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This American Life

Each week we choose a theme. Then anything can happen. This American Life is true stories that unfold like little movies for radio. Personal stories with funny moments, big feelings, and surprising plot twists. Newsy stories that try to capture what it’s like to be alive right now. It’s the most popular weekly podcast in the world, and winner of the first ever Pulitzer Prize for a radio show or podcast. Hosted by Ira Glass and produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago.

Banias is an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza. And she has a story to tell — many stories, in fact.

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 • Prologue: While on the phone with reporter Maram Hamaid in Gaza, producer Chana Joffe-Walt gets interrupted by Maram’s daughter––Banias, eight, who grabs the phone from her mother and starts telling us about her life. The narrator arrives. (8 minutes)
 • Part One: Banias, an 8-year-old in Gaza, tells us about her life––her friends, the games she plays, the things she cares about. Everything but the war going on around her. (25 minutes)
 • Part Two: Banias talks about the war. (20 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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849: The Narrator

The tiny thing that unravels your world.

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 • Prologue: Ira talks to Chris Benderev, whose high school years were completely upended by an impromptu thing his teacher said. (8 minutes)
 • Act One: For Producer Lilly Sullivan, there’s one story about her parents that defines how she sees them, their family, and their history. She finds out it might be wrong. (27 minutes)
 • Act Two: For years, Mike Comite has replayed in his head the moment when he and his bandmate blew their shot of making it as musicians. He sets out to uncover how it all went awry. (13 minutes)
 • Act Three: Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war. A few weeks ago, one woman watched from afar as everything in her home country changed forever – again. (9 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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850: If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away

One call to a very unusual hotline and everything that followed.

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 • Prologue: Ira talks about a priest who set up what may have been the first hotline in the United States. It was just him, answering a phone, trying to help strangers who called. (2 minutes)
 • Act One: The Never Use Alone hotline was set up so that drug users can call if they are say, using heroin by themselves. Someone will stay on the line with them in case they overdose. We hear the recording of one call, from a woman named Kimber. (13 minutes)
 • Act Two: An EMT learns he was connected to the call, in more ways than he realized. (16 minutes)
 • Act Three: Jessie, who took the call, explains how she discovered the hotline. She keeps in touch with Kimber. Until one day, Kimber disappears. (16 minutes)
 • Act Four: We learn what happened to Kimber after she called the line. (10 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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809: The Call

Things our dads taught us, whether they intended to or not.

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 • Prologue: Ira talks about the time his dad taught him to shave, and how unusual that was. (5 minutes)
 • Act One: When Jackie read the obits for the man who had invented the famous Trapper Keeper notebook, she was very surprised. As far as she knew, the inventor was very much alive. It was her dad. Not the guy in the obit. (15 minutes)
 • Act Two: A father and son find themselves in a very traditional relationship. Until the end. (21 minutes)
 • Act Three: Simon Rich reads his short story "History Report," in which a father explains the sex robots of the future. And other things as well. (14 minutes)

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815: How I Learned to Shave

In Rafah, Yousef is out of options and faces his toughest move yet.

 • Prologue: Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Yousef Hammash has decided where to go next and when. In Rafah, he is out of options and faces his toughest move yet. (5 minutes)
 • Act One: Yousef does not even want to think about leaving Gaza. (18 minutes)
 • Act Two: The actual price — in cash — of getting out of Gaza. (31 minutes)

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834: Yousef and the Fourth Move

Boen Wang has a theory that a lot of the misery in his life can be traced to a single moment that happened years before he was born. So he makes a pilgrimage to see if he’s right.

 • Prologue: Ira talks about what it’s like to go back to 1119 Bayard Street in Baltimore. (6 minutes)
 • Part One: Boen visits Norman, Oklahoma, where he was born, to meet the man he thinks changed his parents’ lives—and his life, too. (31 minutes)
 • Part Two: Boen’s friend, Andrew, and his parents take what he learned in Part One, throw it into a blender, and push puree. (20 minutes)

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835: Children of Dave

So much of the fight for the presidency is coming down to battles for small slices of voters who can help throw swing states to one candidate or another. Abbas Alawieh, a leader in the Uncommitted movement, grapples with how to get his voters the thing they want.

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 • Prologue: When you have some power, but not a lot, how do you wield it when you’re suddenly cast into the spotlight? (4 minutes)
 • Act One: Zoe Chace and Ben Terris follow Abbas Alawieh as he fights to broker a deal at the DNC – a way to potentially satisfy the people who voted “Uncommitted” in the primaries as a protest vote against Biden’s handling of the war in Israel and Gaza. (33 minutes)
 • Act Two: Three weeks after the Democratic National Convention, Abbas speaks at a tense community meeting in Michigan about the Uncommitted organizers’ general election recommendation and hears back from voters on how they feel about the Democratic nominee at this point. (15 minutes)

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843: A Little Bit of Power

Ira Glass has news to share about some things happening here at This American Life.

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A Big Announcement

Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison.

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 • Prologue: Henry Dee has been locked up for most of his life, nearly 50 years. Now, he’s up for parole. Reporter Ben Austen tells the story. (19 minutes)
 • Part 1: The parole board members puzzle through the pros and cons of releasing Henry Dee from prison and cast their votes. (26 minutes)
 • Part 2: Reporter Ben Austen continues the story. (8 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

A wee flame, flickering in the dark.

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 • Prologue: Who’s trying to bridge the gap between Blue America and Red America? Ira gets a glimpse of one guy who might be able to do just that. (3 minutes)
 • Act One: A politically divided couple searches for a news source they both can trust. (26 minutes)
 • Act Two: "June" is making a tactical decision about her vote this election. (13 minutes)
 • Act Three: Frank Filocomo thinks people care too much about politics when it comes to dating. His dates don’t necessarily agree. (10 minutes)

Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org

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844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

844: This Is the Case of Henry Dee

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