This American Life

We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. Doppelgängers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. Fred Armisen co-hosts with Ira Glass.

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• Prologue: Fred Armisen worked up an imitation of Ira and put it into a sketch on Saturday Night Live a couple of...

Conversations across a divide: People who are outside a war zone check in with family, friends, and strangers inside.

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• Prologue: The Hammash family’s group chat unfolds over texts, starting before the war. (8 minutes)
• Act One: When Yousef Hammash left Gaza a year ago, his sisters decided to stay behind. We hear about the toll that separation has take...

A show about people who are suddenly confronted with who they are.

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• Prologue: Guest host Aviva DeKornfeld tells Ira Glass about breaking into a community pool as a kid, and the split-second decision that has haunted her ever since. (4 minutes)
• Act One: Some people are great in a crisis. Others, not so much. Does that mean anything about who we reall...

People immersed in chaos try to solve for what it all adds up to.

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• Prologue: A scientist who is used to organizing data starts tracking scientific meetings that seem to exist only on paper—meetings that might decide the fate of years of research. The NIH website shows one reality; the empty conference rooms tell another story. She graphs the chaos. ...

A couple devises a strategy to get their daughter's killer prosecuted and to get attention for other Native families. 

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• Prologue: Mika Westwolf was killed in a hit-and-run on a Montana highway. Her parents thought the driver might get away with it. The driver was white. Mika was a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation. (1 minute)
• Act One: Mika’s parents, C...

Artifacts and exhibits of this particular moment we are living through.

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• Exhibit One: Ira talks to producer Emmanuel Dzotsi, who brings the first exhibit into the studio with him: a chunk of concrete with some yellow paint on it. He got it from the demolition site in Washington, DC, where the giant Black Lives Matter letters are being dug out of the...

Sometimes, life’s biggest mysteries require one very specific person to answer them.

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• Prologue: 7-year-old Miles has lots of questions. More specifically, he has questions about the famous car chase from “The Blues Brothers” movie. We arrange for him to talk to stunt coordinator Gary Powell so he can get the answers he so desperately wants. (9 minut...

Unnecessary and outrageous lies that make you wonder — why lie about that in the first place?

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• Prologue: Kasey, a woman who prides herself on her truthfulness, tries to help host Ira Glass figure out how to stop lying about one specific thing. (10 minutes)
• Act One: Producer Dana Chivvis talks to reporter Liz Flock about a strange experience she had i...

Zach Mack and his dad try to mend a rift between them in a very unusual way. 

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• Prologue: Ira Glass introduces Zach Mack’s story. (1 minute)
• Part One: Zach and his father enter into an agreement that could change their entire relationship. (9 minutes)
• Part Two: Zach’s mother and sister weigh in on the agreement. (28 minutes)
• Part Three: With the year co...