Afleveringen
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An episode from our show's early days: Stories about what happens when strangers are kind â and when they're not.
Prologue: Brett Leveridge was standing on the subway platform when a man walked by, stopping in front of each passenger to deliver a quiet verdict: "You're in. You're out. You can stay. Youâgotta go." Most people ignored him. But Brett found himself hoping for the thumbs up. (5 minutes)Act One: New York City locksmith Joel Kostman tells the story of an act of kindness he committed, hoping for a small reward. (13 minutes)Act Two: In 1940, Jack Geiger, at the age of fourteen, left his middle-class Jewish home and knocked on the door of a Black actor named Canada Lee. He asked Lee if he could move in with him. Lee said yes. In Lee's Harlem apartment, Geiger spent a year among many of the great figures of the Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, Adam Clayton Powell. (11 minutes)Act Three: How two next-door neighbors start treating each other badly, and how their feud becomes an all-consuming obsession. Paul Tough reports. (14 minutes)Act Four: For five weeks, a singer named Nick Drakides stood on a stoop in the East Village, singing Sinatra songs late at night to the delight of his neighbors. The cops didn't bust him; the crowds behaved. It was his gift to New York. Blake Eskin tells the story. (12 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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911 calls unlike any weâve 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 whatâs 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)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In the new year, stories of people trying a radical approach to solving their problems.
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Prologue: Ira meets two sisters who got into a fight, and then learned a lesson in turning the other cheek. (8 minutes)Act One: A hardened PI works the toughest case of his very young life. (18 minutes)Act Two: Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talks to a man who finds himself the target of vengeful crows. (8 minutes)Act Three: Comedian Josh Johnson wonders if some people shouldâve been spanked as kids. (10 minutes)Act Four: Writer Etgar Keret reads his story about a bus driver who refuses to open the doors for late passengers. (9 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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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 âStyriaâ 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. Itâs 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)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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In this special mini-episode -- an extra episode this week! -- we hear from someone in Venezuela with a very specific take on last week's U.S. attack.
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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 â it was kind of the opposite. (29 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, originally broadcast in 1996 when our show was only a year old. Including David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries" about the seasons he spent working as an elf at Macy's.
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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)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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When history comes knocking, you have to figure out what to do.
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Prologue: Brittanyâs job is to answer anonymous calls and texts from people in the military. This year, sheâs gotten more than usualâmost of them are wondering about what to do with orders theyâve been given. Or orders theyâre afraid theyâll get someday in the future. (9 minutes)Act One: Jad Abumrad tells the story of the "ideological genealogyâ of Fela Kutiâs anti-colonial politicsâhis mother. In late 1940s Nigeria, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti found herself at the center of a big, historical moment: an uprising led by thousands of women selling goods in Nigeriaâs markets. Jad goes searching for who she really was, and how she became the person who galvanized a movement when history demanded it of her. (45 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Whatâs in the box? Whatâs in the $%&ing box?!?
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Prologue: A class of second graders is handed a sealed box with a mystery object inside. They are supposed to guess what it is, but the lesson goes off the rails. (8 minutes)Act One: A man is hired along with a crew to dig a mysterious hole on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. The hole goes sixty feet down. But what are they looking for? (24 minutes)Act 2: A sparkly mystery. One woman hopes the military-industrial complex is involved. (4 minutes)Act Two: What happens when the full force of the federal government arrives on your block? (14 minutes)Act Three: A comedian finds himself trapped in an uncomfortable mystery in the backseat of a cab. (4 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Whatâs great about living in a family is that everyone sees everything differently. Also, thatâs whatâs awful about living in a family. We go behind closed doors with two families.
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Prologue: When Heather Gay started taking steps away from Mormonism, she thought it was her secret. That her daughters had no idea. Until she talked to them about their mismatched memories. (17 minutes)Act One: In every house, behind every closed door, a private drama is unfolding. In the Rivera house, the drama comes in the form of a question: should they stay or should they go? This question winds its way around the house until someone finally answers it. (44 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter, and sets out to prove it. This and other stories about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others.
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Prologue: Amy Roberts thought it was obvious that she was an adult, not a kid, and she assumed the friendly man working at the children's museum knew it too. Unfortunately, the man had Amy pegged all wrong. And by the time she figured it out, it was too late for either of them to save face. Host Ira Glass talks to Amy about the embarrassing ordeal that taught her never to assume she knows what someone else is thinking. (8 minutes)Act One: While riding in a patrol car to research a novel, crime writer Richard Price witnessed a misunderstanding that, for many people, is pretty much accepted as an upsetting fact of life. Richard Price told this story, which he describes as a tale taken from real life and dramatized, onstage at The Moth in New York. (12 minutes)Act Two: There are situations where making judgments about people based on limited information is not only accepted but required. One of those situations is open adoption, where birth mothers actually choose the adoptive parents for their child. Producer Nancy Updike talks to a pregnant woman named Kim, going through the first stage of open adoption: reading dozens of letters from prospective parents, all of whom seem utterly capable and appealing. (6 minutes)Act Three: David Rakoff picks a fight with a hit Broadway show. (6 minutes)Act Four: Shalom Auslander tells the story of the time he went on vacation, pegged the guest in the room next door as an imposter, and devoted his holiday to trying to prove it. Shalom is the author of Feh: a Memoir. (22 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Ira Glass shares some news about This American Life
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Small human plans that run into much larger obstacles.
