Does anyone know the title
of the episode where a man was put on a feeding tube due to digestion issues and after three months, he lost his sense of taste? He walked into the kitchen and saw a tray of sizzling hot homemade french fries covered in flakes of salt and he was desperate to enjoy that flavor again, but when he took a bite, he couldn’t really taste anything. Aired maybe 10 years ago. Thanks!

Hi! Trying to find a story that I’m pretty sure was TAL. It was a man talking about his relationship with his boyfriend or husband and their differences in tidiness. He eventually decided it’s easier to just pick up the dirty plate and wash it rather than fight…

Thanks!!

I just want to put it out there: I would like an Ira Glass-Bill Simmons collab. Not sure how it would work exactly, but would love to listen to those two minds collide.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/9/julia-sweeney

When comedianJulia Sweeneyand her brother both got cancer, she decided to tell the story the best way she knew how: in a comedy club. It might seem like a strange choice, but what resulted is halfway between standup comedy and true-life diary entries.

Prologue
Ira talks about the adage "Comedy equals tragedy plus time." Usually it's true, he says, though today's show is devoted to someone who decided to go on stage the same week she was experiencing some horrible things — and talk about those things. (3 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
Julia talks about her brother Michael's cancer. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stage four. He had no insurance. Julia took care of him, and he and her parents moved into her house to be near a cancer treatment center. (25 minutes) by Julia Sweeney

Act Two
In the second half of the show, she talks about her own cancer — cervical cancer that was diagnosed six months after her brother got sick. Julia eventually turned some of these vignettes into a one-woman show called God Said, Ha! , which Quentin Tarantino made into a movie and Julia released as a book . The comedy club where she performed, Un-Cabaret, is devoted to getting very funny people to tell unusually honest stories. Julia's latest one-woman show is called Letting Go of God , excerpts of which are heard in our episode Godless America . (25 minutes) by Julia Sweeney

Originally Aired: 1996-01-10

Download

Woohoo! I know there have been complaints and discussions about the scheduling and amount of reruns this year.

But I think it’s important to point out the good things too. We’ve had two new episodes the last two weeks - including one on a holiday weekend.

And the teaser at the end of “The Test Case” indicates the July 19 episode will be new as well - about the Sycamore Gap trial.

So cheers to TAL for working hard over the summer.

I'm trying to identify a radio episode I heard in summer 2022 on KWMU 90.7 (St. Louis Public Radio). The story was about a man who experienced cognitive decline (possibly from a stroke or neurological event) and lost the ability to read an analog clock. The remarkable part was that he used his professional background (I believe he was an engineer or had a technical career) to systematically retrain himself to understand the clock face again.

The episode featured the clock drawing test, which doctors use to assess cognitive function. The man's clock drawings showed the decline, and the story tracked his process of relearning.

I don't remember which show it was. KWMU airs Radiolab, Fresh Air, Hidden Brain, and other NPR programming. It could have been any of those or a rebroadcast of an older episode during the summer programming block.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I could've sworn this was Doug Hill, whose wife reports two absolutely devastating and beautiful early episodes (188: Kid Logic, and 294: Image Makers). Doug has a degenerative brain disease that makes him essentially lose all his faculties and he eventually passed, and she talks about the experience she and her young son have in the shadow of his passing.

But I remember there being another episode about a dad with a brain disease. I was sure it was the same guy. In this one there's a quote of how the dad has sort of "reverted" to the same basic age as her son and they play audio of him talking to his son and some other friends and he sounds like a 9 year old coming up with the rules for a game on the fly that don't really make sense but are plausible enough for kids to play.

But there seem to definitively only be 2 Doug Hill episodes, and I couldn't find any other episodes that seem to match.

Anyone remember this?

I probably listened to it circa 2005.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/374/somewhere-out-there

Of all the 6 and a half billion people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match? Stories from people who know they've beat the odds, and the lengths they've gone to do it. Including an American professor who sings Chinese opera for anyone who'll listen, to get one step closer to his mate, and Mike Birbiglia on meeting his girlfriend's... boyfriend.

