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.
Some people in this country think Antifa is a dangerous domestic terror organization. Some think that’s a complete myth. This week we go to the federal trial where, for the first time, the government sets out to prove that Antifa is real. Zoe Chace reports.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Host Ira Glass tells the story of what happened at the Prairieland
Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The government claims this was an
attack by an Antifa cell. The defense says it was a protest gone awry.
This argument goes to court in a first of its kind trial. (7 minutes)Act 1: Reporter Zoe Chace walks us through one of the worst days for the
defense: all these guns. (5 minutes)Act 2: Zoe takes us through the testimony of the government’s Antifa expert.
The defense team is optimistic that things are going well for them. (8 minutes)Act 3: Zoe goes to jail to talk with one of the cooperating witnesses for the
prosecution, a former church lady named Lynette Sharp. She has a lot
to say about all the events of her life that led to taking a plea deal
and testifying against her friends. (24 minutes)Act 4: The verdicts come in. (12 minutes)
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890: Maximal Americanness
Sun, 05 Jul 2026
On this country's 250th birthday, we bring you stories about the most American people, places, objects, and social norms that make this country what it is.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks to Pablo Torre about Major League Baseball’s new challenge system, and how it’s been optimized for maximum drama. (10 minutes)Act One: Writer Jiayang Fan wrestles with a very common question she has never quite understood. (5 minutes)Act Two: People come from all over the country to walk down one of Michigan’s tallest sand dunes, and then promptly turn around and trudge back up. Aviva DeKornfeld talks to Americans spending their limited vacation time on this punishing activity. (8 minutes)Act Three: Emanuele Berry talks to Ira about Season 13 of the reality TV show, Survivor, known to fans as the “race war” season. (8 minutes)Act Four: Years before his famous dictionary, Noah Webster wrote a book that took on a life of its own and served an unexpected purpose. (8 minutes)Act Five: Emmanuel Dzotsi investigates a musical phenomenon very particular to the United States: singers embellishing the end of the national anthem. (9 minutes)
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128: Four Corners
Sun, 28 Jun 2026
We try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners, in four different states across the nation.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks about the Four Corners tourist monument where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet. (2 minutes)Act One: Sarah Vowell has a theory that you can tell the entire history of the United States by standing on one street corner—specifically at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive in Chicago—and describing all the events that happened within eyeshot of the corner. She covers three centuries of history, from Louis Joliet to Keanu Reeves. (21 minutes)Act Two: Scott Richer and Julie Riggs of Louisville, Kentucky, were supposed to have their first kiss at the corner where South Fourth Street meets the alley behind the West End Baptist Church. But it went wrong. (7 minutes)Act Three: Writer Mike Paterniti tells a story of dogs and a community of dogwalkers that formed on the grounds of an old cemetery at the corner of Vaughn and Clifford in Portland, Maine. (14 minutes)Act Four: Writer Achy Obejas reads a piece of short fiction from her book, We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? (11 minutes)
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889: There’s Something About Hail Mary
Sun, 21 Jun 2026
We spend an hour in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, behind and desperate, with people trying any damn thing they can think of.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Five years after Ora first started experiencing mysterious and debilitating health problems, she decides to try a treatment that she knows very well might kill her. Host Ira Glass talks to her about the experience. (9 minutes)Act One: Two lawyers have just three months to stop their client's execution. In Texas, where this story takes place, these kinds of appeals to get people off death row fail 94% of the time. (38 minutes)Act Two: At the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, migrants figured out an ingenious way to communicate with the activists gathered outside of the detention center’s walls. (13 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy. Learn more about sponsor message choices.
888: Not Today, Hades!
