This American Life (Unofficial)

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?

The Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade began with a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi abortion clinic. On the day Roe was overturned, we were there. Stories from the center of this moment of history, the day it happened.

Getting from A to B via Z.

Kids navigating hairy situations all on their own, with no help from grown-ups.

Government isn’t doing much to prevent school shootings. So parents are jumping in: parents whose kids have died in mass shootings, in the wake of each shooting. They take practical, effective action — and they get results.

People staring squarely at the truth, and still finding it hard to believe what they’re seeing.

A man finds himself thrust into a new world he didn’t necessarily ask to visit. He takes a look around.

Four personal stories from the war in Ukraine.

In this moment when autocrats and almost-autocrats are getting bolder and more powerful, we bring you two stories of resistance, from Hungary and Russia.

People trying to jump in and solve other people's problems, putting themselves directly in the gap between the problem and the solution.