This American Life

872: Winners

This American Life — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 17:00:00 -0500

America loves winners—now more than ever. But how do you get to a win in 2025 America? We get up close and follow someone trying to build a big win for herself and thousands of others like her.

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Prologue: Ira talks to producer Diane Wu about an informal survey she’s done with the staff of This American Life about a phrase Ira says a lot that includes the word “winners.” (8 minutes)
Act One: Two people see one of President Trump’s first executive orders and get excited, and then get to work. (30 minutes)
Act Two: We follow the progress of one woman as she builds up, from scratch, a whole movement based on one of Trump’s executive orders. (19 minutes)

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871: The Thing About Things

This American Life — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 18:00:00 -0400

Three stories about the strange power inanimate objects can hold over us.

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Prologue: Nunzio gets caught in a kind of servile relationship—with a scooter. (8 minutes)
Act One: Ted was six when he first picked up a rock from the Petrified Forest National Park. Nearly 50 years later, he really wishes he hadn’t. Aviva DeKornfeld talked to him. (15 minutes)
Act Two: Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein leaps in to help a family, who are not entirely sure they want or need his help, get rid of their stuff. (31 minutes)

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844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

This American Life — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 18:00:00 -0400

Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison.

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Prologue: Henry Dee has been locked up for most of his life, nearly 50 years. Now, he’s up for parole. Reporter Ben Austen tells the story. (19 minutes)
Part 1: The parole board members puzzle through the pros and cons of releasing Henry Dee from prison and cast their votes. (26 minutes)
Part 2: Reporter Ben Austen continues the story. (8 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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870: My Other Self

This American Life — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 18:00:00 -0400

What happens when people create alternate versions of themselves and release them into the wild?

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Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks about a recent experience being interviewed and the realization that he was being asked about another version of himself. (4 minutes)
Act One: Reporter Evan Ratliff creates an AI version of himself and then sets it loose on the world. This story was adapted from Evan's podcast, Shell Game. (43 minutes)
Act Two: Emmanuel Dzotsi explores the phenomenon of people lying on first dates to project a better version of themselves. Plus, he gets into a very personal example from his own life. (8 minutes)

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868: The Hand That Rocks The Gavel

This American Life — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 18:00:00 -0400

A group of immigration judges, who almost never speak to the press, describes the dismantling of our immigration court system from the inside.

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Prologue: Zoe Chace gives an eyewitness account of what has been happening at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration courthouse in New York City. (5 minutes)
Act One: The judges walk us through how different their jobs have become in just the past few months, because of sweeping policy changes by Trump’s Department of Justice. (26 minutes)
Act Two: It gets extremely personal for the judges. Also, the story of one person who got pushed through the new immigration court system this summer. (23 minutes)

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867: College Disorientation

This American Life — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 18:00:00 -0400

Things are different on college campuses this year. We see inside the drama, with students and staff.

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Prologue: We go to orientation at Arizona State University and meet international students who are trying to make friends. (6 minutes)
Act One: The president of the Black Student Union at the University of Utah fights to keep the B in BSU. (30 minutes)
Act Two: A definition of antisemitism, canceled classes, and angry professors at Columbia University. (16 minutes)

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866: Watch Out for That Tree

This American Life — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 18:00:00 -0400

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)

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865: The Other Territory

This American Life — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 18:00:00 -0400

Since October 7th, while the world has focused its attention on Gaza, the Israeli government has tightened the screws on the three million Palestinians in the West Bank in all sorts of dramatic ways. We travel to the West Bank to see these changes in person.

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Prologue: Ira joins Hamed on his Monday commute. He has to navigate a constantly changing series of checkpoints and roadblocks to get to work each day. Hamed works for Comet-ME, which sets up solar panels, water systems, and security cameras in small villages all over the West Bank. (13 minutes)
Act One: Settler violence has worsened significantly in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. Yael Even Or travels to a tiny village called Tuba, surrounded by Israeli settlements, to meet the 27-year-old resident trying to protect it. (26 minutes)
Act 2: Two quick snapshots of life in the West Bank since October 7th. (6 minutes)
Act Two: After October 7th, Israeli Minister of Security Itamar Ben-Gvir increased restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli security prisons. Prisoners started dying. Dana Chivvis looks into one of those deaths. (25 minutes)

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864: Chicago Hope

This American Life — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 18:00:00 -0400

The story of the most commonly performed surgery, and what goes wrong with it – terribly wrong – 100,000 times a year in the United States. We’re excited to bring you the first episode of The Retrievals, Season 2, the new show from longtime This American Life producer and editor Susan Burton. It’s from Serial Productions and The New York Times.

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Prologue: Ira Glass introduces the first episode of an inventive new podcast from longtime This American Life producer and editor Susan Burton.
Act One: Susan Burton introduces Mindy, a labor and delivery nurse at UI Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. (5 minutes)
Act Two: Another labor and delivery nurse at UI Health, Clara, gets ready to deliver twins at her own hospital and receives an epidural. (19 minutes)
Act Three: Clara’s anesthesia is not working. She is now in the middle of major abdominal surgery, and she can feel that surgery. (21 minutes)
Act Four: Heather, the head of obstetric anesthesia at UI Health, gets up onstage and asks a ballroom full of hundreds of anesthesiologists to wrestle with the question of why patients are feeling pain during C-sections, and what they can do to solve it. (8 minutes)

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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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863: Championship Window

This American Life — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 18:00:00 -0400

People on a mission to achieve their goals before their window of opportunity closes.

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Prologue: Guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi goes to a packed sports bar in Brooklyn for his favorite soccer team’s biggest game in years. (6 minutes)
Act One: Connie Wang tells the story of a championship window she didn't realize she was in — until it was too late. (14 minutes)
Act Two: Seth Lind, our Operations Director, isn’t a crier. But he wants to connect with his emotions, so guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi sets up an unconventional experiment. (14 minutes)
Act Three: Two college baseball teams with horrible losing streaks — a combined 141 games — are scheduled to play each other. One of them must finally win. (14 minutes)

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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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