Stories about what it means to be a person who throws the first punch, and how hard it is to give up.
Variations on what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a woman.
A radio show about what makes radio so great, and what makes it so terrible.
The story of a town that started with something huge—the falls—and built nothing lasting from it.
With so many songs, movies, and books about the joy of the open road, it's hard to take just a normal road trip without huge expectations.
An NPR reporter leaves her three-year-old son and heads to Omaha—for cancer treatment, and a last chance to save her life.
David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell on what's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us.
Two stories of people who try to cross the color line, and why it's still so hard.
Stories in which fathers and their kids sit down and try to have an honest moment together.
Sarah Vowell re-traces the route her Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land by President Andrew Jackson.
A woman who'd been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis talks about the lies she told herself as a child.
We attempt to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between camp people and non-camp people.
The world redrawn by the five senses.
I thought this was supposed to be easy.
How irrational fear of germs means that you aren't going to get good apple cider in your local supermarket this fall.
What happens when you suddenly strike it rich?
Stories of people's last words before death.
A rookie cop and a squirrel, and other stories of first days on the job.
Our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.
The family table is stage on which many family dramas are played out.
Stories about seeing and being seen, taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City.
Stories of the lives of prisoners in the United States, and the lives of their families
Three stories of people pretending to be something they're not, and what happens to them.
What happens if you're too good at throwing everything out and starting over?
Stories of impossible love and heartbreak.
Stories of people who choose not to live every moment to the fullest or smell the roses.
Stories of people moving to this country: what they see and hear that those of us who were born here don't.
Fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews are combining forces to breed a perfect red cow that could bring about the end of the world.
Two do-gooders try to change things in their hometown for the better. But the more they try, the more people resent them.
A former pimp tells how he and three childhood friends became pimps in the 1970s in Oakland, California.
We try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life in four different states across the nation.
What if you asked people for advice and actually took ALL of the advice that everyone gave you? Sarah Vowell tried exactly that.
Stories of people going home to places they've never been before.
Stories in which young people take matters into their own hands, broadcast for the tenth anniversary of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square.
Photographer Joel Meyerowitz goes on a last big trip with his father, who has Alzheimer's, and his son.
We accompany a Hollywood screenwriter as he tries to sell a movie idea and find ourselves asking, is the art of commerce better than the art of art?
It turns out that not falling in love, not doing our jobs, not spending time with our families is every bit as vivid and complicated an experience as doing something.
Through our crimes, we express who we are.
Three stories, three people, and three sets of maps.
We want to believe our lives can be changed by a set of ideas contained in a book.
Stories of people drawn to some idea, some picture, some "thing" that they just want to be.
Stories designed to provide some small sense of hope about American politics.
What happens when the tension of family dynamics collides with the pressure of capitalist market forces.
Stories of people who are trying to make invisible worlds visible.
We hear the story of one African-American single mother who recorded her family's life over the course of seven months.
Have mandatory minimum sentences gone too far?
People struggle to invent words adequate to cope with death.
Our annual program about turkeys, chickens, fowl of all types, and their mysterious hold over our imaginations.
David Rakoff visits Iceland, where the government is careful not to disturb certain boulders because some people believe that elves live there.
Oh faithless and perverse generation? How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?—Matthew 17.
The many, many different versions of Santa Claus.
In the hospital, we're in a place that has its own rules and its own language and its own customs.
Stories of kids trying to act like adults—some by choice—some because they're forced to
Stories from the New Hampshire primary. We hear from voters who've found candidates they love. And we hear what those voters are seeing that the rest of us aren't.
What if you held onto a high-school crush? Under what conditions would it never go away? Tobias Wolff reads a short story called "Kiss."
The story of the book The Lonely Doll and its author, and how the author's life came to resemble something from her book.
Exactly how much are the animals that live in our home caught up in everyday family dynamics?
Stories of people who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else does.
Stories of people revisiting what happened, and who they were back when.
All those people you see in the middle of the workday, in coffee shops and bookstores—why aren't they at work?
The pleasure and the terror of being in a rampaging, angry mob.
Stories of moms: How they treat us, how we treat them.
David Foster Wallace reports on a turning point in the 2000 presidential primary.
A look at what's going on inside the individual glass and steel worlds of our cars.
Stories of people who did not want to move but circumstance forced their hands.
Stories of people who stand up alone for what's right, damn the consequences.
Crime scenes and the stories they tell.
David Sedaris takes Ira on a tour of his favorite spots in Paris.
Does anyone's family ever change?
Stories of people who are trying to control how they'll be seen by generations to come.
What does it mean to grow up in a country with an inalienable right to pursue happiness?
We look at a 1996 immigration law that is too obscure for most of us to have heard of, but which affects tens of thousands of lives in huge ways.
Stories for the eve of the 2000 presidential election, in which we try to look beneath the candidates' soundbites.
One day in a Chicago diner.
A story of self-deception, a story about deceiving others, and a story about accidental deception.
A live show taped for our fifth anniversary.
A brother and sister decide to invent children to babysit, as an excuse to get out of their own house.
Democrats explain why they're having trouble getting over the 2001 election, and Republicans explain why this is so infuriating.
Stories of people living completely outside the grid of American life.
The story of what was, at one time, one of most notoriously racist and corrupt suburbs in America.
Alex Blumberg tries to find a woman who babysat him when he was nine, and other stories of people trying to revisit their childhoods.
Stories from Scott Carrier, whose strange and compelling tales sound like nothing else on the radio.
Tales of personal humiliation, romance gone wrong, and people who profoundly misjudge how they're perceived by others.
Women planning to get pregnant with the help of a sperm bank tell us about the questions they wrestle with of how much they want to know about the fathers of their kids.
An average Chicagoan decides to appeal the disputes and problems in his neighborhood to a higher authority, Mr. Rogers. Yes, that Mr. Rogers.
Stories of people worshiping false idols, and whether that's always a bad thing.
While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town.
Stories of dads who are utterly human in scale.
A modern-day fable about what happens when the free market, the media, the World War II buffs, the Neo-Nazis, and the Jews all collide over a huge Nazi tourist trap.
There's a deep impulse in American culture that says that you can make yourself into anyone.
