appeared on the same ballot — a retired truck driver with no political experience. Ira reports on whether it was a coincidence or mischief orchestrated by the Congressman's rivals. (9 minutes)
Act Three: Jonathan Goldstein and Heather O'Neill tell the true story of a man trying to wedge himself into an idyllic family of two. For the first few years, Heather's daughter Arizona was not very fond of Jonathan. He ranked nineteenth on her list of favorite people, behind the neighbor's dog and the plumber. (15 minutes)

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884: The Idiot

This American Life — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:00:00 -0400

M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times.

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Act One: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about the surprising events that prompted them to begin reporting on their own family for their new podcast, The Idiot. They play the first episode of the series. (14 minutes)
Act Two: Ira Glass and M Gessen continue to talk through the story of M’s cousin, Allen Gessen. They play more clips from the podcast, and we finally hear about the big, shocking thing that snapped their family apart. (20 minutes)
Act Three: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about Allen’s trial, and we hear a recording of his conversation with the undercover agent. (21 minutes)

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883: Call Your Parents

This American Life — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:00:00 -0400

In the early days of the radio show, Ira did a series of interviews with his parents that completely changed his relationship with them. This week, he returns to those interviews.

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Prologue: Ira talks about why four conversations reveal how his relationship with his parents changed. (4 minutes)
Act One: Ira’s mom, Shirley, is invited to lead a discussion about how to get along with your adult children. Her adult children question her expertise. (9 minutes)
Act Two: Ira asks his parents for advice on how he should build the radio show. His parents don’t hold back. (9 minutes)
Act Three: Ira talks with his dad, Barry, about Barry’s own brief and doomed career in radio. (21 minutes)
Act Four: An interview with Ira’s mom that, to this day, makes Ira’s skin crawl. (13 minutes)

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628: In the Shadow of the City

This American Life — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:00:00 -0400

Stories that take place on the edge of civilization, just out of sight.

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Prologue: Every city's got a place like this: that weird no man's land on the outskirts of town, with junk yards and landfills. Charlie Gregerson grew up near that stuff, on Chicago's far south side, and he remembers finding debris from famous Louis Sullivan masterpieces in the garbage dump after those buildings were demolished. (4 minutes)
Act One: Out for a simple pleasure cruise with two friends, Alex Zharov was planning to see Jamaica Bay in New York City. But this end-of-the-day excursion, which should have only lasted 40 minutes, turns into an out-of-control adventure that left him lost, stranded, and bleeding—all within sight of the Empire State Building. Brett Martin reports. (23 minutes)
Act Two: There is a four-mile-long bridge in Naan-jing China, famous for how many people jump off to die by suicide. In 2003, a man named Chen Sah began spending all of his weekends on the bridge, trying to single-handedly stop the jumpers. Reporter Mike Paterniti tells his story of meeting Mr. Chen. (15 minutes)
Act Three: The story of the government cracking down on smokestack emissions at a city factory, even though the residents like the emissions. We hear from Jorge Just, who explains the one, magical secret about Chicago that no one outside Chicago ever believes is true. (9 minutes)

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882: Give a Little Whistle

This American Life — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 19:00:00 -0400

Two lawyers who work for ICE step forward and lift the curtain on what is really happening inside our immigration system right now.

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Prologue: Two lawyers dive into the details of what they’ve witnessed behind the scenes in different parts of the immigration system. (2 minutes)
Act One: Former ICE attorney Ryan Schwank explains the chaos and dysfunction he observed at an ICE training academy, which led him to whistleblow to Congress two weeks ago. (12 minutes)
Act Two: A federal judge orders the government to immediately release a bunch of people from detention. Days pass, and the government doesn’t comply. So the judge calls a hearing to figure out what’s going on. The lawyer's response is not what he or anybody expected. (25 minutes)

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881: I Want What I Want

This American Life — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:00:00 -0500

People deciding to do things that most of us do NOT choose to do.

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Prologue: A new documentary called The Boys and the Bees captures a moment where a six-year-old has a very unlikely wish, and his dad decides to grant it. Host Ira Glass talks with filmmaker Arielle Knight about what happens next. (9 minutes)
Act One: John Tothill tells the story of Edward Dando, a 19th-century British glutton who would eat hundreds of oysters at a time and then run out on the check. John makes the case that we should all be more like Edward Dando. (15 minutes)
Act Two: Producer Tobin Low listens in as Evan Roberts calls up an ex for the first time in years and tries to make the case that they should have been friends all along. (16 minutes)
Act Three: Producer Zoe Chace brings us a dispatch from a courtroom in Texas this week, where on the very first day of a landmark federal trial about Antifa, the judge makes an unusual decision that no one sees coming. (15 minutes)

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880: What Is Your Emergency?

This American Life — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 18:00:00 -0500

911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.

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Prologue: A collection of 911 calls where you can hear immigration enforcement moving through different cities and leaving chaos in their wake. (9 minutes)
Act One: More 911 calls, including people on the line with dispatchers as ICE is chasing them, trying to puzzle out their next moves. (22 minutes)
Act Two: Home Depots keep getting raided over and over again in Los Angeles. And day laborers are still showing up in store parking lots to find work every day. So what’s that like? Months and months of that cat and mouse? Anayansi Diaz-Cortes went to find out. (11 minutes)
Act Three: Memo Torres tries to build an archive of every person taken by federal agents in Southern California. (11 minutes)

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879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar

This American Life — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:00:00 -0500

When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.

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Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a new government, Sharief and the other comedians of “Styria” set out on a national tour to see how far their comedy can go in this new Syria. (6 minutes)
Act One: The comedians test out risky material and get big laughs on early tour dates. It’s going smoothly until they find out that their show scheduled in the conservative city of Hama is in danger of being cancelled. (13 minutes)
Act Two: The comedians go to battle with local officials. (18 minutes)
Act Three: The comedians try everything they can think of to keep their shows from being cancelled. (20 minutes)

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The Americans Outside My Window

This American Life — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

In this special mini-episode, we hear from someone in Venezuela with a very specific take on last week's U.S. attack.

878: New Lore Drop

This American Life — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 18:00:00 -0500

People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know, and suddenly everything looks very different.

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Prologue: When Pete turned 18, his dad took him on a drive to reveal a family secret he was finally old enough to know. (11 minutes)
Act One: Sometimes, a lore drop comes when you least expect it. That happened to Jake Cornell and his grandmother. Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talked to Jake about it. (14 minutes)
Act Two: Ben Austen had a kind of new lore drop happen to him recently. But it was not the clarifying kind of lore drop, where everything suddenly makes sense — it was kind of the opposite. (29 minutes)

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877: The Making Of

This American Life — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 18:00:00 -0500

How one block in Portland, Oregon became a movie-set war zone that lots of people think is a real war zone.

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Prologue: What the movie Hearts of Darkness and right-wing influencers have in common. (8 minutes)
Act One: Producers Zoe Chace and Suzanne Gaber follow a bunch of right-wing influencers as they search for Antifa in Portland. (31 minutes)
Act Two: We meet the so-called leader of Antifa in Portland. (16 minutes)

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An Update from Ira

This American Life — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Ira Glass shares some news about This American Life

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Bonus: Nancy's Deep Cuts

This American Life — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Ira Glass talks with longtime producer Nancy Updike about the most personal stories they have put on the radio. This is a sample of the bonus episodes we regularly release to our This American Life Partners.

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A Big Announcement

This American Life — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Ira Glass has news to share about some things happening here at This American Life.

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