This American Life (Unofficial)

Looping thoughts about people you barely know, or don't know at all.

A week after Jerry Springer’s death, we go back to a story we first broadcast years ago, about a side of Springer most people don’t know and can’t imagine: his years as an idealistic politician in the mold of Bobby Kennedy. Plus other stories of people who try to leave some moment in their life behind, which can be hard.

It's funny the things that go through your head during a disaster.

Summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.

It’s been nine months since Roe v. Wade was overturned. We talk to people who wanted abortions right when the laws were changing in their states. They had to wait for appointments, for money to travel or abortion pills. And during that waiting, a lot of interesting things happened. We see how much life has changed, nine months later.

People ​so close to each other, ​in ​extremely intimate situations​,​ who are also a million miles apart.

The ghosts that visit us, the ghosts that never do, and the ghosts that walk among us.

People staring down that hardest of questions: Is now the time? To leave?

When it comes to finding love, there seems to be two schools of thought on the best way to go about it. One says, wait for that lightning-strike magic. The other says, make a calculation and choose the best option available. Who has it right?

Sometimes you raise your hand. Other times you’re just the only one left.

People being dodged, delayed, and evaded—and what they do to put an end to it.

Writer Etgar Keret tries to come up with the stories that capture his late mother, Orna Keret—but it’s hard, he says, because she’s like Maria in West Side Story and she’s also like Thanos from the Avengers. He ends up with a series of very short stories — most just a few paragraphs long — that give glimpses of different sides of her.

People experiencing Christmas in brand new ways, giving the holiday even more meaning.

Something we’ve never done before: true stories told in the form of a game show.

People trying to coax each other across the line, from one side to the other.

Not long ago, Republicans in Ohio passed a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in the state. And then a funny thing happened. The same Ohio Republicans drew electoral maps that violated their own constitutional amendment. They’ll be using them in this week’s midterm elections. We try to understand how that could happen.

We hear from kids who are dealing with some of the country’s most contentious debates. Debates that are supposedly about them.

Two people go on excavations of their families’ pasts. Including the first episode of the new podcast, “We Were Three,” hosted by our longtime producer, Nancy Updike, and from Serial Productions and The New York Times.

People taking it upon themselves to keep an eye on those in charge.

Getting to the facts can be difficult, but it’s always the right thing to do. Except when it isn’t.

An exploration of the very upper limits of what you do for someone you love.

When a fundamental part of yourself changes dramatically, are you still who you thought you were?

Ten people were killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. Their stories, as you’ve never heard them.

Stories of people racing against time to solve a problem. Will they make it?

An investigation into a very basic question about people: Are most of us bad or good?