Scott Carrier travels cross-country without air conditioning, during weather in which it's too hot to stay in the car and too hot to get out.
The story of one man's journey from obscurity to international professional celebrity.
A collection of stories in which people try to make sense of loss.
Stories in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
We try to sort out what the war in Afghanistan will be like.
The events of September 11th, and how its meaning changes depending on who you talk to.
In 1946, a man started to investigate the Holocaust before it was known as the Holocaust, gathering the first recorded testimonials of concentration camp survivors.
Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it?
A young boy, an abandoned house, and the mysterious family who disappeared without a trace.
Of all the wars to win, perhaps the propaganda war is the hardest.
In a time of war, when we're all feeling a heightened sense of "us" and "them," we wanted to take up the problem of "them."
Stories of faith: losing it, talking about it, constructing it, and working within it.
The story of what some have called the greatest phone message in the world.
How the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.
There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing.
Life aboard an aircraft carrier stationed in the Arabian Sea supporting bombing missions over Afghanistan.
Stories about people who were told that they're different.
Stories of high drama from our nation's workplaces.
The story of an eighth grader who set himself on fire, and what led to that.
DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors.
When you turn someone over to the authorities, it can set into motion lots of huge, unintended consequences.
Stories about what happens when a new guy comes on the scene and changes everything.
Stories of people who try to convince you that the devil is there, whispering in your ear.
We take the laws of physics and apply them to the realm of human relationships.
Stories about people who turned to the experts and got horrible advice.
Ira Glass goes to a fake wedding at a home for Alzheimer's patients.
Two years after the Mideast peace process collapsed, we wanted to understand what that has done to people living in Israel and the West Bank.
A group of inmates at a high-security prison stage a production of the last act of Hamlet.
What happened after a group of Native American girls from one town found themselves being chased down the highway by a group of white boys from another town.
The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.
Stories of people traveling under false identities, not for power or personal gain, but for their own deeper personal reasons.
Some people have a rather dark worldview that divides people into two groups: Suckers and non-suckers.
We take the classifieds from one Sunday edition of the paper and fill a program with stories that come from the ads.
"Hi, middleman. Here are three splendid acts to toast your subtle virtues."
Home movies are often all the same—kids on the beach, people getting married, birthday parties—so why do we make and watch so many of them?
Stories of people stuck in moments that they revisit over and over again.
We still have some basic questions about why we're going to war and whether it's a good thing.
Two modern-day reinterpretations of the Frog Prince story.
Stories of some of the secrets our government keeps: of imprisonment, deportation, and spying.
A California teenager returns to the home country he's never known.
Stories of sudden truths delivered by complete strangers.
Real stories from three very different wars.
A man in retirement tries to start over in a new life with a new venture: a cable channel, with lots of puppies.
Does talking about it really help?
Stories from the beginnings of the war in Iraq, and how it compares with wars in our country's past.
We try to figure out the paradox of the current economy, where Americans are simultaneously both losing jobs and buying new homes and cars.
Stories of regime change in everyday life.
Jonathan Goldstein and Starlee Kine go to a karaoke club that has, along with all the songs, comedy routines for people to perform.
Stories of people who are lost, histories that are lost, and things that are lost.
There is a ominous information gap between the U.S. officials running the country and the Iraqi people being governed.
All kinds of little stories that we ordinarily can't use on the radio show because they are just too short.
The story of a fixer for the Catholic Church and how he came to sympathize with the people that he was sent to deceive.
Stories about what the passage of time can do to someone.
Four real stories in which real people invent amazingly clever solutions to their problems.
They treat us badly, they don't call us back, they cancel plans at the last minute, and yet we come back for more.
Stories of very unusual pen pals, people whose relationship could not exist without the help of the postal service.
What is this thing called love? For answers, we explore the romance novel industry, a $1.5 billion empire run almost entirely by and for women.
David Rakoff guest hosts.
We follow the trash from the sanitation men on the street, to the mob guys who controlled the hauling business, to the people who actually live in dumps.
Why is it always harder than you think it'll be?
In his ongoing effort to write his own version of the Bible, Jonathan Goldstein retells the story of Cain and Abel.
Jack Hitt reports on an opera about Chicken Little that makes grown men cry. And other stories of fowl of all kinds.
The tiny island of Nauru is at the center of several of the decade's biggest global events.
Hyder returns to Afghanistan.
The vexing difficulty of finding the perfect gift.
Sarah Vowell explains the cheerful journalism of deprivation. And other stories.
People return to the scene of the crime where they should have spoken clearly and forcefully to review what the hell went wrong.
A popular, progressive politician becomes...a talk show host. One you've probably heard of.
David Rakoff tries a 20-day fast to see if it will bring him any form of enlightenment.
How a bungled Nazi sabotage operation became the legal foundation for the Bush administration's push to try U.S. citizens in military tribunals.
A generation of researchers has revolutionized the way we see marriage.
A son tries to help his mom in a faraway place defy the laws of medical science.
Stories of people stuck in unfixable situations who try desperate measures.
A defense of special treatment, by people who receive it and people who give it.
A Seattle group called AGHOST is using whatever scientific principles they can find to hunt for ghosts.
Nancy Updike goes to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.
By tightening the rules on what swear words are allowed on the nation's airwaves, FCC officials say they're protecting kids. But the facts don't back them up.
People who decide to try out a new life—the kind of life their parents never wanted for them.
Letting someone else take care of you can change everything.
Every family has its share of grudges, secrets, and bad behavior.
Stories about adults struggling to figure out what is in the best interest of some child.
We leave behind the official Republican talking points and ask them to speak instead about what they actually believe.
Stories about people deciding whether to give it their all.
Behind enemy lines, sometimes people get confused about whose side they're on and how to fight the enemy.
The rise and fall of school reform.
A journey through the minds of undecided voters.
It's rare that a successful apology happens.
A woman starts hearing her neighbors making drug deals over her baby monitor's frequency.
Stories about people who love their cars, for better or for worse.
What life is like for American soldiers in Iraq.
Sometimes, getting your big break isn't all it's cracked up to be.
After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself.
