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12.30.2005
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Stories about seeing and being seen. Taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City in December 1998, this was a co-production with WNYC New York, featuring live music by the pop band They Might Be Giants and the This American Life Orchestra. |
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12.23.2005
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A full-throttle, show-stopping, no-holds-barred Christmas Spectacular! Shedding the crusty old Christmas stories of yore, this year we bring you brand new holiday classics. With special musical guest Marah! |
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12.16.2005
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Carlton Pearson's church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the reverend. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse: He stopped believing in Hell. |
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12.09.2005
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The mob as portrayed in movies, and as it is in real life. And its hold over us. |
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12.02.2005
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Variations on an old tale, with very modern consequences. Cambodia is competing with other nations for the business of big clothing companies all over the world...but they've vowed to follow fair labor practices. Other countries end up with the contracts, and the profits. So an official Cambodian committee sets out on a mission to convince the U.S. Congress to give them a special trade agreement. Also, a story as old as David and Goliath themselves: the tale of big sister vs. little sister. |
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11.25.2005
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Our program's very first broadcast. |
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11.18.2005
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Someone once said, "If you're not willing to be changed by a place, there's no point in going." This week, stories about what happens when you land in a whole new world. |
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11.11.2005
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Erin Einhorn grew up begging her mother to tell her all about the remarkable story of how she survived World War Two, thanks to a Polish woman named Honorata Skowronski, who risked her life. But her mother didn't like to talk about it. And somehow, her family didn't consider Honorata a hero. So Erin went to Poland, hoping to find the Skowronski family and reintroduce them to her mom, and figure out what happened. Erin elaborates on this story in her book, The Pages In Between. |
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11.04.2005
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In early 2003, we brought you a special show about a California teenager, Hyder Akbar, who traveled to Afghanistan, his family's homeland, for the first time. His father had moved back to work for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Hyder brought along a tape recorder, and his audio diary, produced by Susan Burton, won the Silver Award for Best Documentary at the 2003 Third Coast International Audio Festival. This summer, Hyder returned to Afghanistan, to the rural province of Kunar, where his family is from and where his father is now governor. In this new audio diary, Hyder has amazing access to all sorts of things few reporters get to see: U.S. forces interrogating a suspected terrorist, soldiers trying to mediate between the new Afghan government and local people, and more. His recordings were produced for radio by Susan Burton, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. |
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10.28.2005
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About a year ago, a study estimated the number of Iraqi casualties since the war began at 100,000 dead — higher than any other estimate. The study was mostly ignored. Alex Blumberg revisits that study to look at the reality behind it. In Act One he reports that not only is the study probably accurate, but it says that most of the deaths were caused by Coalition forces (despite concerted efforts to avoid civilian casualties). In Act Two, we hear U.S. forces trying to cope in the aftermath of some of those deaths. |
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10.21.2005
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Stories about kids being mean to each other. |
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10.14.2005
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Instead of the regular "each week we choose a theme, and bring you three or four stories on that theme" business, this week we throw all that away and bring you twenty stories—yes, twenty—in sixty minutes. Inspiration for this week's show came from the Neo-Futurists, whose long-running Chicago show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind promises 30 Plays in 60 Minutes every single weekend. |
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10.07.2005
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Stories about people and places that have come back to life after everything seemed lost. |
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09.30.2005
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Fans of movie musicals might know about something called the "I Wish" number. In many movies and Broadway shows, it's the main character's first song, in which they express the hope that will set the story in motion. Host Ira Glass explains it, and plays a few examples. (7 minutes) |
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09.23.2005
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How far will we go to get money? And once we've got it, what should we spend it on? The first half of this show is on making money, and the second half on spending it. |
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09.16.2005
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It's the largest mass resettlement that America has seen since the Civil War, as over 400,000 people — victims of Hurricane Katrina — try to find a new place to live. From the Houston Astrodome to an abandoned New Orleans street, stories of people looking for home ... and finding something else. |
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09.09.2005
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Surprising stories from survivors in New Orleans. We give people who were in the storm more time than daily news coverage can to tell their stories and talk about what they're thinking. This leads to a number of ideas that haven't made it into the regular news coverage. |
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09.02.2005
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We make what's usually invisible, visible: the world of trash. We follow the trash from the sanitation men on the street, to the mob guys who controlled the hauling business, to the people who actually live in dumps. |
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08.26.2005
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Stories about being sucked into something against your will. In one story, a 9/11 widow finds herself having to comfort another distraught woman on national TV. And in a story by Nick Hornby, a boy is forced to play soccer to save his nation. |
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08.19.2005
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Stories of people trying to love their neighbors ... and failing. |
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08.12.2005
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Some stories we make happen, others happen to us. Extremes from the latter category, where people let things happen to them and don't act, even when maybe they should. David Rakoff guest hosts. |
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08.05.2005
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Stories of people and institutions who are worried about what the world thinks of them, and who take action ... decisive action. |
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07.29.2005
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How, one might wonder, could a simple hunk of cheese drive a wedge between an aging aunt and her devoted niece? Sure, every family has its share of grudges, secrets and bad behavior. What's harder to understand is how those things end up changing family relationships in ways no one could have predicted. Three stories about family legends that have either been kicking around for years or been completely suppressed. |
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07.22.2005
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Bob Berenz had a good job as an electrician. But he wanted to do something bigger. He came up with an idea for an invention. But as he studied physics texts to see if his invention could work, he happened upon the biggest idea of his life: a revelation about physics that would disprove Einstein, and Newton. That is...if Bob's right. This, and other stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little. |
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07.15.2005
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Home movies are often all the same — kids on the beach, people getting married, birthday parties — so why do we make and watch so many of them? Maybe it's because the story they show and the story they tell are different. In this show, we bring you five stories that all start with a fairly typical home movie but go on to tell a unique story. |
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07.08.2005
