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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 3h

Ira's sold-out live show in LA is streaming for Life Partners on October 9! Sign up by Friday to watch, free trial with code LIVESTREAM: thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 05/10/2026

"The rarest thing in podcasting is for somebody to invent something that feels completely new. And with this show, he has done that." Ira on Sayre Quevedo's podcast "Reaching Out." Hear excerpts on our new episode: link.podtrac.com/0dc5axni

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 01/10/2026

Ira has spent a surprising amount of his working life talking to lawyers about dirty words. Case in point: a story about teenagers tearing tickets at a movie theater and telling customers "enjoy your chode." 🤣 From Ike's story in Act Two of "Integenerational Space Travel" link.podtrac.com/78g1b584

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 28/09/2026

Every morning, Myra Flynn finds herself in a standoff with her daughter over her hair. Recently, to understand why these hair sessions are so fraught, Myra started recording them. Hear their conversations in Act Three: link.podtrac.com/78g1b584

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 28/09/2026

Ten years ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones chose a regular public school for her daughter in NYC and challenged other parents to do the same. Now her daughter, Najya, is 16 and has very different views. Hear their conversations. link.podtrac.com/7f47ltjo

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 25/09/2026

Nikole Hannah-Jones's essay about the school she chose for her daughter launched conversations everywhere. Chana Joffe-Walt has been talking with Nikole as she prepared that essay. She also talked at length with Nikole's daughter. Hear their conversations in our new episode, out tonight.

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 25/09/2026

The distance between two generations can feel vast. Our latest episode has people trying to cross it, with a wedding toast, a fight over hair, and one teenager's idea of the greatest job in the world. link.podtrac.com/78g1b584

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 23/09/2026

Some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify. They made no sense to the staff reading them – until someone from a younger generation cracked the code. Hear the story: link.podtrac.com/78g1b584

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 21/09/2026

When Ike was a teen, he worked at a movie theater in Madison, Wisconsin — cummerbund and all. Twenty years later, he went back to see if it's still the coolest job a teenager can get. Hear the full story: link.podtrac.com/78g1b584

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 17/09/2026

Get your tickets for our live performance in Los Angeles on October 9. Ira Glass will tell stories and comedians will do improv, based on the stories. Featuring Vic Michaelis and friends! Tickets: anightofstories.eventbrite.com

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 31/08/2026

A guy hooked two Claude chatbots up to talk to each other. Each one insisted it was the real AI, and the other one was human. What happens when they can't stop talking? Hear the story: link.podtrac.com/9vt8yh5y

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 27/08/2026

With the news about the USS Abraham Lincoln and the strain on its crew, Ira revisits the time he saw real life aboard a carrier. Hear the episode: link.podtrac.com/l3ce8yri

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 24/08/2026

People kept asking comedian Janet McNamara the same question for years: do you think you might be autistic? Her story's in our new episode: link.podtrac.com/69gmx4nb

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 17/08/2026

Ira and Tobin were both called "husky" as kids. Decades later, neither of them has quite shaken it. This week's episode has four stories about the power of labels. Listen: link.podtrac.com/69gmx4nb

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 17/08/2026

The teenager Ira Glass related to more than anyone he's ever done a story about. Hear the episode: link.podtrac.com/mzgo0jov

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 28/07/2026

"This is not something that brings about workplace harmony." link.podtrac.com/iyht3kjx

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 22/07/2026

😬 🍎 Hear the whole story: www.thisamericanlife.org/892/trapped-...

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 22/07/2026

A beloved tree in England, more than 100 years old, is mysteriously cut down overnight, leaving the country bereft and enraged and out for justice. www.thisamericanlife.org/892/trapped-...

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 17/07/2026

The government set out to prove that Antifa is real, in the first federal case charging people with material support to terrorists for their involvement. link.podtrac.com/a2cz4psl

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 16/07/2026

Months ago, an ICE attorney who trained new recruits told us he was worried about what the poor training they were receiving would lead to. This week, a new recruit shot a man in Maine. www.thisamericanlife.org/give-a-littl...

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 06/07/2026

Just one of the stories in our newest episode, "Maximal Americanness" www.thisamericanlife.org/890/maximal-...

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 28/06/2026

How do you get a message out of a detention center? At an ICE facility in San Diego, detainees figured it out — bottles with notes taped on, thrown over 90 feet of wall. Listen: bit.ly/3SlDINf

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 22/06/2026

Two lawyers have just 12 weeks to stop their client's execution in Texas, where appeals like this fail 94% of the time. link.podtrac.com/p0gy8au4 You'll hear part of this story on our show this week. It's from "The Last 12 Weeks," the new podcast from @serialproductions.bsky.social.