A dying mother makes a tape for her developmentally disabled daughter, hoping she'll watch it someday, knowing she might not.
A software writer loses his job, but continues to show up at work, sneaking in the door each day and putting in long hours.
An LA prosecutor thought he'd make a name for himself by taking the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys to court for obscenity.
Stories of people who try simple mind games on others, and then find themselves way in over their heads.
Stories about people who end up making choices they'd rather not make, when their options begin to run out.
Stories about how easy it is for communication to go awry, and what the consequences can be after it does.
Sons and daughters get to find out the one thing they've always wanted to know about their father.
We spend an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place.
Stories about getting back together with your spouse, your country, your...Brahman bull.
The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man named Hemant Lakhani.
Stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little.
Some librarians in Michigan embark on an audacious act of rebranding their libraries.
A 9/11 widow finds herself having to comfort another distraught woman on national TV.
Surprising stories from survivors in New Orleans.
Stories from the largest mass resettlement that America has seen since the Civil War, as over 400,000 people—victims of Hurricane Katrina.
How far will we go to get money? And once we've got it, what should we spend it on?
Stories about people and places that have come back to life after everything seemed lost.
A study estimated the number of Iraqi casualties since the war began at 100,000. Most of the deaths were caused by coalition forces.
Stories about the lengths we go to make things right, and about what money can and cannot fix.
Three people tell their stories from Iraq about the fighting, the locals, and why you subscribe to Details magazine.
Variations on an old tale, with very modern consequences.
A rising star in the evangelical movement casts aside the idea of hell.
A full-throttle, show-stopping, no-holds-barred Christmas Spectacular!
Lotto fever grips the cast of Riverdance.
Stories of how love blossoms, even when (perhaps) it shouldn't.
Stories about the kinds of chase games that just never end.
We revisit two live shows we put on in the early days—one was about letters, and the other was about this then-new phenomenon called the internet.
Stories about kids who actually want their parents looking out for them.
A grown man tries to get to the bottom of why his schoolmates threw him in a lake 20 years earlier.
Stories about animals who don't even seem like they should know each other, much less appear on the same radio show.
When something you thought was gone forever keeps returning, against all odds.
A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them, and other stories about the hard work of loving other people.
Stories of everyday people who get saddled with great power.
Scary stories that are all true—kidnappings, zombie raccoons, and real haunted houses.
The remarkable story of what it took to determine the number of Iraqis who've died since the U.S. invasion.
Stories of people who are in over their heads and trying to stay afloat.
Stories of Muslims and non-Muslims trying to communicate with each other and not always getting their point across.
Stories of the mysterious hold supers have on their buildings.
An American reporter in Iraq decides to rent a house in a residential Baghdad neighborhood. Plus other big ideas gone amok.
An old man in Brooklyn invites some homeless prostitutes into his house on a cold winter night. They never leave.
A man with social anxiety goes through a transformation on a TV game show.
Stories of proxy fights, proxy arguments, and proxy situations of all kinds.
Stories recorded during our 2007 live tour, by Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Dan Savage, and others.
Stories of sudden fame, quick riches, and the downside of the dream job.
Stories of people trying to recover from damage to their reputations.
Stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus.
Four years into the Iraq War, what have we learned?
Josh's family didn't play much of a role in his daily life—until duty called, and they took over his life.
When he was a teenager, Haider worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Information. He was treated like a celebrity.
Stories about the pitfalls of trying to do the right thing.
Stories about people taking history into their own hands.
Stories of what can happen when you go from being a private person to a public face.
Starlee Kine tries to write the perfect break-up song with some help from Phil Collins.
Stories of people trying to exorcize their inner demons.
Stories of adults taking very different approaches to communicating with children.
What happens to the people left behind after the detectives close the case?
Our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.
Stories of the unintended consequences of market forces.
A girl receives a heart transplant from a boy her age, and her mother sets off to find out more about the kid who saved her daughter's life.
A 79-year-old woman dies alone in Los Angeles. No one knows her—or her next of kin.
Making a lasting love match isn't as simple as writing a check.
We go into the writers' room at The Onion, where they start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week.
Stories about couples that happen decades after the moment their eyes meet.
Teachers tell us about a secret room in the New York City Board of Education building called "the rubber room."
Stories of people who try to revisit their childhoods—what they find and what they do not find.
In 1912, a four-year-old boy went missing in Louisiana. Eight months later, he was found. But two grief-stricken mothers both claimed the same boy as their own.
Stories of the Bush Administration's quest to redefine the limits of presidential power.
Freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds.
The surprisingly entertaining story of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis.
Things go badly for the lead prosecutor in one of the first high-profile terrorist cases since 9/11.
Stories of concealed truths bubbling to the surface, including a new story by Etgar Keret.
Stories of social engineering on a small scale.
Stories of people haunted by guilt over their role in others' deaths.
Two baby girls born in a small-town hospital are accidentally switched, and go home with the wrong families.
Mike Birbiglia talks about the sleepwalking that nearly killed him.
Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, and suspects the chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter.
Stories about people who take the law into their own hands.
Stories about people who take grand, sweeping approaches to solving problems of all sorts.
A look at what regulators could've done to prevent the financial crisis from happening in the first place.
We go to Pennsylvania to figure out why both McCain and Obama think they can win there.
Stories of privilege and the lengths some will go to to maintain it.
A man in Pakistan buys an amulet with the power to protect anyone from harm. He tests it out on a chicken.
Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else, or who are accused of that.
We document life in a mall in Tennessee during the run-up to Christmas.
On the eve of Obama's inauguration, we sent reporters out to talk to people about how they're feeling.
Stories about what happens when someone new takes over—someone with a vision of how things ought to be.
Of the billions of people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match?
We tackle a very tough subject: Trying to explain exactly what a bank is and does.
Stories of people with wildly popular or unpopular views for one moment in time, and how those views stand up years later.
We highlight the unusual circumstances our economic drought has left us in.
Stories of people forced to let go of their firmly held beliefs.
A live episode of the radio program, including stories told on stage by Dan Savage and Mike Birbiglia.
Stories of people who find themselves in situations far from the beaten path, without guidelines or useful precedents.
