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- *317 - Unconditional Love
Unconditional Love. This American Life. Episode 317, September 15, 2006
Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them. And other stories about the hard and sometimes painful work of loving other people.
- Prologue by Ira Glass
Hard as it is to believe, during the early twentieth century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous - until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, with a series of experiments with monkeys. Ira talks with Deborah Blum, author of "Love at Goon Park," a biography of Harlow. (10 minutes)
- Act One. Love Is A Battlefield.
Alix Spiegel tells the story of a couple, Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son who was raised in terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage, unable to feel attachments to anyone. Alix is the co-host of NPR’s Invisiblilia, which is back with its fifth season. (27 minutes)
Act Two - Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced about his autistic son's future, and whether he should continue to live with the family. (19 minutes)
- 081: Guns
81: Guns Oct 24, 1997 Americans who love their guns...and the Americans who love them.
- 204 - 81 words - the American Psychiatric Association's classification of homosexuality
81 Words: The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. This American Life, January 18, 2002. Transcript available. Prologue - Ira Glass Host Ira Glass explains that the show this week consists of one long story, the story of something very small that was part of something very large in the history of our country. (2 minutes) Act One - Alix Spiegel In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease simply by changing the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own reference manual. It was a change that attracted a lot of attention at the time, but the story of what led up to that change is one that we hear today, from reporter Alix Spiegel. Part one of Alix's story details the activities of a closeted group of gay psychiatrists within the APA who met in secret and called themselves the GAYPA...and another, even more secret group of gay psychiatrists among the political echelons of the APA. Alix's own grandfather was among these psychiatrists, and the president-elect of the APA at the time of the change. (24 minutes) Act Two - Alix Spiegel Alix Spiegel's story continues, with a man dressed in a Nixon mask called Dr. Anonymous, and a pivotal encounter in a Hawaiian bar. (30 minutes)
- 282: DIY
282: DIY, This American Life, Feb 11, 2005 After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself. He becomes a do-it-yourself investigator. He learns to read court records, he tracks down hard-to-find witnesses, he gets the real murderer to come forward with his story. In the end, he's able to accomplish all sorts of things the police and the professionals can't.
- 449: Middle school
This American Life #449 - Middle School, October 28, 2011 At the suggestion of a 14-year-old listener, we bring you stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school. Including a teacher who transforms peer pressure into a force for good, and reports from the frontlines of the middle school dance.
- 466 - Blackjack
This American Life, June 8, 2012
The casino game everyone thinks they can beat.
Prologue - Host Ira Glass and producer Robyn Semien get a blackjack lesson from Andy Bloch, who played for the MIT blackjack team. He teaches them the basics of card-counting, the technique that gives players an advantage against the house — enough of an advantage that most casinos will ask you to leave if they catch you doing it. (9 minutes)
Act One - Render Unto Caesar's Palace What Is Due To Caesar's Palace
Jack Hitt tells the story of the Christian card counting team featured in the documentary Holy Rollers, and why they see no contradiction in being devout Christians who spend their days in casinos. Jack is the author of the book Bunch of Amateurs. (18 minutes)
Part Two - Ira and Robyn go to the casino to try out their newfound card counting skills. (5 minutes)
Act Two - Harrah's Today, Gone Tomorrow
Producer Sarah Koenig tells the story of a woman who sued the casino where she lost her inheritance, saying that it was to blame, not her. The story was inspired by a chapter in The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. (25 minutes)
- 479 - Little War on the Prairie
WBEZ, This American Life, November 23, 2012
Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged after a war with white settlers. John went back to Minnesota to figure out what really happened 150 years ago, and why Minnesotans didn’t talk about it much after.
- 538: Is This Working?
538: Is This Working? Oct 17, 2014 Stories of schools struggling with what to do with misbehaving kids. There's no general agreement about what teachers should do to discipline kids. And there's evidence that some of the most popular punishments actually may harm kids.
- 543: Wake Up Now
543: Wake Up Now
Dec 26, 2014
As New Year’s approaches and people are contemplating things they want to change about themselves, we have stories of people trying to wake themselves up, shake up their own lives, or wake up others. Including the story of a company – or maybe it's a movement – called WakeUpNow.
- 555: The incredible rarity of changing your mind
"555: The Incredible Rarity of Changing Your Mind Apr 24, 2015 It’s rare for people to change what they believe, and if they do it, it’s usually a long process. This week, stories of those very infrequent instances where people’s opinions flip on fundamental things that they believe. Why does it happen in these particular and unusual circumstances? We explain. "
- 557: Birds & Bees
557: Birds & Bees May 15, 2015 "Some information is so big and so complicated that it seems impossible to talk to kids about. This week, stories about the vague and not-so-vague ways to teach children about race, death and sex - including a story about colleges responding to sexual assault by trying to teach students how to ask for consent. Also, a story about how and when to teach kids about the horrors of slavery and oppression in America."
- 583: It'll Make Sense When You're Older
March 25, 2016
- 595: Deep End of the Pool, Act Two - Mein Camp
Sometimes an entire government has to dive into the deep end of the pool and do something it’s never done before. One of our producers Karen Duffin has the story of the US government doing just that… in a high stakes sink or swim situation. Against a foe seeking global domination. Karen wrote a blog post elaborating on this story. (19 minutes) Karen Duffin
- 598-1: My Undesirable Talent - Act I
598: My Undesirable Talent Oct 7, 2016 San Francisco’s Spider-Man burglar was remarkable. He dropped into buildings from skylights, leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble. This week, his story, and stories of other undesirable talents. Act One, Climb Spree Awhile back, San Francisco experienced a rash of burglaries that all fit a pattern. The suspect got into businesses at night through skylights, or the attic, and then lowered himself in with ropes where he would rob safes. The cops dubbed him Spider-Man. Our producer Karen Duffin would later find out – Spider-Man was someone she had a connection to. (24 minutes)
- 598-2: My Undesirable Talent - Act II
This American Life, Oct 7, 2016 San Francisco’s Spider-Man burglar was remarkable. He dropped into buildings from skylights, leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble. This week, his story, and stories of other undesirable talents. Act II describes an African American man who with encouragement of his high school friends pretends to be from Uganda with his college roommate, and then with everyone else he interacts with during his first months at college.
- 640: Five Women
Chana Joffe-Walt, producer. This American Life, WBEZ, 3/2/2018 rebroadcast A different kind of #MeToo story, about several women who worked for the same man. They tell us not only about their troubling encounters with him, but also about their lives beforehand. Who were they when they entered the workplace, and how did their personal histories shape the way they dealt with his harassment?
- 694 - Get Back to Where You Once Belonged
WBEZ This American Life, February 14, 2020
People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.
Prologue: Emanuele Berry and Ira Glass watch a Soviet film from 1936. A bizarre cameo of an African American baby in an all-white crowd makes Emanuele wonder about what it’s like to be black in a country with so few black people. (7 minutes)
Act One: Black in the USSR, by Emanuele Berry
Yelena Khanga grew up in Russia knowing almost no other black people. Emanuele Berry asks Yelena what that was like. As Emanuele learns about it, she realizes something about being black in America, too. (22 minutes)
Act Two: Nowhere Man, by Jeremy Raff
Raul felt like he had found his spot in the world: a job he was good at, a group of people he liked and admired. And then he got kicked out. Kicked out in this way he didn’t even know was possible. Reporter Jeremy Raff explains. (28 minutes) A version of this story appears in The Atlantic.
- 762 - Apocalypse Creep
This American Life, Feb. 11, 2022 (show 762)
A woman wakes up and discovers her backyard has disappeared, and other stories from places slowly coming apart