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 15/06/2026

In the 1960s, a TV repairman saw an opportunity to help people cheat death with cryonics. But freezing dead people isn’t easy. And apologizing for the mistakes made along the way? Even harder. link.podtrac.com/htdxo9zz

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 11/06/2026

Bonus episode: Ira plays three stories by Alex Chadwick, who he looked up to back in his twenties when he was trying to figure out how to make radio. Subscribe to hear the full episode: bit.ly/4vIKF9s

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 08/06/2026

A Social Security Administration veteran was asked by DOGE to declare 2.7 million people dead. The problem is, they were alive. Find out what he did on our show this week. link.podtrac.com/6cxk5300

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 18/05/2026

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. link.podtrac.com/qi557nin

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 18/05/2026

One family faces the Trump administration’s ban on trans people serving in the military, and responds with a surprising secret weapon. link.podtrac.com/qi557nin

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 11/05/2026

Their neighbor made their lives miserable for years. Carved slurs into their lawn with weed killer. Killed their cat. Then he threw out his trash — and they found his social security number. 🎧 With Great Power: link.podtrac.com/i7xnisph

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 07/05/2026

Ira has always believed commencement speeches are a doomed form. In 2012, he gave one anyway. It's better than most graduation speeches, which is exactly what he was afraid of. We released Ira's speech as a bonus episode for Life Partners. Sign up to hear it and support the show: bit.ly/40LYPIO

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 30/04/2026

Ira went digging through decades of old recordings. In the fourth box: something he's been looking for. Become a Life Partner and hear the bonus episode to find out what's on the tape: bit.ly/40LYPIO

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 27/04/2026

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. link.podtrac.com/20kld7ss

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 13/04/2026

This week: @nicholehill.bsky.social takes us inside a very big American life. A man who became one of the most famous people in the world — and then, all of a sudden, was not. link.podtrac.com/kumc9ulj

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 13/04/2026

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. link.podtrac.com/kumc9ulj

A photo of Paul and Essie Robeson standing on a boat, waving at the camera

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 06/04/2026

Sarah Koenig on the time Robert Redford showed up at her house for dinner and stole all her parents' attention. Young Sarah was not pleased, and Robert Redford paid the price. link.podtrac.com/flozd99h

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 27/03/2026

This week's episode started as a bonus for our Life Partners subscribers. That's the kind of thing they get: personal and behind-the-scenes stories that don't make it into the regular feed. Join today: bit.ly/4debpbY

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 25/03/2026

This week, Ira revisits a series of interviews he did with his own parents that changed his relationship with them in ways he never saw coming. Listen to our new episode: "Call Your Parents." link.podtrac.com/r12ywz3z

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 23/03/2026

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. link.podtrac.com/dw4ij7n6

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 10/03/2026

This week's episode almost had a very different title. "Give a Little Whistle" is out now: link.podtrac.com/iehabou3

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 09/03/2026

Immigration officials have been doing a lot of things lately that are hard to explain. When asked why, the answers aren't frank — they're talking points, many of which don't turn out to be true. Two lawyers who work for ICE just lifted the curtain. link.podtrac.com/iehabou3

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 02/03/2026

A classic episode, back in your feed this week. David Rakoff. Starlee Kine. And an office so chaotic that they hired a psychic. link.podtrac.com/ijguudw5

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 24/02/2026

8 days out, 42 minutes of the episode still didn't exist. Totally normal here. 🙃 Listen from the future to our new episode "I Want What I Want" link.podtrac.com/amocu3ws

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 24/02/2026

Evan made a list of all 17 of his exes and set out to reconnect with every one of them. The first 16 were fine. Ex number 17 was another story. link.podtrac.com/amocu3ws

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 23/02/2026

A kid who wants to get stung by a bee. A man who tracks down all 17 of his exes. A judge who does the unexpected. Listen to our new episode: I Want What I Want. link.podtrac.com/amocu3ws

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 23/02/2026

A family of beekeepers in Georgia has two very different sons: Carver, who follows every rule, and Aaro, who is more carefree. Carver is the only member of his family who's never been stung. Until now — when he decides he wants to. link.podtrac.com/amocu3ws

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 23/02/2026

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. link.podtrac.com/amocu3ws

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 16/02/2026

This week: Kids looking at the world around them, observing it carefully, thinking through it logically — and arriving at conclusions that are completely wrong. link.podtrac.com/05lxmoko

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 14/02/2026

A guy on a NYC subway platform starts walking up to strangers one by one: "You're in" or "You're out." What happens when it's your turn? This week, we revisited a classic from our early days—Kindness of Strangers. Listen: link.podtrac.com/3a6qlfrx

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This American Life @thisamericanlife.org · 10/02/2026

Brett 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. link.podtrac.com/3a6qlfrx

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