A well-known activist is accused of spying on other activists for the FBI.
Where were the regulators and watchdogs who were supposed to be overseeing the banks and the finance industry?
When things go wrong, it's easy to pin it all on one person and watch them go down in flames.
It's tempting to act as your own lawyer, to argue your own cause.
The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.
Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway.
Tales of estranged sisters, BFFs breaking up, and how reality stars walk the fine line between making friends and getting famous.
We mark the anniversary of the economic collapse.
An hour explaining the American health care system—specifically, why it is that costs keep rising.
A deeper look inside the health insurance industry and the dark side of prescription drug coupons.
Stories of cheating, cheaters and the cheated.
The story of man who tries to investigate a neighborhood crime and ends up in jail himself.
Stories of people who are up while the rest of us are sleeping.
The show goes to Penn State to report on tailgating, frat parties, and other alcohol-induced mayhem.
We asked our contributors to predict real events that will happen to them and the people they know in 2010.
Stories of people betting on something with very bad odds.
A man finds himself in a train station in India, with no idea how he got there or who he is. That, and other stories of filling in the blank.
For our 400th show, we try something harder than anything we've ever tried.
A chimp is raised twice—once as a human child, and again as a chimp.
Stories about one person single-handedly taking charge of a situation gone wrong.
Living behind enemy lines, among the enemy, it's sometimes hard to remember why you're fighting in the first place.
The inside story of one company that made hundreds of millions of dollars for itself while worsening the financial crisis for the rest of us.
Can a rat crawl through your plumbing and end up in your toilet?
Stories of bridges from three different countries, including one in China that's famous for its massive size and its high suicide rate.
Blanketing a country in aid and money has never really worked so well. Is there a chance things could be different in Haiti?
A kidnapping victim in Colombia spends his nights listening to a radio station that plays messages from the families of the kidnapped.
Richard Ravitch has helped fix three governmental crises, so what makes it so much harder for him to solve the state's current financial crisis?
Stories of first encounters with unknown and distant beings—girls, foreigners, and perhaps even aliens.
Michael Larson made the most money ever on the game show Press Your Luck. And it was no accident.
Nine of us go to small towns in Georgia to ask around until we find stories.
A New York police officer secretly records his supervisors ordering officers to do all sorts of things that police aren't supposed to do.
Stories of crybabies in sports, in politics, on Wall Street, on the streets of California.
We spend a month in Iraq talking to Iraqis and Americans about the war that tore the country apart.
Two best friends get tired of yelling at their TVs and decide to form a Tea Party chapter to effect political change.
Reporters from Planet Money bought a toxic asset that turned out to be an encyclopedia of the financial crisis.
The rise and fall of a school maintenance man in Schenectady, New York who terrorized his staff and got away with it for decades.
Stories of neighbors watching out for each other, for better and worse.
Stories about people who feel compelled to keep going, especially when everyone else has given up.
The holidays are stressful so we booked a seasonal pick-me-up: an hour of comedy.
Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money?
When it comes to governing, can kids do any better than grown-ups?
The story of a wedding 17 years in the making.
We go backstage with comedy writers at The Onion.
We think we may have found the original recipe for Coca-Cola, one of the most guarded trade secrets in the world.
Stories about the perils of giving and receiving gifts.
Stories of people who've grown so accustomed to wartime that the lives they've left behind no longer make sense.
A drug court program in Georgia where people with offenses that would get minimal or no sentences elsewhere sometimes end up in the system five to ten years.
Stories of people pretending that everything is okay and ignoring the awful stuff that's staring them straight in the face.
The story of an entire country deciding whether to give up on just one of its citizens.
An hour of stories about...this week.
Can politicians truly create many jobs?
Jon Ronson investigates whether corporate leaders can, in fact, be psychopaths.
Nurses at a small Texas hospital report a well-connected doctor for dangerous medical practices, and find themselves under arrest.
Surprising stories of fathers trying to be good dads.
Stories about people who find themselves either unexpectedly being singled out or doing the singling out.
Two professors each make a calculation that no one had made before.
Why would a company rent an office in a tiny town in East Texas, put a nameplate on the door, and leave it completely empty for a year?
Like a lot of Mexican towns, Florencia has had its share of problems dealing with drug gangs. Until recently, when new narcos rolled into town.
We head to some of the happiest places on Earth: amusement parks!
A sociologist collects journals filled with gossip about AIDS in Malawi.
We return to people who have been on the show in the last ten years, and whose lives were drastically altered by 9/11.
A man has to give up parts of his life as he learns to live hearing a tone in his head all the time.
What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur? This week's show.
Stories that pinpoint when people's boring old lives turn into something wildly unfamiliar.
Stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school.
An orchestra teacher has a theory that he could kill cancer cells with electromagnetic waves.
Penn State fans and loyalists try to make sense of the actions of Coach Joe Paterno and school officials.
Stories of what happens when humans and fowl collide.
A college rivalry goes viral, and personal.
This American Life has retracted this story.
The story of the European debt crisis is actually very surprising and dramatic.
Alabama's new immigration law aims to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will "self-deport."
A couple decides they need to sleep with other people before getting married, and a teenage boy falls for an undercover cop.
Stories of people who decide to flip their personalities and do the exact opposite of what they normally do.
All across the country right now, local and state governments are finding they can't pay their bills.
Discovering just how much time members of Congress spend raising money.
Stories of people who can’t seem to stop getting in their own way.
Religion makes clear the difference between mortal sins and venial ones. But in our everyday lives, it can be really difficult to determine just how bad we've been.
David Sedaris, Tig Notaro, Ryan Knighton, and the late David Rakoff, in his final performance on the show.
A Guatemalan immigrant living near Boston gets a phone call with some very strange news about his past.
A woman gambles away her inheritance and then sues the casino, saying they're to blame.
It used to be that the American expats in China were the big shots. But that's changed.
People pretending to be people they're not: sometimes it's harmless, sometimes it's harmful, and sometimes it's hard to tell.
The chief of security for a Colombian drug cartel decides to take the cartel down.
Stories about people in trouble, who look for help in mystifying places.
An undercover FBI informant at the mosque in Orange County starts acting very odd.
