This American Life

“From WBEZ Chicago, it’s This American Life. I’m Ira Glass. Stay with us.”

Since its beginning in 1995, This American Life has sought to share the compelling stories of real people, stories that span across America and beyond. From uplifting to heartbreaking stories, the non-fiction storytelling This American Life accomplishes is truly remarkable.

Each week, the staff at This American Life picks a broad, overarching theme - anything from death to loneliness to love to change – and reports on stories, both within the United States and abroad, that connect back to the central theme. Each episode begins with a prologue where Ira Glass, the show’s host, and executive producer, will present a mini-story that introduces the theme for that week. After, he will either jump into Act 1 of the program with a story he is reporting on or kick it off to another producer or journalist to report their story. Typically, each episode has two to three acts, depending on the length of each story. But that is not always the case.

Part of what fuels This American Life’s and has been woven into its identity is their ability to push boundaries and experiment with their storytelling.  Some episodes focus on a single subject and single story, like How I Got Into College. This episode focuses on the story of Emir Kamenica and how a plagiarized essay got a Bosnia refugee into his dream school. Or on the contrast, episodes like 20 Acts in 60 Minutes, which reports 20 different stories in the hour-long show. 

Not only does This American Life report for audio storytelling, but they also create stories which appeal to visual storytelling as well. In 2012, This American Life featured a story in their Valentine’s Day episode about a Florida high school senior who fell in love with an undercover cop, only to be arrested after she asked him to get her drugs – and willing to do anything for love, he did. In 2014, two years after the original story aired, This American Life held a live recording of their show. For this episode, a musical based on the Florida story - cleverly titled 21 Chump Street, and written by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda - was performed live on stage and aired as an audio episode. This American Life is constantly reinventing the idea of audio storytelling and innovating how they share the stories of remarkable people to the world.

This American Life’s funding model is a mix of donations, sponsorships, and distribution. Donations are often made by listeners, sponsorships usually accompany the podcast versions of the broadcast, which are available on all major podcasting sites. For distribution, This American Life is self-distributed but uses the non-profit Public Radio Exchange to deliver the show to stations.

This American Life has a staff of 31 ranging from writers to editors to producers, all of whom contribute to the success of the show. Typically, the producers will report the story and receive assistance from editors and fellow producers. The show does not use freelancers, they rely on their fully staffed team to report stories. They use a mix of established and up-and-coming producers for their content and even host a fellowship program for aspiring radio journalist who assists on stories as well. This American Life does take story ideas from their listeners. Listeners are invited to pitch their stories on the This American Life website and are often reported on. In one case, a story pitched by a man named John B. McLemore ended up leading to a multipart series S-Town.

This American Life works to examine the world we live in and to share the remarkable and important stories of our time to a wide audience of dedicated listeners.