This American Life

Life aboard the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier that was stationed in the Arabian Sea and supported bombing missions over Afghanistan. Only a few dozen people on board actually fly jets. It takes the rest of the crew — over 5,000 people — to keep

Mike Anderson was 36 years old, married, a suburban father of four. He owned a contracting business and built his family’s modest, three-bedroom house in St. Louis from the ground up. He volunteered at church on the weekends and coaches his son’s football

It's January, and freezing outside. This week 5 stories from the sunny beach! Including David Sedaris telling us how losing a sister in 2013 prompted a family reunion, and an impulse buy of a lifetime -- an oceanfront cottage big enough for all of th

A man named David Maclean finds himself in a train station in India, with no idea how he got there or who he is. His memory gone, he has no choice but to let other people—police, doctors, friends, family—create an identity for him. David's book about this

Jan Brady is not the only one who hated being in the middle. This week we have stories about how it sucks to be in limbo or be the mediator, but we also hear from a man who absolutely loves being in that uncertain and boring middle most of us ...

Lots of men think of themselves as "good guys." But what does it actually take to be one? To be a truly good guy. Stories of valiant men attempting to do good in challenging circumstances: in war zones, department stores, public buses, and at the bottom o

We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. Doppelgängers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. Fred Armisen co-hosts with Ira Glass. EXTRAS: Fred's Ir

What unites these stories on the surface is that they're all made from old tapes, recordings found in attics and thrift stores. What unites them under that surface — and not far under it — is that they all end up being stories about fathers and the legaci

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 exact

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. ...

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.

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.

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. Much of this st

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:

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.

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. [](http://feeds.t hisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=WJDYzNo5sxI:HoAaXQYTGFU:yIl2AUoC8zA) [![] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/talpodcast?i=WJDYzNo5sxI:HoAaXQYTGFU:F7zBnMyn 0Lo)](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=WJDYzNo5sxI:HoAaXQYTG FU:F7zBnMyn0Lo) [ ](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=WJDYzNo5sxI:HoAaXQYTGFU:7 Q72WNTAKBA) [](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=WJDYz No5sxI:HoAaXQYTGFU:V_sGLiPBpWU) ...

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 ...

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. [](http://feeds.t hisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=OMNnEWehKRQ:c1BMkOZXQ1U:yIl2AUoC8zA) [![] (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/talpodcast?i=OMNnEWehKRQ:c1BMkOZXQ1U:F7zBnMyn 0Lo)](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=OMNnEWehKRQ:c1BMkOZXQ 1U:F7zBnMyn0Lo) [ ](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=OMNnEWehKRQ:c1BMkOZXQ1U:7 Q72WNTAKBA) [](http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/~ff/talpodcast?a=OMNnE WehKRQ:c1BMkOZXQ1U:V_sGLiPBpWU) ...

Dr. Benjamin Gilmer (left) gets a job at a rural clinic. He finds out he’s replaced someone -- also named Dr. Gilmer (picture) -- 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 ...