Favorite stories by our longtime contributor and friend David Rakoff.
An estate attorney discovers a financial scheme that's all reward and no risk. The only catch? You have to die to get the money.
A growing body of research that suggests we may be on the verge of a new approach to some of the biggest challenges facing American schools.
People reach out in all kinds of ways to try to get their point across—messages in code, over the phone, and from beyond the grave
Stories of how people cope after brushes with death.
Stories of people breaking the rules fully, completely, and with no bad consequences.
Not only do the two sides disagree on the solutions to the country’s problems, they don’t even agree on what the problems are.
Why Minnesotans don't talk much about the most important historical event ever to happen there.
The This American Life staff confronts Ira about his dog, Piney.
Stories united by one thing: They all happened in the seven days prior to broadcast.
A show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families.
A perfectly normal guy gets rid of everything he owns, changes his name, says goodbye to his friends—and begins walking.
We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari and decided to investigate.
The proxy battle over a woman’s honor that became a presidential obsession.
A couple decides to sleep with other people before they tie the knot. Plus, more stories of love making us do crazy things.
We spent five months at a high school in Chicago where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.
Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions!
The startling rise of the number of people on disability in America.
A white guy who only wants to date Asian women has to adjust to the reality of a real actual Asian woman in his life.
Did a beloved family doctor with no criminal history suddenly up and strangle his own father?
Israeli soldiers take snapshots of Palestinian boys, one house at a time, in the middle of the night.
A man decides to take a trip from Philadelphia to San Francisco—by foot.
Why has the conversation on climate change been stuck in the same place for years?
Why people say our patent system may be discouraging, not encouraging, innovation.
All of the stories in the show are things that have taken place in the last seven days.
People who know something's a bad idea, but convince themselves to do that thing anyway.
The story of a guy named Kirk Johnson, who started a list of Iraqis who needed to get out of their country.
Ira asks the producers to talk about their very favorite moments on the show.
An American woman suddenly trades her life for one in a place most people might think twice about: Juarez, Mexico.
A journalist gets a disturbing tip: a phone number to a group of refugees being held hostage in the Sinai desert.
Planet Money looks at a charity that's decided to just give people money.
How a stolen library book got one man into his dream school and changed his life forever. Or at least that's the story he tells himself.
More than 150 Americans die each year on average after accidentally taking too much acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol.
A teenage girl becomes a whole new person when she becomes the school mascot — a tiger — at her high school.
What should a person suspected of murder say?
Stories of people whose lives are altered when seemingly boring documents like birth certificates and petitions are used against them.
The story of a police officer and a squirrel. Plus, a small town production of Peter Pan goes off the rails.
Sarah Koenig's mother lives by a set of rules about conversation. We tried to prove her wrong.
The history of racial housing discrimination in the United States and what has been done—and hasn't been done—to rectify it.
One car dealership tries to sell 129 cars. It is way more chaotic than we expected.
It's the thought that counts. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not always so clear what that thought was.
Stories of valiant men attempting to do good in challenging circumstances: in war zones, department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave 900 feet underground.
David Sedaris tells us how losing a sister prompted a family reunion, and an impulse buy of an oceanfront cottage big enough for all of them.
A clerical error allowed a convicted man to walk free for 13 years. Then the justice system realized its mistake.
Last May, the FBI killed a guy in Florida who was loosely linked to the Boston Marathon bombings.
Stories of people who are coming to terms with the places they call home.
They're small. And they're cuddly. But sometimes it feels as though our babies were replaced with demon replicas.
A pedophile who has never acted on his impulses starts an online support group to help himself and others like him.
We ask the people who work at a hospice facility some personal questions about death and dying.
Alex Blumberg talks to his dad about the daily pot habit he had while Alex was growing up.
Stories of people coming to terms with being in serious trouble.
A woman wakes up from a coma having forgotten that she'd divorced her husband. And Molly Ringwald watches The Breakfast Club with her daughter.
Stories of people who go one way, and then, for what ever reason, turn around and go the exact opposite direction.
At our most ambitious live show to date, we turn journalism into a Broadway musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
A cellphone hidden in a bag of chips starts a messy turf war between the FBI and a local sheriff.
Stories where one person's powerlessness is transformed when they discover they have backup. And what happens when that backup goes away.
Stories where people recite words that have the power to change their lives.
Alex Blumberg tells the incredible, sweat-stains-and-all saga of a man fumbling through starting a new business. And the man is: himself.
School board disputes are pretty common, but not like this one.
An unprecedented look inside one of the most powerful, secretive institutions in the country.
The pilot episode of Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig.
There's no agreement about how teachers should discipline students. And there's evidence that some of the most popular punishments may harm kids.
When routines get too mundane, sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump.
If a Border Patrol agent is not actually at the border, do you have to obey him?
People struggling with regrets—big and small—that take root and have to be dealt with.
Two brothers take a doomed road trip through Mexico. Plus other stories of feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead.
The story of a company—or maybe it's a movement?—that has hundreds of people posting enthusiastic videos about it online.
Can people’s expectations change whether a blind man can see?
What happens when the internet turns on you?
Ira Glass was never into William Burroughs. Then he heard this radio story that changed that.
There's a division between people who distrust the police and people who see cops as a force for good.
We look at one city where relations between police and black residents are terrible, and another city where they seem to be improving remarkably.
A tough group of soldiers attempts to save lives through the power of show tunes.
What happens when of a group of public school students in the Bronx goes to visit an elite private school three miles away.
Stories of valiant men attempting to do good: in department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave.
The story of a guy who learned to lie for the first time in his life at age 29.
A mysterious world of heroin addiction treatment centers where no one seems to be taking responsibility for the people they're treating.
Stories of those very infrequent instances where people’s opinions flip on fundamental things that they believe.
A movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim Jong-Il, plus more stories of people who are tied together but imagine radically different futures.
Stories about the vague and not-so-vague ways to teach children about race, death, and sex.
Stories of people facing very difficult situations who put their game face on and muscle through.
The story of a concentration camp in China that housed groups of Girl Scouts.
A story about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American.
There’s one thing that has been proven to cut the achievement gap between black and white students by half: integration.
