Datei Datum Inhalt Dauer #483 07.01 Self-Improvement Kick A perfectly normal guy gets rid of everything he owns, changes his name, says goodbye to his friends — and begins walking. In the name of peace. And Honduran government officials try to heal their corrupt country by starting a perfect city, from scratch. For the new year, we bring you stories about how far some people go in hopes of a better life. 59:25 #484 14.01 Doppelgängers Calamari is on one side of the plate, sliced hog rectums are on the other. Which is which? We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. Doppelgangers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. Fred Armisen co-hosts with Ira Glass. 59:39 #173 21.01 Three Kinds of Deception A story of self-deception, a story about deceiving others, and a story about accidental deception. And how one type of deception can easily turn into another. (Wh. vom 15.12.2000) 59:12 #485 28.01 Surrogates This week we look at people who see themselves in others and try to live out their lives through stand-ins — including the story of what one father saw in the convicted murderer he decided to adopt. And the proxy battle over a woman’s honor that became a presidential obsession. 58:42 #188 04.02 Kid Logic Stories of kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions. (Wh. vom 22.06.2001) 59:90 #486 11.02 Valentine’s Day 2013 Love makes us do crazy things. But usually not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes to find and pursue their one true love. 59:46 #487 18.02 Harper High School, Part One We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter; Part One airs this week, Part Two is next week. 59:19 #488 25.02 Harper High School, Part Two We pick up where we left off last week in our second hour from Harper High School in Chicago. We find out if a shooting in the neighborhood will derail the school's Homecoming game and dance. We hear the origin story of one of Harper's gangs. And we ask a group of teenagers: where do you get your guns? 64:11 #489 04.03 No Coincidence, No Story! We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall. 59:56 #226 11.03 Reruns Stories of people stuck in their own personal reruns—moments or episodes that they revisit over and over again. (Wh. vom 06.12.2002) 59:25 #233 18.03 Starting from Scratch Stories of people starting over, sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to. (Wh. vom 07.03.2003) 60:05 #458 08.04 Play the Part Stories of people who decide to flip their personalities and do the exact opposite of what they normally do. (Wh. vom 17.02.2012) 59:52 #492 15.04 Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde Dr. Benjamin Gilmer gets a job at a rural clinic. He finds out he’s replaced someone — also named Dr. Gilmer — who went to prison after killing his own father. But the more Benjamin’s patients talk about the other Dr. Gilmer, the more confused he becomes. Everyone loved the old Dr. Gilmer. So Benjamin starts digging around, trying to understand how a good man can seemingly turn bad. 65:20 #493 22.04 Picture Show This week, Israeli soldiers take snapshots of Palestinian boys, one house at a time, in the middle of the night. 59:51 #104 29.04 Music Lessons What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM, during the 1998 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco. (Wh. vom 05.06.1998) 59:27 #494 06.05 Hit the Road It's spring, so we're opening windows and going places. This week we have stories of people who, for reasons that they can't always explain, feel compelled to get out and go somewhere. Including the story of one man who decides to take a trip from Philadelphia to San Francisco — by foot. 59:30 #27 13.05 The Cruelty of Children Stories about kids being mean to each other... including a mysterious handbook for bullies, a surprising experiment conducted by a teacher who wants to make kids be nice, and a story of youthful backstabbing told by David Sedaris. (Wh. vom 21.06.1996) 59:25 #495 20.05 Hot In My Backyard After years of being stuck, the national conversation on climate change finally started to shift — just a little — last year, the hottest year on record in the U.S., with Hurricane Sandy flooding the New York subway, drought devastating Midwest farms, and California and Colorado on fire. Lots of people were wondering if global warming had finally arrived, here at home. This week, stories about this new reality. 62:47 #205 27.05 Plan B 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. (Wh. vom 01.02.2002) 60:21 #496 03.06 When Patents Attack... Part Two! Two years ago, we did a program about a mysterious business in Texas that threatens companies with lawsuits for violating its patents. But the world of patent lawsuits is so secretive, there were basic questions we could not answer. Now we can. And we get a glimpse why people say our patent system may be discouraging, not encouraging, innovation. 