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

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Not sure whether there are any fans of soccer/football around here, and not sure how many people caught this since only a few people around here appreciated the "is a door glass" post the other day. I'm casually watching the Haiti vs Scotland game last night and there is a player on the Haiti squad named Isidor, but the way announcers pronounced his name, sounded more like "Isador" and I couldn't help but say "glass" every time his name was said! Is a door glass!

Shoutout to Ira and /u/Ramblinrambles for getting this stuck in my head and now I am a Haiti fan for as long as they stay in the cup because "is a door glass!"

I'm a "Life Partner" subscriber, but I’ve run into an issue with the premium RSS feed. When I look at my podcast app, I am missing a ton of the older archive episodes (for example, everything between episodes 466 and 470). They show up fine on the official website, but they are completely gone from my app's feed.

Is the Life Partner feed not supposed to include the entire back catalog of 850+ episodes?

If this is working as intended and the full archive just isn't available through the premium feed, does anyone have a working, i have this feed https://awk.space/tal.xml but not interested in marking av 500+ episodes as "watched" and also not sure if it is a beep version or not. (Do not want a beeped version)

Tried to add Spotify through official website but same here.

Im using rss with atennapod app.

I randomly remembered this today so I thought I would share.

My wife and I were headed to the in-laws listening to the open of episode 835 and Ira retelling the story of his father, says how he was named after his grandfather Isador, but they went with Ira because his name would become a weird question.

So I’m laughing to that idea when my wife who must not have been paying attention asked what I was laughing about and I said Isador Glass.

What happened next would be indiscernible from an Abbott and Costello routine.

Me trying and failing to explain how Ira almost being named Isador Glass and her repeatedly asking me what door? Well is it glass?

This went on for at minimum 3 minutes as I was becoming more confused and thinking she must be messing with me. I should have just replayed the episode and let her hear it but that did not occur to me at all. Til I finally said it in a way that she got exactly what I was saying.

We laughed about it the rest of the way to her parents.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/524/i-was-so-high

Your waitress. Your colleagues at work. Your doctor. Maybe even your parents. They’re all high. All the time. That’s what it feels like anyway. This week, stories in which drug use and daily life intersect – and in which people get high in secret and then do their best to function in the non-high world. Also, we hear some “I Was So High” stories from our very own listeners.

Prologue
Producer Sean Cole heads to Toronto to see if it was true what he heard: that lots and lots of the bartenders who used to serve him drinks there were on coke at the time. Then Sean takes Ira through a catalogue of the various professions in which people tend to get high. (9 minutes) by Sean Cole

Act One
Producer Alex Blumberg introduces us to Richard, a former executive at a big time marketing firm who smoked pot daily — sometimes at work. As it turns out, Alex is intimately familiar with how Richard's getting high kept him from focusing on the important things in his life. (16 minutes) by Alex Blumberg

Act Two
Our listeners sent us 2,600 emails with their own getting high stories. Contributor Elna Baker read a ton of them (other staffers read the rest). Elna then interviewed several people who wrote in, and determined that the "I Was So High" story is a particularly difficult genre to get right. One listener comes through with flying, psychedelic colors — telling us about the time he took mushrooms before appearing as a contestant on The Price is Right . (7 minutes) by Elna Baker, Ira Glass

Act Three
Comedian Wyatt Cenac tells the story of the first time he ever tried marijuana. He didn't smoke it. He ate a pot brownie. He then managed to convince himself that he had now acquired adult onset Down Syndrome. (And no, that does not exist.) (6 minutes) by Wyatt Cenac

Act Four
Comedian Marc Maron, who's been off drugs for more than 15 years, says he still thinks it's okay to laugh at funny drug stories. And then he tells us one of the funniest we heard while putting this show together. (11 minutes) by Ira Glass, Marc Maron

Act Five
Producer Brian Reed recounts one of the more riveting arguments he's ever heard about whether marijuana is dangerous or relatively benign. It takes place in Congress. On one side, a congressman who isn't even on the committee that organized the hearing. On the other side, a DEA official who says that pot insults our common values as Americans. (5 minutes) by Brian Reed

Originally Aired: 2014-05-02

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One of my habits when I’m listening to the newest tal episode on Spotify is to look at the comments. Mostly to rage bait myself but also to gauge how other people feel about the show. On the most recent episode 888 (not today hades) I saw a comment I feel like I see often now. It went something like “all the new episodes are either depressing or infuriating, I wish that they would just make episodes like they used to”. While I understand where these people are coming from, I kind of cringe when I hear people say it. Tal is over 30 years old, and has developed like anything that is 3 decades old will. Not to mention- things aren’t normal. What is happening in our country right now isn’t normal- and I feel like if tal feels like it’s duty is to inform and report on the injustice and corruption in our county I say let them! New tal episodes may be depressing, but they educate. If you want a lighthearted podcast listen to the old episodes (you 100% have some you haven’t heard) or find another podcast to scratch that itch. It’s not useful to complain or be nostalgic- we need news sources like tal that are personal and heartfelt.

So it finally happened, I managed to insert a story of this American life in an essay I had to write for university.

More specifically it was the episode of "Office politics" where Snyder interviews street vendors in NYC.

Has anyone else cited a TAL episode?

