Show description: On the ethics and reality of preferential treatment

Ethics summary and related information.

Act 6: What Goes Through Your Head — Tobias Wolff reads his short story, "Bullet in the Brain"

Act 4: Every Day I Forget Something Else — Nicholson Baker

Act 6: Poetry of Departures — a poem by Philip Larkin, read by Ira Glass (1:15)

Show description: An entire episode of a story about the wrongful murder conviction of Collin Warner. After 21 years in prison, Warner's friends managed to prove Warner's innocence and free him from jail.

Music interlude: Elvis Presley, "Working on a Building"

Act 2: On the Border Between Good and Bad — Russell Banks

Ira Glass reflects on TV, and in particular on a line from an episode of The O.C. which holds special meaning to This American Life.

Act 3: Werewolves in Their Youth — Michael Chabon

Act 3: Notes from the Underground — Haruki Murakami

Madonna, Forbidden Love

Show description: Stories from survivors of Hurricane Katrina. (transcript)

James Brown, It's a Man's World

Act 2: Tribe — Peter Clowney interviews cast members of a production of Hair.

Josh White, Uncle Sam Says

Act 4: Cringe and Purge — Bruce Jay Friedman

Act 3: On the Road in a Tuxedo: Margy Rochlin goes on tour with George Burns.

Nat King Cole, Personal Possession

Music interlude: "Theme from Superman: The Movie"

Willie Nelson, These Are Difficult Times

The Kinks, Complicated Life

Ella Fitzgerald, Don't Fence Me In

Music interlude: Gwen Stefani, "U Started It"

Act 5: Displaced Persons Camp — Lisa Pollak interviews survivors of Hurricane Charley in Florida

Music interlude: Fats Domino, Walking to New Orleans

Marlene Dietrich, ?

Ray Charles, Them That Got

Lena Horne, Rocky Raccoon

Act 2: Small Fish, Smaller Pond — Nick Hornby

Act 4: Another Dave — David Sedaris

Act 3: People Like You If You Put a Lot of Time Into Your Appearance — Luke Burbank

Act 3: So Crazy It Just Might Work — Elizabeth Gilbert

Music interlude: The Replacements, Kids Don't Follow

Act 2: Love and Happiness — Dan Savage

Act 3: How the Living Use the Dead — Greil Marcus

This is a list of This American Life episodes by year and episode number.

Currently, six episodes have been produced for the first season and aired on Showtime in March and April of 2007. Episodes are available for free streaming following the broadcast. Showtime announced on April 16, 2007 that the series will return in 2008 for a second season with six more episodes.[1]

Act 1 — Kevin Kelly

Act 2: This Blessed House — Jhumpa Lahiri

Music interlude: The Roots, Somebody's Gotta Do It

Act #1: NRA meets NEA — Sarah Vowell

Music interlude: Gnarls Barkley, The Boogie Monster

Music interlude: The Germs, Lexicon Devil

Act 2: Forgotten, But Not Lost — Alex Blumberg interviews Lorrie Beth Slonsky and Debbie Zelinsky about an occurrence at the Pontchartrain Expressway bridge

This American Life producer Sarah Koenig tells a story of the rise and fall of a politician's reputation. Raymond Buckley, a Democratic operative from New Hampshire, was instrumental in his party's success in last fall's midterm elections. He set his sights on becoming the chair of the state Democratic Party. But three months before the election for party chair, one of Buckley's political rivals accused him of one of the worst things that anyone can be accused of. It threatened to destroy not only his career, but his life. Unlike most politicians at the center of a scandal, Buckley was willing to talk about what he went through and how it changed him. (35 minutes)

Al Green, Love and Happiness

Music interlude: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, New Kind of Neighborhood

Act 1: Invisible Man vs. Hawkman — John Hodgman

Act 3: Istanbul — Ian Brown

Act 18: Party Talk — Chuck Klosterman

Music interlude: Dave Parker, I Got to Get Away

Music interlude: Hope There's Someone — Antony and the Johnsons

Act 2 — Ira Glass asks his parents for advice

Music interlude: Big Mama Thornton, I Smell a Rat

Shonen Knife, Insect Collector

Act 5: What Daddy Wants — Curtis Sittenfeld

Show description: Collection of commentaries from live shows about television. All interludes performed by a band touring with This American Life, Mates of State.

Dan Savage, host of the podcast Savage Love, makes the case for yelling at children, and reflects on how his views on how to talk to kids have changed over the years

Act 3: The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History — Dan Collison interviews Albert Williams, Freddy Meeks, Joseph Small, Percy Robinson, and Robert Routh, survivors of the Port Chicago disaster.

Act 2: Julia Gets Cancer — Julia Sweeney

Act 1: My Friend the Extremist — Jon Ronson

Brave Combo, Do Something Different (Disappear)

Act 3: And I Love Her — Etgar Keret

Music interlude: The Undertones, "Smarter Than You"

Digital Underground, ?

Act 1: Once More, With Feeling — Jonathan Katz

Music interlude: 45 Grave, Evil

Act 2: Miami Vices — Sascha Rothchild, Mortified

Act 10: Untitled — Neo-Futurists

Act 2 — from the 1998 rebroadcast of this episode, Jack Hitt discusses his new conclusions two-and-a-half years after his first report of the story

Act 4: The Way to a Boy's Heart Is Through His Stomach — Lisa Carver

Act 2 — Sandra Tsing Loh (7:40)

Act 2: Tell it to the Void — Miriam Toews

Act 1: Mr. Rothbart's Neighborhood — Davy Rothbart

Act 1: That's Funny, You Don't Look Jewish — David Segal

Act 3: Martha My Dear — David Rakoff

Jose Alfredo Jimenez, El Rey

Act 4 — Ed Ryder, interviewed by Ira Glass and Nancy Updike

Music interlude: Before You Leave — Mary Gauthier

Act 3: The Moment Humans Stopped Being Animals — Scott Carrier

Act 2: What's French for 'Strike Three'? — Adam Gopnik

Prologue: Ira Glass reads an open letter advertisement from American Handgunner

Act 1: Teenage Embed — Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton

Act 2: What Happens in Baghdad, Stays in Baghadad — Jen Banbury

Act 19: The Hard Life at the Top — David Lipsky

Professional comedians Sean O'Connor and Nick Maritato are used to saying things that kids aren't supposed to hear, but get booked on a tour of kids' summer camps.

