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This American Life

This American Life

By: This American Life
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About this listen

 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 Art Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar

    879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar
    Jan 18 2026

    When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.

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    • Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a new government, Sharief and the other comedians of “Styria” set out on a national tour to see how far their comedy can go in this new Syria. (6 minutes)
    • Act One: The comedians test out risky material and get big laughs on early tour dates. It’s going smoothly until they find out that their show scheduled in the conservative city of Hama is in danger of being cancelled. (13 minutes)
    • Act Two: The comedians go to battle with local officials. (18 minutes)
    • Act Three: The comedians try everything they can think of to keep their shows from being cancelled. (20 minutes)

    Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • The Americans Outside My Window

    The Americans Outside My Window
    Jan 12 2026

    In this special mini-episode -- an extra episode this week! -- we hear from someone in Venezuela with a very specific take on last week's U.S. attack.
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    19 mins
  • 878: New Lore Drop

    878: New Lore Drop
    Jan 11 2026

    People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know, and suddenly everything looks very different.

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

    • Prologue: When Pete turned 18, his dad took him on a drive to reveal a family secret he was finally old enough to know. (11 minutes)
    • Act One: Sometimes, a lore drop comes when you least expect it. That happened to Jake Cornell and his grandmother. Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talked to Jake about it. (14 minutes)
    • Act Two: Ben Austen had a kind of new lore drop happen to him recently. But it was not the clarifying kind of lore drop, where everything suddenly makes sense — it was kind of the opposite. (29 minutes)

    Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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    1 hr
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant quality. Each episode is a standalone deep dive into a topic. Often moving and funny, always interesting.

Superb

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Although some episodes shine more brightly than others, almost all episodes are brilliant. Usually the episodes are thematically linked with 2 or 3 parts. There are episodes that stay with you for weeks or months. Please don't be put off by the name, it's one of my favourites (alongside Radiolab, Titting off and we can do hard things.

Don't be put off by the title

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I've been listening to TAL for around ten years now. I've listened to hundreds of different episodes and some I've gone back to and listened to 2, 3, maybe 6 times. Every episode is different so some stories will grab you, and others won't, but there's episodes that will stick with you for life (for me, it's the Mormon guy in Utah who had to give up his kids). This is my go-to podcast, my comfort show - and I'm not even American!

ten years on and this is still my comfort show

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