A city goes all out to integrate its schools.
Stories about a fallen man trying to kickstart his career with a reality show, and an awkward moment between a mom and a daughter.
We go to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans to talk to residents about what matters most to them ten years after the hurricane
A father constructs an elaborate fantasy to occupy his 12 children.
A teenage girl records a remarkable story about the boyfriend who abuses her, and why it’s so hard to break up with him.
Meet the people who pitch ideas for new foods and then decide which ones they're actually going to make.
Conspiracy theories about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin continue to shape Israel's politics and future.
Emily Dickinson said “The heart wants what it wants.” This week, stories from people who take that notion to extremes and are unapologetic about it.
A prisoner who hasn't talked to anyone in years comes up with a bold plan to re-introduce himself to the world.
Three teenage girls explain why they are constantly telling their friends they are beautiful on Instagram. Plus more stories about status updates that interrupt our daily life.
Stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board.
Propaganda is complexity in the form of simplicity, if you know how to read it.
A live Christmas performance from some of the best improvisors in the country.
A woman with muscular dystrophy tries to convince doctors that she has the same gene mutation as an Olympic athlete.
A conservative radio host is completely baffled by the candidate his audience has decided to get behind this election season.
A hospital staffer finds a patient on the floor of his room. He is unarmed, and has been shot by the cops in the hospital.
The story of a young voter who defies political categorization.
The story of a rape investigation gone undeniably wrong.
Stories where animals drop in and show us who's the boss.
Kids do not like being told it’ll make sense when they’re older. They’re pretty sure the grown-ups are wrong.
The older and wiser we get, the more bewildering our past decisions can seem.
Three very different stories of people not admitting the truth.

When Mariya Karimjee was little, her family made a decision that would affect her entire life. Years later, she wants to know why.
Stories about mysteries that exist in relationships we thought couldn't possibly surprise us.
The group Improv Everywhere tries to give an unknown band the best day of their lives. But the band doesn't see it that way.
Maybe it’s time to rethink the way we see being fat.
Stories of people making the wrong choice, even though the right one is staring them squarely in the eye.
A political donor has to decide whether or not he's going to support Trump. Plus other stories of people trying to make sure they get what they paid for.
57,000 refugees are stuck in Greece, making homes in some surprising locations.
Stories of refugees in Greece trying to move on with their lives in whatever way they can.
Summer is a time when change seems more possible than ever. But is that really how it happens?
What do you do when you're thrown into a situation you’re not prepared for?
Stories about people trying their best to turn themselves into something else—like a badger.
Stories in which ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones.
San Francisco’s Spider-Man dropped into buildings from skylights and leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble.
Watching lies become the truth in the 2016 election.
Right now a lot of Republicans feel like they don’t recognize their own party.
A story about Hillary Clinton that offers a different picture than what we’ve been hearing from both sides during the campaign.
People around the country talking about the coming four years after Trump's election.
Stories of people who decide to rethink the way they’ve been doing things.
Samantha Broun interviews her mom about surviving a brutal attack 20 years ago that ended up changing Pennsylvania law regarding life sentences.
Stories from people who want something desperately and then have their wishes fulfilled. Or do they?
Why has it been so hard for us to get the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans that have helped the U.S. to safety?
Some people are super-stoked for the political changes that are coming.
We document what happened when the President’s executive order went into effect temporarily banning travel from seven countries.
People going to very extreme measures to demonstrate their feelings.
A show about rules and what happens when they’re vague and randomly enforced.
Teenage girls ask for advice about their love lives, and Ira's tribute to his very grown-up friend Mary.
A surgeon takes out his own appendix in what might be one of the most daring surgeries ever performed.
What it's actually like to live in the confusing information landscape that is Putin's Russia.
Before Trump started his presidential campaign, there was a congressional race that redefined what was possible in American politics.
Stories about both historical and modern-day swashbucklers who loot, pillage, and question their choices.
Three people grapple with the question, “Are we alone?”
A polygraph operator and his strange journey.
Former kid magicians Ira Glass and David Kestenbaum dive back into the world of magic.
People try to go deeper—to get to something real—in some unexpected places: war, magic, and porn.
Two towns grapple with the question—who do we let in?
Stories of lucky people who have found the exact right person to ring up for help.
Afrofuturism is a way of looking at black culture that’s fantastic, creative, and oddly hopeful.
What Betsy DeVos's experience in a public school in her hometown can tell us about her vision for education in this country.
In 1967, the first black students integrated the South’s elite prep schools. One of the main reasons they were there? To benefit the white kids.
What should we make of right-wing groups like the Proud Boys, who believe “the West is the best”?
Neil Drumming looks back at a toy he loved that, in retrospect, probably wouldn’t love him back.
Stories about delays, including a town in Ohio known almost entirely for its speed trap.
Stories of people trying to unspool some of life’s certainties.
Blurring the line between animal and human.
What really happened when undocumented workers showed up in one Alabama town?
When an Alabama town went from 98% white to one-fourth Latino, what did it mean for taxpayers, schools, traffic, crime?
People bungle simple operations on some of the most dangerous weapons in the world.
A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.
A year into Trump’s presidency, stories of politicians—of both parties—unable to accomplish tasks that seem pretty straightforward.
People who say the “wrong” thing and suffer the consequences.
Stories about surviving the mishaps of love.
Exactly how much are the animals that live in our home caught up in everyday family dynamics?
A different kind of #MeToo story, about several women who worked for the same man.
Stories from border walls all over the world, and of the strange ecosystems that arise around them.
Before he leaves the Senate for good, Republican Jeff Flake is trying to get a bill passed.
People having to make a choice, when no good options exist.
Stories about people who accidentally bump into unsettling facts of history.
Conservative students don't feel like their ideas are welcome on campus. So they're fighting back.
The clues people find when trying to make sense of a death.
A security guard at the airport notices something going wrong on the tarmac, and takes it upon herself to fix it.
People trying to learn something when no one is clear what the lesson is supposed to be.
Before Democrats slug it out with Republicans, they’re slugging out with each other.
Radical change comes to an Argentinian talk show.
A young preacher opens a new church.
Dispatches from a government agency in its tumultuous teenage years.
