This American Life

Weekly true stories told as radio narratives with humor and unexpected turns AI summary

This American Life Visit website › Society & Culture · EN · 15 episodes · latest 2026-11-08

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What it is about

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.

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.
Copyright 1995-2026 This American Life

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Latest episodes

  1. 2026-11-08 · 1 hr 0 min · Episode 901

    The doomed project of trying to translate what’s in your head into someone else’s head. (00:00:00) Prologue: A while back, Ira woke up with double vision and learned that he had cataracts. After his cataract surgery, he…

  2. 2026-11-01 · 1 hr 1 min · Episode 900

    It’s the midterms! This week’s show is about people changing their minds and not changing their minds — and the people trying to do the persuading. (00:00:00) Prologue: In Detroit, Rose Johnson tries to convince other…

  3. 2026-10-25 · 1 hr 2 min · Episode 506

    A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juárez. All have secret identities — but not all of them chose those identities for themselves.…

  4. 2026-10-18 · 1 hr 1 min · Episode 489

    We 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 make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus…

  5. 2026-10-11 · 1 hr 3 min · Episode 427

    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 international headlines. This, and another story about telling copies from…

  6. 2026-10-04 · 1 hr 2 min · Episode 899

    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 is something that captures a person’s life in a raw and complicated…

  7. 2026-09-27 · 1 hr 3 min · Episode 898

    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 daughter, Najya, in one of the most racially and economically…

  8. 2026-09-20 · 1 hr 7 min · Episode 897

    People braving the true final frontier — the gap between people born at slightly different times. (00:00:00) Prologue: Last fall, some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify. They made no sense to…

  9. 2026-09-13 · 1 hr 7 min · Episode 646

    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. (00:00:00) Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks to a guy about a crazy experiment he…

  10. 2026-09-06 · 1 hr 1 min · Episode 449

    As the new school year begins, we have stories from all over the country about people lurching their way through their middle school years – the years when you're figuring out so much. We go to school dances,…

Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.

Publisher details

Oldest episode in feed
10/2024 · over 2 years
Typical length
50 min

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