This American Life
Official free, weekly podcast of the award-winning radio show "This American Life." First-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny and surprising. Hosted by Ira Glass, from WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. In mp3 and updated Mondays.
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#369: Poultry Slam 2008
Stories about the powerful combination of chickens, faith and God in our not-quite-annual, all new for 2008, Poultry Slam. (Special note to chicken enthusiasts: the show's name is a pun on Chicago's Poetry Slam.)
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#104: Music Lessons
What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us.
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#368: Who Do You Think You Are?
This week we bring you stories of privilege, and the lengths some will go to to maintain it. One woman's fight to stop a celebrity from breaking her city's parking laws. And a collection of stories from the Studs Terkel Hard Times radio series.
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#319: And the Call Was Coming from the Basement
For Halloween, scary stories that are all true. Kidnappings, zombie raccoons, haunted housesreal haunted houses!and things that go "EEEEK!!!" in the night. Plus, a new story by David Sedaris, in which he walks among the dead.
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#367: Ground Game
This American Life goes to Pennsylvania to figure out why, and how, John McCain and Barack Obama both think they can win there. And we get to know the ordinary people whove become the candidates most forceful foot soldiers.
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#198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?
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#366: A Better Mousetrap 2008
Stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problemssolutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.
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#365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson - the two guys who reported our "Giant Pool of Money" episode - are back. They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent all of this from happening...
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#364: Going Big
Stories about people who take grand, sweeping approaches to solving problems of all sorts.
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#301: Settling the Score
Stories about the lengths we go to make things right, and about what money can and cannot fix.
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#363: Enforcers
Professor So and So, Jojobean and YeaWhatever spend part of every day running cons on internet scammers: and consider themselves enforcers of justice, even after endangering a mans life. This and other stories of who steps up, who doesn't and why.
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#62: Something for Nothing
Stories of people trying to get rich quick, or otherwise make something for nothing. As everyone knows, there's no such thing as something for nothing. You always pay a price.
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#362: Got You Pegged
Stories about the trouble people get into when they assume too much about strangers.
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#361: Fear of Sleep
Mike Birbiglia had bizarre adventures at night, but just got used to sleep being slightly scaryuntil it almost killed him. Reasons to fear sleep, including roaches, bedbugs, "The Shining," and mild-mannered husbands who turn into maniacs while asleep.
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#360: Switched At Birth
Two baby girls were born in a hospital, and the infants were accidentally switched. One of the mothers realized the mistake but chose to keep quiet. Until the day, more than 40 years later, when she decides to tell both daughters what happened.
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#359: Life After Death
When John returned from Iraq, he was haunted by the killing he'd done. He got treatment, and his case looked optimistic. Then John attacked his fiancée. This and other stories of people who've come face to face with death and are struggling to move on.
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#293: A Little Bit of Knowledge
Stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little.
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#327: By Proxy
Stories of proxy fights, proxy arguments, and proxy situations of all kinds.
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#358: Social Engineering
Stories of social engineering on a small scale. In one, a man convinces his friend to try something new, turn his back on a good-paying salary and an apartment...and become homeless.
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#357: The Truth Will Out
Does the truth always come out? Of course not! Though sometimes it comes out in the most uncomfortable ways imaginable. Stories of concealed truths bubbling to the surface, including a new, unpublished story by fiction writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret.
This American Life
