This American Life Archive

233: Starting From Scratch 07.03.2003 ↓

A man in retirement tries to start over in a new life with a new venture: a cable channel, with lots of puppies.

232: The Real Story 14.02.2003 ↓

Real stories from three very different wars.

231: Time to Save the World 07.02.2003 ↓

Stories of sudden truths delivered by complete strangers.

230: Come Back to Afghanistan 31.01.2003 ↓

A California teenager returns to the home country he's never known.

229: Secret Government 10.01.2003 ↓

Stories of some of the secrets our government keeps: of imprisonment, deportation, and spying.

228: You Are So Beautiful…To Me 03.01.2003 ↓

Two modern-day reinterpretations of the Frog Prince story.

227: Why We Fight 20.12.2002 ↓

We still have some basic questions about why we're going to war and whether it's a good thing.

226: Reruns 06.12.2002 ↓

Stories of people stuck in moments that they revisit over and over again.

225: Home Movies 08.11.2002 ↓

Home movies are often all the same—kids on the beach, people getting married, birthday parties—so why do we make and watch so many of them?

224: Middlemen 25.10.2002 ↓

"Hi, middleman. Here are three splendid acts to toast your subtle virtues."

223: Classifieds 11.10.2002 ↓

We take the classifieds from one Sunday edition of the paper and fill a program with stories that come from the ads.

222: Suckers 27.09.2002 ↓

Some people have a rather dark worldview that divides people into two groups: Suckers and non-suckers.

221: Fake I.D. 20.09.2002 ↓

Stories of people traveling under false identities, not for power or personal gain, but for their own deeper personal reasons.

220: Testosterone 30.08.2002 ↓

The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.

219: High Speed Chase 16.08.2002 ↓

What happened after a group of Native American girls from one town found themselves being chased down the highway by a group of white boys from another town.

218: Act V 09.08.2002 ↓

A group of inmates at a high-security prison stage a production of the last act of Hamlet.

217: Give It to Them 02.08.2002 ↓

Two years after the Mideast peace process collapsed, we wanted to understand what that has done to people living in Israel and the West Bank.

216: Give the People What They Want 12.07.2002 ↓

Ira Glass goes to a fake wedding at a home for Alzheimer's patients.

215: Ask An Expert 14.06.2002 ↓

Stories about people who turned to the experts and got horrible advice.

214: Family Physics 31.05.2002 ↓

We take the laws of physics and apply them to the realm of human relationships.

213: Devil on My Shoulder 24.05.2002 ↓

Stories of people who try to convince you that the devil is there, whispering in your ear.

212: The Other Man 10.05.2002 ↓

Stories about what happens when a new guy comes on the scene and changes everything.

211: Naming Names 03.05.2002 ↓

When you turn someone over to the authorities, it can set into motion lots of huge, unintended consequences.

210: Perfect Evidence 19.04.2002 ↓

DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors.

209: Didn’t Ask to Be Born 29.03.2002 ↓

The story of an eighth grader who set himself on fire, and what led to that.