This American Life (Unofficial)

People trying and struggling to see what another person sees.

Iowa has three million people and a million come to their State Fair, each with their own goals and dreams for the fair. We hang out with some of them, to see if they get what they hoped for.

When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down.

In a crisis, when all logic suggests that you get away from the dangerous thing, how will you respond?

People rethinking some of the most important relationships in their lives — with their sister, their political party, and the nominee for president.

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.

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

Donald Trump has talked about taking retribution on his enemies since the early days of his 2024 presidential campaign. After his conviction last week in New York, his talk intensified. We try to understand what his retribution might look like by speaking with people who have the most to lose in a second Trump administration: people who believe Trump will be coming for them.

People tethered to one particular other person, whether they want to be or not.

How they organize the chaos of the world, for good and for bad.

The trial for the men accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks still hasn’t started yet. Family members of those who died that day are still hoping for some kind of accountability, more than 22 years later. This week, the story of how one victim’s sister is navigating this historic and twisted trial.

For years, Majid believed that if he could testify in court about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA black site, a judge and jury would give him a break. Finally, he got a chance to see if he was right.

People taking it upon themselves to solve the tiny, overlooked crimes of the world.

The things we break and the ones we can't fix.

People waking up to the fact that the world has suddenly changed.

A series of phone calls to a man in Gaza named Yousef Hammash, between early December and now. He talks about what he and his family are experiencing, sometimes as they are experiencing it.

Your mother and I have something we want to talk with you about.

An investigation of when and why people ask loaded questions that are a proxy for something else.

What it means to have words—and to lose them.

People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.

A major political party in a major swing state bets on a new leader: a total political outsider. How does that work out for them?

A series of conversations with a man in Gaza over the course of one week.

In the last year and a half, New York City has scrambled to try and provide shelter and services to over 150,000 migrants. We take a look at how that’s going.

When you realize that help is not on the way, what do you do next?

During the highest turkey consumption period of the year, we bring you a This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds—real and imagined—and their mysterious hold over us.