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Prologue: Angela's dad, an accountant, made a spreadsheet to prepare for their family trip to a national park. But there are things you never think to put in a spreadsheet. (7 minutes)Act One: A young couple, excited to start a new chapter in their lives, is suddenly put on a very different trajectory. (30 minutes)Act Two: A sixteen-year-old plans out a prank, and a complete stranger from Honduras ends up in a million-dollar deal. What could go wrong? (25 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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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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In honor of Fatherâs Day, stories of sons and daughters finding out the one thing they've always wanted to know about their father. The answers aren't always what theyâd hoped for.
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Prologue: As a kid, Aric Knuth sent cassette tapes to his dad, a merchant marine gone for months at a time. Heâd leave one side blank and ask for a replyâbut none ever came. Aric talks to Ira Glass about what it was like to finally ask his dad why. (7 minutes)Act One: Lennard Davis was always told to avoid his no-good Uncle Abie. After his father died, Abie claimed he was actually Lennyâs biological father via artificial insemination. At first, the story seemed possible, then doubtful. It took Lenny more than 20 years to sort out whether it was true, and he finds out the answerâdefinitivelyâas tape is rolling. (31 minutes)Act Two: Paul Toughâs father was a mild-mannered professorâuntil he suddenly left the family to pursue a lifelong quest: making contact with extraterrestrial life. For the first time, Paul joins him and asks the questions heâs long kept to himself about his fatherâs alien pursuits. (18 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. DoppelgÀngers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. Fred Armisen co-hosts with Ira Glass.
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Prologue: Fred Armisen worked up an imitation of Ira and put it into a sketch on Saturday Night Live a couple of years ago. But when they rehearsed it with an audience, there was not a roar of recognition; it seemed like Ira might not be famous enough to be mocked on network TV. Armisen finally gets a go as Iraâs doppelgĂ€nger in our studios by co-hosting this episode. (4 minutes)Act One: Ben Calhoun tells a story of physical resemblance â not of a person, but of food. A while ago, a farmer walked through a pork processing plant in Oklahoma with a friend who managed it. He came across boxes stacked on the floor with labels that said "artificial calamari." So he asked his friend "Whatâs artificial calamari?" "Bung," his friend replied. "Hog rectum." Have you or I eaten bung dressed up as seafood? Ben investigated. (26 minutes)Act Two: For decades, the writer Alex Kotlowitz has been writing about the inner cities and the toll of violence on young people. So when he heard about a program at Drexel University where guys from the inner city get counseling for PTSD, he wondered if the effect of urban violence was comparable to the trauma that a person experiences from war. Kotlowitz talks to a military vet from Afghanistan and a guy from Philadelphia whoâs lived in some pretty bad neighborhoods to find out if they are doubles of some sort. (23 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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Conversations across a divide: People who are outside a war zone check in with family, friends, and strangers inside.
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Prologue: The Hammash familyâs group chat unfolds over texts, starting before the war. (8 minutes)Act One: When Yousef Hammash left Gaza a year ago, his sisters decided to stay behind. We hear about the toll that separation has taken on Yousef and the sister heâs closest to, Aseel. (30 minutes)Act Two: Mohammed Mhawish, a reporter who left Gaza a year ago with his family, talks to a young woman in Gaza about how she manages her hunger. Israel blockaded all food from Gaza for more than two months. (15 minutes)Coda: Chana gives a short update about Banias, a 9-year-old girl in Gaza she's been speaking with for months. (4 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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A show about people who are suddenly confronted with who they are.
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Prologue: Guest host Aviva DeKornfeld tells Ira Glass about breaking into a community pool as a kid, and the split-second decision that has haunted her ever since. (4 minutes)Act One: Some people are great in a crisis. Others, not so much. Does that mean anything about who we really are? Tobin Low investigates. (10 minutes)Act Two: Aviva DeKornfeld has the story of Leisha Hailey, who was certain she had the next million-dollar idea. (11 minutes)Act Three: Comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the questions his daughter asks him and how trying to answer them showed him surprising reflections of himself. (15 minutes)Act Four: David Kestenbaum tells the story of the suspicious disappearance of multiple shoes and a woman determined to explain it. (8 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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People immersed in chaos try to solve for what it all adds up to.
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Prologue: A scientist who is used to organizing data starts tracking scientific meetings that seem to exist only on paperâmeetings that might decide the fate of years of research. The NIH website shows one reality; the empty conference rooms tell another story. She graphs the chaos. (9 minutes)Act One: American doctors returning from Gaza compare notes and start to see a pattern. (28 minutes)Act Two: A woman watches her partner get taken in handcuffs with no explanation. Days later, she spots him in the most unexpected place. The coordinates of her life suddenly don't make sense as she navigates the bewildering map of the US immigration system. (23 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
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