Sun, 07 Jun 2026
Regular people trapped inside Greek myths.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: When a mysterious, ripped-open package arrives on Pablo's doorstep, he takes it as a sign. (4 minutes)Act One: Pablo flies closer to the sun. (14 minutes)Act Two: In Greek mythology, there's Hades, where everyone goes when they die. You have to cross the river Styx to get there, and there’s a gate with this three-headed dog. He’s guarding the entrance and he’s supposed to make sure only actual dead people enter. This story is about a real person in America who stood at those very gates. Which is not the easiest job it turns out, at least not right now. (24 minutes)Act Three: A mortal gets the assignment of a lifetime — to go interview an actual god who is living on earth, traveling under the name of Lionel Messi. (11 minutes)
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887: Two Is One, One Is None!
Sun, 17 May 2026
One family faces the Trump administration’s ban on trans people serving in the military, and responds with a surprising secret weapon.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: 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. (4 minutes)Act One: Geirid and Chrissy make an “in case of emergency, break glass” spreadsheet and get some big news. (14 minutes)Act Two: Geirid and Chrissy have less than a month to make a life-changing decision. The government gives them two options, and they try to find a third. (21 minutes)Act Three: A short story from Rachel Khong: Two people have a very consequential choice to make, given to them by God. (15 minutes)
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886: Blackout
Sun, 03 May 2026
Since the war began in Iran, we've heard very little from people inside the country — and there's a reason for that. The entire country has been under an internet blackout. We worked with reporters Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour to get voice memos out of the country. Even though it was dangerous and difficult, people wanted to be heard.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Shirin's parents suddenly disappear into the blackout. (5 minutes)Act One: It’s a war and a blackout. People want to talk about both. (17 minutes)Act Two: What happened before America and Israel went to war with Iran. (9 minutes)Act Three: Iranians have many opinions about the war, and about each other. (12 minutes)Act Four: What happened inside Iran the night President Trump threatened that "a whole civilization could die." And a clue about where the internet blackout is headed. (19 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy. Learn more about sponsor message choices.
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.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Guest Host Emanuele Berry talks to Nichole Hill about the Black movie characters Nichole was curious about as a child. (7 minutes)Act One: A giant of the Harlem Renaissance, Paul Robeson was the most famous American of his day. Until he wasn’t. Nichole Hill tells the messy, complicated story of Paul and his wife, Essie Robeson. (38 minutes)Act Two: In 1865, a formerly enslaved man named Jourdan Anderson received a letter from his former enslaver, asking Jourdan to return to the plantation and work. Actor Laurence Fishburne reads Jourdan’s response.
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy. Learn more about sponsor message choices.
884: The Idiot
Sun, 29 Mar 2026
M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Act One: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about the surprising events that prompted them to begin reporting on their own family for their new podcast, The Idiot. They play the first episode of the series. (14 minutes)Act Two: Ira Glass and M Gessen continue to talk through the story of M’s cousin, Allen Gessen. They play more clips from the podcast, and we finally hear about the big, shocking thing that snapped their family apart. (20 minutes)Act Three: M Gessen tells Ira Glass about Allen’s trial, and we hear a recording of his conversation with the undercover agent. (21 minutes)
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883: Call Your Parents
Sun, 22 Mar 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.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: Ira talks about why four conversations reveal how his relationship with his parents changed. (4 minutes)Act One: Ira’s mom, Shirley, is invited to lead a discussion about how to get along with your adult children. Her adult children question her expertise. (9 minutes)Act Two: Ira asks his parents for advice on how he should build the radio show. His parents don’t hold back. (9 minutes)Act Three: Ira talks with his dad, Barry, about Barry’s own brief and doomed career in radio. (21 minutes)Act Four: An interview with Ira’s mom that, to this day, makes Ira’s skin crawl. (13 minutes)
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New Lore Drop
Fri, 09 Jan 2026
People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know and suddenly everything looks very different.
Ira Glass talks with longtime producer Nancy Updike about the most personal stories they have put on the radio. This is a sample of the bonus episodes we regularly release to our This American Life Partners.
To gain access to all the bonus episodes AND help us keep making This American Life, join at thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.
A Big Announcement
Wed, 16 Oct 2024
Ira Glass has news to share about some things happening here at This American Life.
To sign up as a Life Partner, visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.
