This American Life

Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.

Stories of people summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.

Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell.

We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall. 

Things we’ve lost in the past year — since the first American coronavirus case — that we haven’t talked about so much. Gossip. The chance to make new friends. And much larger stuff.

There's always someone whose job it is to decide if you measure up.

This holiday season, we bring you a show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families.

What the day-to-day business of saving the world looks like. We visit with one group of people who are trying to rescue us from something very large, and another group trying to rescue us from something very small.

To commemorate our show’s 25th year, we have a program about people who were born the year our show went on the air.

For Thanksgiving weekend, stories about food, and people who set out on very particular missions with food.