Every crime scene hides a story.
A flute player steals a million dollars worth of dead birds.
What happens when an astronaut who's not really into outer space goes to the moon.
The quiet bureaucratic war that’s even targeting legal immigrants.
A bunch of teenagers go missing from a town in Long Island.
Zoe Chace followed Senator Jeff Flake as he decided to force the Senate to delay its vote on Judge Kavanaugh.
People taking what they’ve learned from school shootings and try to use that knowledge to save others.
Stories of people who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else does.
Stories of women in unsettling situations, who are told that there’s nothing unsettling at all.
Stories of people who believe there is always a way. And also those who don't.
Documents you don't normally think of, showing you things you didn't expect.
We played matchmaker and formed a one-day band out of musicians in the classifieds.
Ira talks about our “Poultry Slam” episodes and one particular listener’s reaction.
Some of the instruments used in recording Starlee's break-up song.
Listener remix contest.
Denis Wood creates maps that are like novels: they try to describe everyday life.
Featuring kids from Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Ann Arbor.
Dan Savage, David Rakoff, and Mike Birbiglia. Plus: Joss Whedon sings!
A video put together by David Rakoff and Dave Hill for our Spring 2009 event, "This American Life -- Live!"
Ira writes: “Somehow, this interview I did with Current TV long ago became so well-known among creative types, that sometimes it feels more famous than our radio show.”
Scenes from the Plattekill Travel Plaza, a rest stop on the New York State Thruway.
The second cartoon Chris Ware and John Kuramoto made for our TV show, animating a story told by Radiolab host Robert Krulwich and his wife, Tamar.
Images to go along with Episode 199: "The House on Loon Lake."
Photos from Jane's Dad's story.
Thank you to the 13,000 listeners who voted for their favorite stories.
This is a tribute to the song "We Can Do It" from The Producers where Nathan Lane explains his unlikely get-rich-quick scheme. Written by Robert Lopez (Book of Mormon, Frozen) to describe the financial deal in our episode "Inside Job."
Broadway's first ever investigative reporting musical comedy number.
Bill Moyers played our original broadway song.
In 2008, 501 images were sent from a radio telescope in Eupatoria, Ukraine, towards Gliese 581 c, a planet 118 trillion miles away. Here are some of those images.
It's honestly pretty amazing.
Photos of Windell Cleveland.
Here's the comic Chris made about for the show "Superpowers."
Photos from "Trickle Down History" and "Minor Authorities."
An animation about “Toxie,” a toxic asset that reporters from Planet Money bought in 2010.
Photographs from the story.
At Littlefield in Brooklyn.
We posited that there aren't that many holiday jokes. We stand corrected.
Chris Ware and animator John Kuramoto made two cartoons for the TV version of our radio show. This is the first.
To be clear: We are not claiming that we have found the recipe used today for Coca-Cola.
Make the "original recipe" yourself.
We had no idea how big a splash the Coca-Cola recipe story would make.
We're astounded at how much interest this story has generated.
Another interesting case.
Judge Amanda Williams has decided to respond at length, publicly, to my story about her drug court.
Our "When Patents Attack!" show has been getting a fair amount of ink.
Sarah Koenig responds to Penn State University's press release.
We wanted to hear from the last person to see Tom alive.
The website FrugalDad posted this infographic inspired by our episode.
This American Life has retracted the episode referenced here because we learned that many of Mike Daisey's experiences in China were fabricated.
The USS John C. Stennis has been in the news a lot lately, after Iran warned the US to keep the Stennis out of the Persian Gulf.
Ira writes: “I did this interview in the press tour for Sleepwalk with Me. Every now and then, I run into someone who makes movies – or tries to make them – who tells me how much they related to it.”
We were reminded that Kobach was not the first person to come up with the idea of "self-deportation."
We've learned that Mike Daisey's story about Apple in China contained significant fabrications.
The conversation left a real impression on us. Here's the extended version.
David Sedaris, David Rakoff, Tig Notaro, Glynn Washington, Terry Gross, Mike Birbiglia, Ryan Knighton, dance by Monica Bill Barnes & Company, music by OK Go (who created an app so the audience could play along with the band).
Mike Birbiglia directed this short film — starring him and Fresh Air host Terry Gross — for our “Invisible Made Visible” live show.
Photos of Oscar Ramirez Castaneda and his family, and also Tranquilino Castaneda.
Ira gives a commencement speech denouncing the very idea of commencement speeches. He also tries to give helpful pointers to the grads.
Historic photos from John Biewen's story.
We invited listeners to write us if they believe they've spotted Cindy Sherman or someone claiming to be her at her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.
Several papers have dropped Journatic, and there's some strife internally at the company as well.
On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that was filed against the FBI as a result of Operation Flex.
When an aspiring stand-up fails to express his true feelings, his anxiety comes out in increasingly funny and dangerous sleepwalking incidents.
As part of its Ask a Grown series, Rookie Magazine had Ira shared some of his children’s-entertainment skills while answering reader questions.
Photos and documents from our Animal Sacrifice show.
We sifted through thousands of images on Instagram and chose a selection of events, big and small, that people captured over the course of this week.
He'll be imitating a public radio personality, one familiar to This American Life listeners.
ProPublica, our partner in the story, has uncovered information about one of the soldiers who is wanted by authorities for participating in the massacre.
We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. Here are photos of the school.
The school's administrators have set up a donation page.
Extra coincidence stories from you that all involve your photographs.
Trying to understand what disability means for American workers.
When Fred co-hosted our “Doppelgangers” show, he mentioned that he’d once played Ira in a sketch that never made it onto TV. This is that killed sketch.
She will meet with students and counselors to hear about their experiences.
Here are some of the pieces of art that Anthony and artists traded — and collaborated on.
"I did not mean to imply that Huntington's is what made Vince do this violent thing."
When the Academy of Arts and Letters gave Ira a medal for spoken language, he gave this speech.
His family has finally left Iraq.
The notes from our brainstorm about the show name.
We thought it would be fun to commission some illustrations to mark our 500th episode.
Harper High has lost its first student since our shows about the school.
After talking to us, the Georgia Tech Admissions Director got this email.