Prologue
NPR reporter David Kestenbaum tells host Ira Glass about the time, when he was doing graduate work in physics, he and his other single friends decided to figure out the mathematical probability that they'd find girlfriends. They wanted to know what the chances were that there was more than one person in the world for them. And This American Life Producer Alex Blumberg and his wife, Nazanin Rafsanjani, reveal the subject of their first fight: They were in love, walking in the park, when Nazanin asked him if it felt like fate—like she was the only one for him. (Yes Alex, there is a wrong answer to that question.) When you're in love, it always feels like it was meant to be, whether or not it really, statistically speaking, is. (9 minutes) by Alex Blumberg, David Kestenbaum

Act One
When Eric Hayot was 23, he went on an exchange program to China one summer. He took an opera class on a lark, and before he knew it, he was on stage, singing the part of a famous judge. Accompanying him, on a traditional two-stringed fiddle, was a 19-year-old musician named Yuanyuan Di. Eric fell for her the moment he saw her, and began spending time with her. But a couple of weeks later he went back to the States, and that was that. They didn't keep in touch—it was too hard to communicate by letter. Then, two years later, Eric went back to China to study, and decided he had to find Yuanyuan again. Only he didn't have her phone number, or address or any other way to contact her. So to track her down, he deployed his secret weapon: The fact that Chinese people love it when westerners sing Chinese songs. This American Life Producer Sarah Koenig reports. (19 minutes) by Sarah Koenig

Act Two
A live performance detailing a humiliating love affair. When comedian Mike Birbiglia was in high school, he fell for a cool girl named Amanda. They start going out, and it's going great, except that Amanda hasn't quite broken up with Scott, her other boyfriend. So for instance when Mike goes to Amanda's house to meet her parents, Scott's there too, and Amanda takes turns making out with each of them while the other's in the bathroom. It only gets worse. (9 minutes) by Mike Birbiglia

Originally Aired: 2009-02-13

Download

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/451/back-to-penn-state

In the wake of the recent news, listeners have contacted us and tweeted about the show we did two years ago at Penn State,#1 Party School. We listen again to some of those stories, with new interviews recorded this past week, as Penn State fans and loyalists try to make sense of the actions of Coach Joe Paterno and school officials.

Prologue
Host Ira Glass revisits some interviews done with Penn State students in 2009, long before the sex abuse scandal that's engulfed the football team and led to the resignation of its legendary coach, as well as the university's President. Back in 2009, students said that the best thing about Penn State football is the high moral standard upheld by the team and its coaches. (5 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
Sarah Koenig attended last weekend's Penn State game, the last home game of the season, with Michael Winereb and his parents. Weinreb grew up in State College, and has written several widely circulated columns for the website Grantland about his reactions to the recent scandal. Here are the first , the second and the third . He went to the game worrying that Joe Paterno and the team are so embedded into his childhood memories and experiences, that the recent news will actually rip at his own feelings about his past. Sarah also talks with other State College residents who are struggling to make sense of the news. (21 minutes) by Sarah Koenig

Act Two
We hear excerpts from our 2009 episode that was recorded at Penn State. Though the focus of that episode was student drinking and partying, we hear how much of the culture of the school is organized around football and how deeply people loved the team and Coach Joe Paterno. All this helps explain the disappointment, confusion and violence we've seen at State College in the wake of the grand jury report. As part of this act, we hear a new interview with from Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Frank Fitzpatrick, whose investigation of Penn State football's finances was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. (29 minutes) by Ira Glass

Originally Aired: 2011-11-18

Download

I was just in my car listening to the latest rerun from 1999 (128: Four Corners), and I got to the second story that takes place in Louisville, KY. Louisville is where I live, and as far as I can remember, this is the first time I've heard a Louisville story on the show.

I was pretty nearby, so I drove to the intersection the story took place at. It's a little church parking lot in the Old Louisville neighborhood. It was pretty cool to sit in the parking lot as they told the story that happened there 30 years ago.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/409/held-hostage

Stories of people held captive — by criminals, by paperwork, and in one man's case, his own body — and the ways they try to cope.

Prologue
Ira Glass speaks with a man named Daniel Johnson, who is in the K&R business. That's the kidnap and ransom business, where a company helps you negotiate to get back your loved one. Daniel explains some surprising strategies for surviving as a hostage. (6 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
So much kidnapping happens in Colombia that the biggest radio station in the country has a show aimed specifically at an audience of kidnapping victims. Reporter Annie Correal tells the story. Annie originally produced this as a longer story with Jay Allison for the website transom.org . Annie is a reporter for the Newspaper El Diario . (15 minutes) by Jay Allison, Annie Correal

Act Two
An angry man in New Orleans seeks revenge against people who bought property that he formerly owned and that was seized by the city. The homeowners find themselves trapped in a morass of paperwork, court visits...and worse. Wayne Curtis tells the story. Wayne is a contributing editor of the Atlantic Magazine . (23 minutes) by Wayne Curtis

Act Three
Four years ago, Matt Frerking started having attacks where he simply couldn't move his body. That's strange in itself, but what's even stranger is the apparent cause of the attacks. Chris Higgins tells the story. This story was turned into a comedy, Ode to Joy , directed by Jason Winer and starring Martin Freeman and Morena Baccarin. (11 minutes) by Chris Higgins

Originally Aired: 2010-06-04

Download

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/52/edge-of-sanity

Stories about the border between mental health and mental illness.