59:17 #464 10.06 Invisible Made Visible The radio version of an episode we did live on stage and beamed to movie theaters all over the country. David Sedaris, Tig Notaro and Ryan Knighton perform stories. Plus the late David Rakoff, in his final performance on the show. The other half of the two-hour performance was visual, including dancers, animation, and a short film. (Wh. vom 18.05.2012) 60:12 #497 17.06 This Week This week we return to one of our favorite themes: This Week! All of the stories in the show are things that have taken place in the last seven days. We've got our own take on the big, national stories of the week but we also turn a searchlight across America and find the smaller, more personal and more spectacular stories that most of us never hear. 60:26 #498 24.06 The One Thing You're Not Supposed To Do This week, stories about people who know something's a bad idea, but convince themselves to do that thing anyway. Including the story of a bunch of illegal immigrants who turn themselves in to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, hoping to be sent into detention. 57:38 #499 01.07 Taking Names The truly incredible story of a guy named Kirk Johnson who started a list of hundreds of Iraqis who needed to get out of their country. They were getting death threats, and he was their only hope. Only 26 and living in his aunt's basement, he had no idea what to do. How Kirk kind of succeeded spectacularly and failed spectacularly at the same time. 59:41 #466 08.07 Blackjack Stories about the casino game everyone thinks they can beat. In one, a woman gambles away her inheritance and then sues the casino, saying they're to blame. In another, Christians join forces to take down casinos — by becoming professional card-counting blackjack players. Plus: MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch teaches us to count cards. (Wh. vom 08.06.2012) 59:32 #500 15.07 500! To celebrate our 500th episode, Ira asked the producers of This American Life to talk about their very favorite moments on the show. Some chose stories that've been more or less forgotten for years; others chose just one line of script, or a segment that secretly made them cry. So for our 500th, we bring you the best of This American Life — the way we've been hearing it, behind the scenes, all these years. 59:49 #109 22.07 Notes on Camp 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. (Wh. vom 28.08.1998) 59:04 #501 29.07 The View From In Here It's so easy to lose perspective (or worry you've lost perspective) when you're deep inside some situation. For instance, an American woman who suddenly trades her life for one in a place most people might think twice about: Juarez, Mexico. 66:47 #470 05.08 Show Me The Way Stories about people in trouble, who look for help in mystifying places. A 15-year-old boy travels more than 1,000 miles, alone, to seek out his hero, whom he's never met. And from Wiretap, Jonathan Goldstein and David Rakoff tell the story of a man with a terrible medical problem, hoping for a cure from a famous doctor — who only communicates in rhyme. (Wh. vom 27.07.2012) 59:08 #502 12.08 This Call May Be Recorded... To Save Your Life A journalist named Meron Estefanos gets a disturbing tip. She's given a phone number that supposedly belongs to a group of refugees being held hostage in the Sinai desert. She dials the number, and soon dozens of strangers are begging her to rescue them. How can she ignore them? 60:16 #503 19.08 I Was Just Trying To Help Stories of people doing the noble thing and stepping up to help, only to find out that others think what they're doing isn't helping at all. Planet Money looks at a charity that's decided to just give people money, and a sheriff in California devises a plan to let farmers grow weed — as long as they register with him. 60:12 #175 26.08 Babysitting Stories of babysitters, and what goes on while mom and dad are away that mom and dad never find out about. Including the story of two teenagers who decide to invent children to babysit, as an excuse to get out of their own house. (Wh. vom 05.01.2001) 60:52 #388 02.09 Rest Stop Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. In this show, we'll bring you stories of people who are just passing through, and people who are at the rest stop every day—working. One of them has worked there since 1969. A bunch of others came from Asia and eastern Europe to pour coffee for travelers. (Wh. vom 04.09.2009) 60:28 #504 09.09 How I Got Into College Students all over are starting college this month, and some of them still have a nagging question: what, exactly, got me in? An admissions officer tells us the most wrongheaded things applicants try. And Michael Lewis has the incredible story of how a stolen library book got one man — Emir Kamenica — into his dream school. 