This American Life

4.8 (78K) · SOCIETY & CULTURE · UPDATED WEEKLY

This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast. Each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. Most of the stories are journalism, with a few exceptions.

2D AGO

#847: The Empty Nest Syndrome Except When It's Not Empty

Three stories about parents who expected to be done raising kids — and then weren't. A mom whose 30-year-old son moves back in after a breakup, a dad who discovers his "empty nest" is full of secrets, and a couple whose daughter never actually left.

9D AGO

#846: The Rules of the Game

Stories about rules — official ones, unofficial ones, and ones that only exist in one person's head. Ira Glass on what happens when you follow a rule so literally you lose sight of the point. Plus: a game show in Appalachia with stakes no one expected.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

#845: The Long Way Home — Bonus Episode

An extended version of our most-downloaded episode of 2025, with 20 extra minutes of reporting from the border, including interviews that didn't make the broadcast cut and an update on the families we profiled six months ago.

23D AGO

#844: Kid Logic

Children making decisions that seem completely rational — to them. A seven-year-old's airtight case for why she should have a pet tiger, a ten-year-old who starts his own hedge fund with birthday money, and a teen who hacks the school grading system to give everyone an A.

30D AGO

#843: The Incident

An incident that seems minor at the time but turns out to be anything but. Reporter Zoe Chace on a single school board meeting in a small Ohio town that cracked the community open. Then: a parking dispute in Seattle that ended in an unlikely friendship.

37D AGO

#842: The Big Picture

Three stories about people trying to see the forest for the trees. A NASA scientist who stepped back to realize the mission she was working on had been quietly cancelled. A restaurant critic who zoomed out and wrote the review of an entire city's food culture.

44D AGO

#841: Invisible Hand

Stories about unseen forces shaping our lives. An economist discovers that a decades-old algorithm is quietly influencing what apartments are available in every American city. Plus: the invisible labor in a professional kitchen that no one talks about.

51D AGO

#840: Fiasco! The Holiday Edition

Our annual Fiasco episode — stories of plans that went spectacularly, hilariously wrong. This year: a Christmas pageant that accidentally became a real nativity scene, and a New Year's Eve party for 400 that ended with everyone in the dark.

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Hosts & Guests

Ira GlassHost

4.8

out of 5

78K Ratings

The podcast that invented podcasting

I've been listening since the CD era. This American Life consistently produces the best audio storytelling on earth. Ira Glass has an unmatched ability to find the universal in the specific. A true national treasure.

RadioheadFan1983 · Mar 7, 2026

Every episode is a gift

After 800+ episodes, TAL still has the ability to surprise me, move me, and make me see the world differently. The reporting is always thorough and the storytelling is exquisite. Nothing else comes close.

NprLover · Feb 22, 2026

Changed how I think about radio

I grew up listening to TAL with my parents. Now I listen with my kids. The show has an intergenerational quality that's almost impossible to achieve. Some episodes are harder than others but the best ones are transcendent.

ChicagoListener · Jan 30, 2026

About

This American Life is a weekly public radio show and podcast. Hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on more than 500 public radio stations, it's one of the most popular podcasts in the United States with over 2.2 million weekly listeners. The show is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago. Each week, TAL takes a theme and explores it through a mixture of journalism, essays, first-person narratives, and fiction. The show has won the Peabody Award six times, and has launched the careers of some of America's most celebrated journalists and storytellers, including the creators of Serial, S-Town, and Radiolab.