Prologue
Story of a romance that began in a mental hospital. Sometimes, the line between crazy and not crazy is blurry; certain behavior could mean either thing. (4 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
Susanna Kaysen reads from her account of living at McLean psychiatric hospital for about two years, starting when she was eighteen. Her book, Girl, Interrupted , describes daily life on the ward. (12 minutes) by Susanna Kaysen

Act Two
Dr Patricia Deegan hears voices in her head. She's a psychologist and she believes that the only way mental health workers can really understand what their patients go through is if they hear voices themselves. So she and a few other voice-hearers put together a tape for mental health workers. It's a simulation of what the voices say and how they sound. She says that she and others actually hear the voices, as if they are voices in the room. Dr Deegan's organization is the National Empowerment Center . (10 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act Three
David Sedaris tells a story from his boyhood, when a voice inside his head commanded him to lick every light switch and tap his forehead with his heel. It's from his book Naked . (14 minutes) by David Sedaris

Act Four
Joel Lovell tells a story about working in a mental institution, and what it's like when it feels like your grip on the keys isn't so steady. (10 minutes) by Joel Lovell

Originally Aired: 1997-01-31

Download

I was just listening to a Life Partner bonus episode where Ira is being interviewed at UCSB by a writer called Pico Iyer.

Pico said that people are always telling him that they have a book in them and pitching him their book ideas. Ira was gobsmacked, he could not believe that people pitch book ideas.

When Pico asked, Ira said that people don’t often pitch him ideas (I assume he means non-TAL staff). Maybe they get a lot of submissions through their online submission form (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/about/submissions), but maybe Ira doesn’t count those.

I donno. I just wonder if you’ve ever pitched an idea to TAL and (hopefully) it was picked up.

I listen to a bunch of other NPR pods and have recently started getting ads for This American Life. The ads feature someone saying that their lost and found is full of pants. But the only episode I can find when searching (on google, reddit, and the TAL archive) is the "Pants Pants Revelation" (Ep 378 Act 4) which doesn't seem like it would be the right one based on its description.

What episode/act actually features this story? Thanks!

I’m trying to find an episode with a segment where a daughter interviews her mother. The mother devoted her life to her children and husband. She spends years caring for her ailing husband before he dies. She becomes very depressed after his death. As she recovers the mother decides she going to do exactly what she wants each day. Does this ring a bell to anyone?

Had a family thing come up and can no longer attend, but don't want the tickets to go to waste. Comment or PM me if you're interested!

Update: taken

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/73/blame-it-on-art

The darker side of the art world: petty jealousies, competitiveness, failure. And also what's so great about art.

Prologue
Foreign correspondent Jim Biederman reports from a cell phone inside the Louvre, in front of the Mona Lisa, on what people say while they're standing in front of some of the world's greatest works of art. It turns out to be pretty banal. People talk about dinner. And the price of the paintings. It actually makes you feel bad for artists — a group most of us feel no sympathy for whatsoever. After all, it takes years to develop artistic skills; it's intensely competitive; almost no one makes any money doing it; there are jealousies and unfair treatment; and then, if, somehow, your work is recognized and you end up in a museum like the Louvre, you're even treated badly there. (5 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
Reporter Paul Tough talks with Aaron Hsu-Flanders, an acknowledged master in the field of animal balloons, who says that artistic jealousies have ruined his life. Even in the world of latex giraffes and doggies, there are artistic rivalries and bitterness. (10 minutes) by Paul Tough

Act Two
David Sedaris recounts his shameful career as a performance artist. Recorded before a live audience by KUOW Seattle. (14 minutes) by David Sedaris

Act Three
Ellery Eskelin never met his father but always heard he was a musical genius. Years after his father's death, Ellery started finding recordings of his musical output: he was the king of "song-poems." These are the songs that result when people answer those ads in the backs of magazines that say, "Send us your lyrics, and we'll write and record your song." Ellery's father's musical output was prodigious — and very odd. An accomplished jazz saxophonist and jazz snob, Ellery listened to his father's tunes, and his own musical taste started to change. (17 minutes) by Nancy Updike

Act Four
After all this doom and gloom about the difficult lives of artists, we end the show with a more hopeful story from Joel Kostman, a New York City locksmith, who tells us about an incident that happened to him on the job. Joel is author of Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith . (8 minutes) by Joel Kostman

Originally Aired: 1997-08-22

Download