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This American Life

This American Life

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Each week we choose a theme. Then anything can happen. This American Life is true stories that unfold like little movies for radio. Personal stories with funny moments, big feelings, and surprising plot twists. Newsy stories that try to capture what it’s like to be alive right now. It’s the most popular weekly podcast in the world, and winner of the first ever Pulitzer Prize for a radio show or podcast. Hosted by Ira Glass and produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago.Copyright 1995-2026 This American Life Arte Ciencias Sociales Política y Gobierno
Episodios
  • 605: Kid Logic
    Feb 15 2026

    Kids using perfectly logical arguments and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions.

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    • Prologue: Ira talks with Rebecca who, using perfectly valid evidence, arrived at the perfectly incorrect conclusion that her neighbor, Ronnie Loeberfeld, was the tooth fairy. Ira also talks with Dr. Alison Gopnik, co-author of the book, "The Scientist in the Crib," about what exactly kid logic is. (6 minutes)
    • Act One: More stories like the one in the prologue, where kids look at something going on around them, observe it carefully, think about it logically, and come to conclusions that are completely incorrect. (11 minutes)
    • Act Two: Michael Chabon reads an excerpt from his short story "Werewolves in Their Youth," from his collection of the same name, about an act of kid logic that succeeds where adult logic fails. (16 minutes)
    • Act Three: Howie Chackowicz tried a risky combination when he was little, kid logic with puppy love. He used to think that girls would fall in love with him if they could just see him sleeping or hear him read aloud. He revisits his biggest childhood crush and finds out that not only did his methods not work, but that no one even noticed them. (10 minutes)
    • Act Four: Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: Children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong. Including the tale of a girl who received a tissue box for Christmas, allegedly painted by trained monkeys. (13 minutes)

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    1 h y 1 m
  • 75: Kindness of Strangers
    Feb 8 2026

    An episode from our show's early days: Stories about what happens when strangers are kind — 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. You—gotta 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)

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    1 h y 1 m
  • 880: What Is Your Emergency?
    Feb 1 2026

    911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.

    Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.

    • 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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    59 m
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I’m nowhere near the age to have kids but if I were a parent I’d share and bond over this podcast and the truly life changing impact it’s had on my life and I. My favorite hour each week is spent on the edge of a metaphorical seat with Ira’s sultry whispering caressing my earbuds. 😅😘

Life changing, life defining

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Absolutely one of my favourite episodes, thank you! Would love it if you were able to do another such mystery episode regarding old houses or belongings and the search for the person's who owned them.

fantastic

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I hope you read these personally because I want you to know that I love these stories. I tell everyone I know to listen. Thank you for all that you think of, find and share.

Ira, you are the bezt

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I love the stories that they pick and choose and their discussion is very well done I have learned a lot in a lot in these podcasts good job!

Great Podcast

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just the absolute best podcast. I'm continually learning and just feel better having such rich content to absorb. Thank you Ira Glass!

loved this

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