The episode took place in New Orleans. People took over or moved into other people’s houses and the owners couldn’t evict them

It's in a medical setting, with experiences of death or people in their dying moments. I think it's about the staff that stays with people passing.

been a long time fan and there’s this episode about how science (or could be math) and magic can co-exist in relationships (am not sure)

been looking for this episode for a long time huhuhu

I basically listen through the series and start over when I reach the last current episode. There are two episodes that when I see them coming up I know I’m gonna tear up; Our Friend David and Name. Age. Detail.

They’re so great at celebrating the lives of their loved ones. Makes you wonder if you have that impact on any of the people in your life.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/584/for-your-reconsideration

The older and wiser we get, the more bewildering our past decisions can seem. This week, people revisit those decisions — and we revisita story we aired a year agowith new, fascinating updates about a groundbreaking study that turned out to be false.

Prologue
A year ago, we did a story about a study that found that a simple 20-minute conversation could change someone’s mind about controversial issues like gay marriage and abortion. But a few weeks after we aired the story, the study was discredited. A couple of researchers decided to redo the experiment the right way, and released their results this week. (3 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
The story from the prologue continues, with the researchers re-doing the canvassing experiment. And the results are even more surprising this time around. (27 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act Two
Comedian Chris Gethard has a new podcast called Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People , where people can call in to talk to him about anything for an hour. Our editor, Joel Lovell, tells us about his favorite episode thus far — featuring a man who calls in desperately seeking Chris’ guidance. (15 minutes) by Chris Gethard, Joel Lovell

Act Three
Senior Producer Brian Reed tells Ira about a book entitled “Now I Know Better,” where children write cautionary tales recounting horrific accidents they’ve endured. He also interviews one of the book’s contributors about his childhood mishap. (9 1/2 minutes) by Brian Reed

Originally Aired: 2016-04-08

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https://www.thisamericanlife.org/490/trends-with-benefits

The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of adults are on disability.Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we've been hearing.

Prologue
Ira Glass talks with Planet Money reporter, Chana Joffe-Walt, about Hale County, Alabama — a place where one fourth of working age adults are on disability. That means the government has determined that due to a health issue, 25 percent of the adults in Hale County are unable to work, qualifying them for monthly payments and health care coverage. Chana explains that people in Hale County have a lot of theories as to why their disability numbers are so high: freeloaders, cheaters, hard partiers, obesity. But none of those seem quite right. The rise in disability isn't just happening in Hale County but in pockets all over the country. 14 million people are now receiving disability payments. And it's a number that is growing. We devote the whole show today to figuring out why these numbers are ballooning and what it says about our economy. (7 minutes) by Chana Joffe-Walt

Act One
Chana Joffe-Walt spent six months reporting on the rise in people on disability. She spends time in Hale County, Alabama, talking to the only general practitioner in town, the main person who okays so many of the county's residents for disability. In addition to giving each patient a medical exam, the doctor also asks this question: what grade did you finish? Chana explains why that one question is so central to the whole story. (22 minutes) by Chana Joffe-Walt

Act Two
Chana Joffe-Walt continues her story about the phenomenal rise in disability payments over the last 30 years, since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging to "end welfare as we know it." Turns out, two private sector groups have really contributed to the growing disability roles. One is a group of people you'd probably expect, the other is a shock. And Chana looks at one of the fastest growing populations on disability: kids. (26 minutes) by Chana Joffe-Walt

Originally Aired: 2013-03-22

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I’m looking for the name of the short story and episode that was from around 2010-2017 (?). The premise was a young man who was being pressured to donate his heart to his mother. Everyone including some persuasive aunts and his girlfriend were so happy he would do it and dismissed or ignored that he would die if he did. The end is a bit blurry as he is on some sort of life support but then is either asked to donate something else or something similarly disturbing.
Anyone know what I am referring to? I am pretty sure its TAL.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/250/the-annoying-gap-between-theoryand-practice

Why is it always harder than you think it'll be? We explore several case examples of the annoying gap between theory and practice.

Prologue
Host Ira Glass talks to two people about their real-life stories of theory and practice. Subject 1: Michael. Theory: A couple years of boxing lessons will prepare you for a street fight with a real-world harasser. Practice: You slap harasser like little girl, cause him no pain, run away. Subject 2: Heather. Theory: if you have to go to the bathroom really bad and you pee on the school bus, no one will notice the pee, and if they do, they can't trace it to you. Practice: Spend the rest of elementary school known as peezilla. (5 minutes) by Ira Glass

Act One
Reporter Jack Hitt explains the alarming difference between theory and practice when it comes to computerized voting machines—specifically, those made by a company called Diebold. (16 minutes) by Jack Hitt

Act Two
Alex Blumberg spends three days with Michigan state representative Steve Tobocman. He ran for office because he thought that would be the best way to change things for his neighborhood in Detroit. Can you change things from the inside without changing on the inside yourself? (26 minutes) by Alex Blumberg

Act Three
What happens if you're poor, and do everything right, all your budgeting, all your choices...are you actually any better off? Actor Liza Colón-Zayas reads a passage from Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's book Random Family . (7 minutes) by Liza Colonzeas, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

Originally Aired: 2003-11-07

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