Act 5: The Accursed Items — J. Robert Lennon

Act 5: For Sale — Jay Allison

Act 1: Busman's Holiday — Dishwasher Pete rides several Greyhound buses in search of conversation.

Act 1: Mother of Invention — Karen Sosnoski

Act 3: Romance Languages — Ben Karlin

Act 3: Zero Divided By Zero Is Still Zero — Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

Act 3: Neighbor's Keeper — Robert Kurson

Act 2: Files in Cakes, Ha! — Angelo

Act 3: Legend of a Bankrobber's Son — Nick Flynn

Act 3: Airel Sharon, Shimon Peres, David Ben Gurion, and Me! — Ira Glass and Adam Davidson

Act 1: Jarhead — Anthony Swofford

Act 1: Petra Bartosiewicz on the arrest and conviction of Hemant Lakhani

Act 4: Life Sentence — Mike Miller

Act 2: The Unknown Soldier — Luc Sante

Act #2: Blue Sky Dreams — David Beers

Act 3: Oedipus Hex — Shalom Auslander

Act 2: Of Course I Remember Your Name — Heather O'Neill

Act #3: The Devil Wears Birkenstocks. — Dave Dickerson

Act 1: 1001 Arabian Nightly Newscasts — Julie Snyder

Act 3: Mommie's Psychic Helper — Aimee Phan

Act 3: I'm an Orphan; Don't Tell My Mom — Starlee Kine

Act 4: Orientation — Matt Malloy reads Daniel Orozco's short story[2]

Act 2: The Defense of Marriage Act — Adam Felber

Act 1: Hasta La Vista, Arnie — Scott Miller

Act 2: Heather Help Me — Jessica Riddle

Act 3: Are You a Man or a Mouse? — Aimee Bender

Act 2: Untitled — Brent Runyon

Act 2: Everything Must Go — Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh

Act 4: Keeping It in the Family — Bernard Cooper

Act 2: Life Without Leanne — Larry Doyle

Act 3: Special Effects Story — Kevin Murphy

Act 4: The Art of Adult Conversation — Alexa Junge

Act 1: Prisoner of Love — Shant Kenderian

Act 3: Contrails of My Tears — Brett Martin

Act 2: We Don't Talk About That — Kevin O'Leary

Act 2: It's Not the Heat, It's the Humility — Jonathan Goldstein

All of the radio episodes can be streamed via a custom Adobe Flash player from the TAL Radio Show Archive. The current week's episode can be downloaded via MP3 for free for seven days starting on the Monday after the broadcast. All episodes are available for purchase from the iTunes Store or Audible.com. Contents: 2007 – 2006 – 2005 – 2004 – 2003 – 2002 – 2001 – 2000 – 1999 – 1998 – 1997 – 1996 – 1995

Act #2: Age of Consent. — Ira Glass, Julie Snyder

Air date: November 18, 2005

Music interlude: Ted Nugent,Stranglehold

Music interlude: The White Stripes, "Blue Orchid"

Show description: Discussion about a new study by The Lancet about the number of Iraqis who have died since the US invasion.

Music interlude: Bettye Lavette, The High Road

Show description: On dB drag racing, vehicle theft, car salespeople, and elderly drivers

Air date: November 11, 2005

Show description: Stories from the Houston Astrodome and New Orleans about survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Music interlude: Memphis Minnie, When the Levee Breaks

Show description: On the experiences of United States National Guard reservists and Marines in post-invasion Iraq

Show description: On surveillance and eavesdropping by private citizens

Show description: On swing voters, who were thought to play an important role in the U.S. presidential election, 2004, which took place a few days after the episode first aired

Show description: On the decline of Washington Irving Elementary School in Chicago, once a model for success in public education reforms

Show description: On the Iraq war and the War on Terrorism (a discussion with James Fallows and Richard Perle), the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, and parasites

Show description: On motivation and passion, especially regarding career choices

Show description: On the Republican Party during the campaign season preceding the U.S. presidential election, 2004

Show description: On civility, profanity, and the Federal Communications Commission

Show description: On the work of private defense contractors in post-invasion Iraq

Show description: On cranks, distortions of science, and the application of pseudo-scientific methods to questions outside the realm of science

Centered around classified ads appearing on the same day in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader

Act 2: One Crucible Leads to Another — Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller

Act 4: Only One Thing Missing — Wendy Dorr — Prom in Racine, Wisconsin

A story about the culture and politics of street vendors and panhandlers in New York City

Show description: Devoted entirely to Alix Spiegel's feature on the removal of homosexuality as a form of mental illness from the DSM-II during the 1973 meeting of the APA. Spiegel won the 2002 Livingston Award for National Reporting for this episode.

Music interlude: Bing Crosby, Dear Hearts and Gentle People

Louis Prima, I Wanna Be Like You, from Disney's The Jungle Book

Merle Haggard, Workin' Man's Blues

How an audience of children derailed talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

The Company Way (from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Frank Loesser)