This American Life

887: Two Is One, One Is None!

This American Life — Sun, 17 May 2026 18:00:00 -0400

One family faces the Trump administration’s ban on trans people serving in the military, and responds with a surprising secret weapon.

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Prologue: Geirid and Chrissy are extreme planners. But about a year ago, they were confronted with a situation that even they had no idea how to plan for. (4 minutes)
Act One: Geirid and Chrissy make an “in case of emergency, break glass” spreadsheet and get some big news. (14 minutes)
Act Two: Geirid and Chrissy have less than a month to make a life-changing decision. The government gives them two options, and they try to find a third. (21 minutes)
Act Three: A short story from Rachel Khong: Two people have a very consequential choice to make, given to them by God. (15 minutes)

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318: With Great Power

This American Life — Sun, 10 May 2026 18:00:00 -0400

People who end up with far more power than they bargained for, and everything that comes with it.

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Prologue: Ira tells the story of two friends who had this incredible power to save someone. And with that great power came great responsibility. (4 minutes)
Act One: Alex Kotlowitz reports on a woman with the power to change two people's lives — and at the height of her power, she doesn't even know she has it. (25 minutes)
Act Two: Ira Glass talks with a mother and daughter who spent years watching their neighbor do things they found shocking and felt powerless to stop. Then, suddenly, they get the power to decisively change things permanently. And they have to decide if they will. (14 minutes)
Act Three: When you're powerless, you spend a lot of time thinking about the people above you — what they want, why they do what they do, whether they'll ever come through. Shalom Auslander has a story about that relationship. (11 minutes)

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886: Blackout

This American Life — Sun, 03 May 2026 18:00:00 -0400

Since the war began in Iran, we've heard very little from people inside the country — and there's a reason for that. The entire country has been under an internet blackout. We worked with reporters Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour to get voice memos out of the country. Even though it was dangerous and difficult, people wanted to be heard.

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Prologue: Shirin's parents suddenly disappear into the blackout. (5 minutes)
Act One: It’s a war and a blackout. People want to talk about both. (17 minutes)
Act Two: What happened before America and Israel went to war with Iran. (9 minutes)
Act Three: Iranians have many opinions about the war, and about each other. (12 minutes)
Act Four: What happened inside Iran the night President Trump threatened that "a whole civilization could die." And a clue about where the internet blackout is headed. (19 minutes)

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Ira (Reluctantly) Gives a Graduation Speech

This American Life — Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Ira always hated commencement speeches. Then he felt like he had to give this one.

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466: Blackjack

This American Life — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0400

The casino game everyone thinks they can beat.

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Prologue: Host Ira Glass and producer Robyn Semien get a blackjack lesson from Andy Bloch, who played for the MIT blackjack team. He teaches them the basics of card-counting, the technique that gives players an advantage against the house — enough of an advantage that most casinos will ask you to leave if they catch you doing it. (9 minutes)
Act One: Jack Hitt tells the story of the Christian card-counting team featured in the documentary Holy Rollers, and why they see no contradiction in being devout Christians who spend their days in casinos. (18 minutes)
Act 2: Ira and Robyn go to the casino to try out their newfound card-counting skills. (5 minutes)
Act Two: Producer Sarah Koenig tells the story of a woman who sued the casino where she lost her inheritance, saying that it was to blame, not her. (25 minutes)

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885: Bless This Mess

This American Life — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0400

At a time when the U.S. government is trying to make American history tidier, we try to learn from the mess. Including the untold, messy story of Paul and Essie Robeson.

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Prologue: Guest Host Emanuele Berry talks to Nichole Hill about the Black movie characters Nichole was curious about as a child. (7 minutes)
Act One: A giant of the Harlem Renaissance, Paul Robeson was the most famous American of his day. Until he wasn’t. Nichole Hill tells the messy, complicated story of Paul and his wife, Essie Robeson. (38 minutes)
Act Two: In 1865, a formerly enslaved man named Jourdan Anderson received a letter from his former enslaver, asking Jourdan to return to the plantation and work. Actor Laurence Fishburne reads Jourdan’s response.

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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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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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New Lore Drop

This American Life — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

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

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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