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The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man named Hemant Lakhani, whom they suspected of being an illegal arms dealer. It's one of the few cases that has gone to trial in the War on Terror, and one the Justice Department has pointed to as one of their big successes. In the end, they got Lakhani, red-handed, delivering a missile to a terrorist in New Jersey. The only problem was, nothing in the sting was what it appeared to be. Including the missile. |
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07.01.2005
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Stories about getting back together with your spouse, your country, your...Brahman bull. And how it never goes the way you think it's going to. |
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06.24.2005
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Stories of summer camp. People who love camp say that non-camp people simply don't understand what's so amazing about camp. In this program, we attempt to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between camp people and non-camp people. |
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06.17.2005
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Three stories about people who decide to try out a new life — the kind of life their parents never wanted for them. |
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06.10.2005
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Today's show is devoted to just one story. Contributing editor Nancy Updike went to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone. Private contractors are a part of this war in unprecedented numbers, but we don't know that much about the people doing these jobs — why they chose to come to Iraq, and what they're seeing that we can't. |
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06.03.2005
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At a time when House Majority Leader Tom Delay calls for enacting a "Biblical world view" in government, when Christians are asserting their ideals in the selection of judges, in public school science classes and elsewhere, This American Life spends an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place. |
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05.27.2005
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Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human. |
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05.20.2005
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Two stories that are worst case scenarios for any parent. In each story, when you take apart what happened and how it happened, it's hard to see how anyone could've prevented things from going bad. |
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05.13.2005
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In this show, sons and daughters get to find out the one thing they've always wanted to know about their father. The answers aren't always what they hope for. |
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05.06.2005
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Stories about how easy it is for communication to go awry, and what the consequences can be after it does. |
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04.29.2005
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Stories of people living completely outside the grid of American life. Americans in Paris. Chinese in America. West Virginians in treehouses. Mexican-Americans in Rochester. |
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04.22.2005
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Though being gay no longer has much of a stigma in some parts of the country, being a sissy still does—even among gay men. In this show we have a number of surprising and unusual stories of sissies, their families, and why people still get so upset about them. |
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04.15.2005
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Stories about people who end up making choices they'd rather not make, when their options begin to run out. Sometimes this works out great; sometimes not so great. |
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04.08.2005
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Stories of people who try simple mind games on others, and then find themselves way in over their heads. |
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04.01.2005
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Stories trying to understand what actually happens in marriages during this time when the definition of marriage is up in the air. Music throughout the hour by a real wedding band, a good one: The Doug Lawrence Orchestra. |
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03.25.2005
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Stories about trying to understand who's on your side. The defense mnister of Israel visits would-be suicide bombers in prison, only to find out that in at least one case, he feels sorry for the terrorist. A prosecutor tries to censor a punk rock star. He takes him to court, but never bothers to listen to his lyrics. During the trial, he begins to think twice about his mission. Plus other stories. |
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03.18.2005
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Life aboard the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea that's supporting bombing missions over Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Only a few dozen people on board actually fly F-18s and F-14s. It takes the rest of the crew — over 5,000 people — to keep them in the air. One person stocks vending machines, twelve hours a day. Hundreds prepare food and do laundry. There are several different garage bands, each with its own following. This American Life producers Wendy Dorr, Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass visited the Stennis in January of 2002, about six weeks into its deployment. The entire hour is devoted to this one story. |
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03.11.2005
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Stories about people teetering on the edge of this question: Should they stay or go? A software writer loses his job, but refuses to go away. He continues to show up at work, sneaking in the door each day and putting in long hours on a project the company cancelled. A student from Pakistan finishes four years of college in Philadelphia and has to decide whether to move back home. And other stories. |
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03.04.2005
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Stories of family businesses, and what happens when the tension of family dynamics collides with the pressure of capitalist market forces. |
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02.25.2005
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Stories about people who are remembered very differently than they'd wished. The ghost of a kindly, distinguished philanthropist supposedly plays pranks on guests at a Ramada hotel in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A dying mother makes a tape for her developmentally disabled daughter, hoping she'll watch it someday, knowing she might not. |
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02.18.2005
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People return to the scene of the crime where they should have spoken clearly, plainly, forcefully ... to review what the hell went wrong, and in a few cases, to fix it. Jonathan Goldstein tries to stop time. Charles Monroe tries to figure out how to teach a lesson to the President of the United States. |
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02.11.2005
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After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself. He becomes a do-it-yourself investigator. He learns to read court records, he tracks down hard-to-find witnesses, he gets the real murderer to come forward with his story. In the end, he's able to accomplish all sorts of things the police and the professionals can't. |
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02.04.2005
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What is this thing? This thing called love, that is. For answers, we explore the romance novel industry, a $1.5 billion empire run almost entirely by and for women. Plus, relearning the rules of romance from the other side of the gender line. And Sarah Vowell tells the story of the Greatest Romance of the 20th Century. |
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01.28.2005
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We take the stately laws of physics — laws which mathmaticians and scientists have spent centuries discovering and verifying — and apply them to the realm of human relationships, to see if they shed useful light on our daily lives. |
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01.21.2005
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Sometimes, getting your big break isn't all it's cracked up to be. A comedy duo lands the gig that can make them famous—the Ed Sullivan Show at the height of Sullivan's popularity—and they bomb. A third-grader gets his big chance to please his mother and push his drunken father out of the picture. And other stories. |
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01.14.2005
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There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon...switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life. |
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01.07.2005
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What life is like for American soldiers in Iraq. |
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