This American Life show

This American Life

Summary: Official free, weekly podcast of the award-winning radio show "This American Life." First-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny, and surprising. Hosted by Ira Glass, from WBEZ Chicago Public Media, and distributed by Public Radio International. In mp3 and updated Mondays.

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  • Artist: Chicago Public Media
  • Copyright: Copyright 1995-2015 Chicago Public Media & Ira Glass

Podcasts:

 #104: Music Lessons | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM, during the 1998 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco.

 #493: Picture Show | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This week, Israeli soldiers take snapshots of Palestinian boys, one house at a time, in the middle of the night. This and other stories where getting the picture gives you the upper hand. (Web extra: Anthony's drawings.)

 #492: Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Dr. Benjamin Gilmer (left) gets a job at a rural clinic. He finds out he’s replaced someone — also named Dr. Gilmer (picture) — who went to prison after killing his own father. But the more Benjamin’s patients talk about the other Dr. Gilmer, the more confused he becomes. Everyone loved the old Dr. Gilmer. So Benjamin starts digging around, trying to understand how a good man can seemingly turn bad.

 #458: Play the Part | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Stories of people who decide to flip their personalities and do the exact opposite of what they normally do. Pictured: Louis Ortiz, Obama impersonator. He is the subject of the documentary film The Audacity of Louis Ortiz.

 #490: Trends With Benefits | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of adults are on disability. Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we've been hearing. Web Extra: here.

 #233: Starting from Scratch | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Stories of people starting over, sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to.

 #226: Reruns | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Stories of people stuck in their own personal reruns—moments or episodes that they revisit over and over again. You can watch an animated version of Robert Krulwich's Jackie O story from this episode.

 #489: No Coincidence, No Story! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

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 a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall. See more of your coincidence stories — with photos — here.

 #488: Harper High School, Part Two | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We pick up where we left off last week in our second hour from Harper High School in Chicago. We find out if a shooting in the neighborhood will derail the school's Homecoming game and dance. We hear the origin story of one of Harper's gangs. And we ask a group of teenagers: where do you get your guns? Harper has set up a donation page here.

 #487: Harper High School, Part One | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter; you can listen to Part Two here.

 #486: Valentine's Day 2013 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Love makes us do crazy things. But usually not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes to find and pursue their one true love.

 #188: Kid Logic | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Stories of kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions.

 #485: Surrogates | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This week we look at people who see themselves in others and try to live out their lives through stand-ins — including the story of what one father saw in the convicted murderer he decided to adopt. And the proxy battle over a woman’s honor that became a presidential obsession.

 #173: Three Kinds of Deception | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A story of self-deception, a story about deceiving others, and a story about accidental deception. And how one type of deception can easily turn into another.

 #483: Self-Improvement Kick | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A perfectly normal guy gets rid of everything he owns, changes his name, says goodbye to his friends — and begins walking. In the name of peace. And Honduran government officials try to heal their corrupt country by starting a perfect city, from scratch. For the new year, we bring you stories about how far some people go in hopes of a better life.

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