Hear the full statement from Vice President for Medical Affairs, Ed Kuffner.
Artist Alice Leora Briggs created a drawing to accompany a story from "Secret Identity."
An update on episode 465, "What Happened At Dos Erres."
Google sometimes invites people in to give little talks or Q&As. Ira was asked, while he was visiting California.
Ira writes: “Several people have taken a quote from that Current TV interview and made short videos with it. This one, by Daniel Sax, is inventive and beautiful.”
We made six mini-love stories for the Google team.
We collaborated with Google on the Valentine's Day Google Doodle.
An update on our story about women in the Orthodox Jewish community whose husbands refuse to give them a divorce.
The Florida State Attorney released a report on the shooting of Ibragim Todashev.
Mike will receive credit for the entire time that he was accidentally out of prison.
Photos from rehearsals, backstage and the performance.
For our “Return to the Scene of the Crime” live show, Chris Ware and John Kuramoto created this animated short, about a mouse falling in love with a cat head. Set to a song by Andrew Bird.
Our most ambitious live show ever! Nearly 50 actors, singers, dancers, musicians, and comedians onstage including Sasheer Zamata, Stephin Merritt, Mike Birbiglia, and an original mini-musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Like a real Broadway show, our cast recorded the whole thing in one session.
A video of Ira talking to the cast and crew before we went onstage at BAM.
An update on a story from episode 530, "Mind Your Own Business."
Jonathan found the book in his apartment recently and decided to look into the magical claims the book made.
Photos from "A Not-So-Simple Majority."
S-Town host and This American Life Senior Producer Brian Reed spoke about the three key elements of a good story: action, reflection, and stakes.
Kim filed a $5-million lawsuit against Trainum and the D.C. Metropolitan PD.
Read our questions and their responses.
When we launched Serial, we learned how many people still didn’t know how to hear a podcast. Ira asked an octogenarian friend, Mary Ahearn, to help him explain it.
Ira recounts a time that bleeping a swear word on Minnesota Public Radio went horribly wrong.
Ira talks about tweeting and Shakespeare.
This school in Brooklyn is trying to avoid suspensions, detentions and basically all other forms of traditional punishment.
Maia surprises Alex with her Videos 4 U short where she finally says, “I love you.”
Episode 1 in our Videos 4 U series: we helped Maia say three words to her boyfriend she’d never said before. This video won an Emmy!
Since we ran our story, there's been several developments.
How to help the young girl from our Three Miles episode.
Some of the data gathered by his co-author seems to have been faked.
Dave Fleischer believes data was being fabricated from the beginning.
The centers may be selling the identities of drug users who wind up there.
Abdi has set up a Paypal account, if you would like to donate.
See the kids at work on the ship.
Episode 2 in our Videos 4 U series: We helped Maggie tell her parents that she had lots of tattoos, a fact she’d hidden for years.
Guys around the country signed up for a pen pal service. Here are some of those letters.
How to help the teenager who told her story of surviving abuse.
Our collaboration with The New Yorker. This was the cover of their Dec 7, 2015, issue. Everyone who got the digital version of that issue on this iPad or phone could push “play” and the cover would come to life as an animated short.
Experience the magic.
Sarah Koenig, host of Serial, talked to Stephen Colbert about Season Two.
A hilarious and honest look at the lives of professional funny people.
A list of groups we interacted with in Greece that are helping refugees.
“The program had the opposite effect we have hoped for.”
See photos of the WWII interrogation camp PO Box 1142.
See a video of his theatrical one-man show in France.
Ira explains how to use our Shortcut app to share clips from This American Life on social media.
15 million people watched this on Facebook. Right before the 2016 election, we asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about Donald Trump, but couldn’t say publicly. Leslie Odom Jr. sang.
The third song we commissioned on the eve of the 2016 election. Broadway composer Michael Friedman imagined what RNC Chairman Reince Priebus might be thinking, but not expressing publicly. John Ellison Conlee sang.
Ira on how the three original songs for the 2016 election came about.
Just before the 2016 election, we asked the Frozen songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez to imagine what Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was feeling, but couldn’t say publicly, about Donald Trump. Neil Patrick Harris sang the part of Paul Ryan.
As part of The Tonight Show’s Mixtape series, Brian Reed shared what podcasts he’s listening to, plus the storytelling styles that helped inspire S-Town.
Brian Reed, host of S-Town, talked to Jimmy Fallon about how a chance email sent by a fascinating Alabama antique clock restorer led to the podcast.
A Belgian appeals court delivered a verdict in his case.
See the inspiration for Teller's Red Ball trick.
"I really loved that cape. Felt very official."
See Bill Alexander and Marvin Barnard transform from freshmen to seniors.
Jeff Sessions believes undocumented workers drove down wages in Alabama poultry plants. We commissioned a study to see if he’s right.
A study by economist Giovanni Peri, who worked with us on our shows about Albertville, Alabama.
We commissioned an original cover of “9 to 5,” by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, and it’s fantastic. Chana and Robyn talk about how the song came to be. Also, now you can download the song.
Once a wall is built, it becomes a fact on the landscape that can totally change the logic of the world around it. In the episode “The Walls,” we have stories about people at walls all over the globe. Fly around to visit the walls in each story.
Footage of people rushing the fences in Melilla had appeared in Donald Trump’s first TV ad when he was running for president.
The film tells the real-life story of Carlton Pearson, who was a rising star in the Pentecostal church and Oral Roberts’s protégé.
The screenwriter Marcus Hinchey, who spent hundreds of hours talking to Bishop Pearson, chose favorite videos of him.
Ira Glass talks to the graduating journalists about the challenges they and all journalists face these days, with fewer people believing fact-based reporting.
Graeme told us in the interview that he’d often wondered if you could calculate how fast the brick would have been going as it whizzed past his head. Here's the problem. Do you know the solution?
In the final weeks of the primary election in New York 19th, Jeff Beals is devoting almost all of his time to canvassing.
Made using some of the rarest feathers in the world.
"To hear it out of the detectives' mouths, the complete disrespect...gut-wrenching.”
It’s been thrilling to come across YouTube videos of high schools staging the show.