This American Life

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This American Life was only a radio show, one with a hard-to-describe sound, millions of listeners, and a bunch of awards. Then, after more than a decade on the radio, we started the television show, mostly because it seemed like it might be fun.

Website: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
Location: Chicago
Members: 23
Latest Activity: May 31

About This American Life

For a long time, This American Life was only a radio show, one with a hard-to-describe sound, millions of listeners, and a bunch of awards. Then, after more than a decade on the radio, we started the television show, mostly because it seemed like it might be fun. We continue to produce the weekly radio show, which can be heard on more than 500 public radio stations around the country (find a station near you) as well as on this website, through our free podcast. The television show is on the Showtime network.

The radio and TV shows follow the same format. There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. There's lots more to the show, but, like we said, it's sort of hard to describe. Probably the best way to understand the show is to start at our favorites page, though we have full guides to our TV show and our radio show, with clips. If you want to dive into the hundreds of episodes we've done over the years, there's an archive of all our old radio shows and listings for all our TV episodes, too.
Oh, and we know what you're thinking: radio is so 80 years ago, and TV is so 50 years ago. Well, what about social networking? That's only 2 or 3 years ago, and we're all over it. Find us on MySpace and Facebook and YouTube, too. We've also got a bunch of instant messaging icons, wallpapers, and blog badges for your downloading fun over on our Showtime site. Go nuts.

Discussion Forum

is the listen online feature disabled? 3 Replies

is the listen online feature disabled?

Started by ARKaMAN. Last reply by Chris Pirillo Dec. 24, 2008.

What do you think of This American Life 4 Replies

I listen to This American Life and I love it! *The attachment is the latest podcast!

Tagged: geeks, podcast, group, life, american

Started by Craighton Miller. Last reply by Tracy Hydorn Oct. 29, 2008.

Reflection #364

After listening to episode 346 of TAL what really stood out to you? Do you agree or disagree with their statements, why or why not? Do you know of anybody or your self going through those issues righ…

Tagged: chicago, real, touching, studio, seven

Started by Craighton Miller Oct. 1, 2008.

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Comment by Juan Martinez on November 3, 2008 at 12:54pm: This and Radiolab are my saviors during long commutes. Great story telling.

Comment by John "Lumpy" Lemke on October 7, 2008 at 3:35pm: I used to listen to the podcast very often. Been so busy with production things though that i don't have as much time to listen to them that often. Great Show!

Comment by Justin Harper (AKA Master_Taco) on September 14, 2008 at 11:57pm: I inadvertently heard this when I was younger, sometime after the 9/11 attacks, and it was being played late night on 94.7 The Zone (WZZN Chicago) and they were talking about the 9/11 attacks. I recognized the voice of one of the people, and it reminded me of that night! That's so... Strange...

Edit 1: I can't edit... But I want to know what that one was, so I can listen to it, and really comprehend it this time. I didn't understand it as much back then, in the 7th grade, but I'd like to hear it again,so if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please link me!

Edit 2: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=890

I think that might have been it...

Edit 3: Poo, that wasn't it...