This American Life

How they organize the chaos of the world, for good and for bad. Prologue: Ira interviews David Wallechinsky, who wrote a wildly popular book in the 1970s called The Book of Lists, full of trivia ...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/831/lists

The trial for the men accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks still hasn’t started yet. Family members of those who died that day are still hoping for some kind of accounta...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/830/the-forever-trial

For years, Majid believed that if he could testify in court about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA black site, a judge and jury would give him a break. Finally, he got a chance to s...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/829/two-ledgers

While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town, destroying about a third of it. When they emerged from the dance, they discover...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/186/prom

People taking it upon themselves to solve the tiny, overlooked crimes of the world. Prologue: Host Ira Glass bikes around Manhattan with Gersh Kuntzman, in search of illegal license plates. (11 m...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/828/minor-crimes-division

The things we break and the ones we can't fix. Prologue: Ira tells the stories of three things that broke–two of them in his own family. (8 minutes) Act One: A teenage whiz kid invents a new t...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/827/all-the-kings-horses

People waking up to the fact that the world has suddenly changed. Prologue: Jackson Landers tells the story of a very strange decision he made one summer day. (6 minutes) Act One: Elena Kostyuch...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/826/unprepared-for-what-has-already-happened

A series of phone calls to a man in Gaza named Yousef Hammash, between early December and now. He talks about what he and his family are experiencing, sometimes as they are experiencing it. Act O...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/825/yousef

Your mother and I have something we want to talk with you about. Prologue: A family sits down to discuss one thing. But then the true purpose of the meeting emerges. (9 ½ minutes) Act One: For ...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/824/family-meeting

An investigation of when and why people ask loaded questions that are a proxy for something else. Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks with producer Tobin Low about the question he got asked after he a...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/823/the-question-trap

Even when you're not trying to get one over on someone, it can be useful to keep the truth to yourself. Or conversely, to not know why people are lying to your face all the time. This week we'll ...

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/552/need-to-know-basis