59:12 #475 16.09 Send a Message This week people reach out in all kinds of ways to try to get their point across. And the recipients of those messages try to decipher what they mean. Messages in code, over the phone, and from beyond the grave. 59:57 #505 23.09 Use Only as Directed One of the country's most popular over-the-counter painkillers — acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol — also kills the most people, according to data from the federal government. Over 150 Americans die each year on average after accidentally taking too much. And it requires a lot less to endanger you than you may know. We reported this alongside ProPublica. Their stories here and here. 60:11 #414 30.09 Right to Remain Silent Stories about people who have the right to remain silent ... but choose not to exercise that right—including police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly recorded his supervisors telling officers to manipulate crime statistics and make illegal arrests. The Village Voice series that broke Schoolcraft's story, written by Graham Rayman, is here. (Wh. vom 10.09.2010) 59:37 #506 09.10 Secret Identity A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juarez. All have secret identities. But not all of them chose those identities for themselves. 61:00 #507 14.10 Confessions Two crime scenes, two murders. One crime is solved, the other case went cold. Both raise the question: What should a person suspected of murder say? 59:11 #508 21.10 Superpowers 2013 This is an updated version of a classic episode, featuring a new story from Snap Judgment. We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.) 59:19 #509 28.10 It Says So Right Here Everyone knows you can't always believe what you read, but sometimes even official documents aren't a path to the truth. This week we have stories of people whose lives are altered when seemingly boring documents like birth certificates and petitions are used against them. And a family wrestles with a medical record that has a very clear, but complicated diagnosis. 61:56 #510 04.11 Fiasco! Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses. An updated version of a classic episode, now including one of the most popular stories we've ever aired... about a police officer and a squirrel. 59:23 #511 11.11 The Seven Things You’re Not Supposed to Talk About Producer Sarah Koenig's mother lives by a set of rules about conversation. She has an actual list of off-limits topics, including how you slept, your period, your health, your diet and more. You don't talk about these things, she says, because nobody cares. This week we try to find stories on these exact topics that will prove her wrong. 58:29 #477 18.11 Getting Away With It Stories of people breaking the rules fully, completely and with no bad consequences. Some justify this by saying they’re doing it for others, or for a greater good. Some really don’t care. And, unlike the mealy weaklings you usually hear on this program: None of these wrongdoers seem regretful about what they’ve done in the slightest. (Wh. vom 22.10.2012) 59:55 #512 25.11 House Rules Where you live is important. It can dictate quality of schools and hospitals, as well as things like cancer rates, unemployment, or whether the city repairs roads in your neighborhood. On this week's show, stories about destiny by address. 56:49 #452 02.12 Poultry Slam 2011 We bring you our sort-of-annual holiday tradition: The Poultry Slam! Stories of what happens when humans and fowl collide, including the tale of one notorious turkey who unleashed a long reign of terror on an unsuspecting neighborhood. (Wh. vom 02.12.2011) 59:59 #317 09.12 Unconditional Love Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them. And other stories about the hard and sometimes painful work of loving other people. (Wh. vom 15.09.2006) 60:37 #513 16.12 129 Cars We spend a month at a Jeep dealership on Long Island as they try to make their monthly sales goal: 129 cars. If they make it, they'll get a huge bonus from the manufacturer, possibly as high as $85,000 — enough to put them in the black for the month. If they don't make it, it'll be the second month in a row. So they pull out all the stops. NOTE: the Internet version of this episode includes unbleeped curse words. 73:13 #514 23.12 Thought That Counts It's the thought that counts. So true. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not always so clear what that thought was. And sometimes, when it is clear, we wish it wasn't. This week, during this, the season of giving, we turn our spotlight on the givers and exactly whatever it was they could've possibly been thinking. 57:26