Jack Hitt
Contributors List
Jack has done some of the funniest stories we've ever run and also some of our best investigative stories. In the funniest camp: 61, 145. On the investigative side: 218, 310, 331, 15, 38, 229. Both: 253.
5: Anger and Forgiveness
Stories that reveal the societal "trend" toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness.
15: Dawn
Writer Jack Hitt goes on a search for a mysterious neighbor from his childhood in Charleston, South Carolina, and stumbles onto an epic story of the Old South, the New South, gender confusion, Chihuahuas, and changing values in American...
19: Rich Guys
Men who had comfortable, decent lives, yet decided to do something wild and eccentric with their lives instead.
38: Simulated Worlds
Simulated worlds, Civil war reenactments, wax museums, simulated coal mines, fake ethnic restaurants, an ersatz Medieval castle and other re-created worlds that thrive all across America. (4 minutes)
56: Name Change
Stories of people changing their name — some to create a new identity, some to con people. Name changes are particularly American stories: they're the dream of starting over with a clean slate. They're Ellis Island and 12-step programs,...
61: Fiasco!
Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses....
65: Who's Canadian?
Notes and stories about the Canadians among us. Are they in fact any different from red-blooded Americans? They claim they're not. Skeptical Americans put their position to the test.
85: Poultry Slam 1997
Humans have turned chicken and turkey into what we want them to be. Which means that chickens and turkeys are a mirror of ourselves.
100: Radio
For the 100th episode of This American Life, a radio show about the pleasures of radio. About what makes radio so great ... and what makes it so terrible.
110: Mapping
Five ways of mapping the world. One story about people who make maps the traditional way — by drawing things we can see. And other stories about people who map the world using smell, sound, touch, and taste. The world redrawn by the five...
120: Be Careful Who You Pretend to Be
Three stories of people pretending to be something they're not, and what happens to them.
123: High Cost of Living
Stories of people who choose not to live every moment to the fullest or smell the roses, and instead choose to withdraw from life, to make themselves numb.
145: Poultry Slam 1999
For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, fowl of all types, and their mysterious hold over our imaginations. This show includes favorite stories from previous...
171: Election
Stories for the eve of the Presidential election, in which we try to evade, sidestep or look beneath the candidates' soundbites.
216: Give the People What They Want
Stories of people who go to great lengths to give people what they want, and how they're rewarded sometimes, misguided other times.
218: Act V
We devote this entire episode to one story: Over the course of six months, reporter and TAL contributor Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act—Act V—of...
229: Secret Government
Stories of some of the secrets our government keeps: of imprisonment, deportation, and spying, and how those secrets affect us.
250: The Annoying Gap Between Theory...and 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.
252: Poultry Slam 2003
During the period of the year with the highest turkey consumption, we bring you an annual This American Life tradition: Stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds, real and imagined, and their mysterious hold over us.
253: The Middle of Nowhere
Stories from faraway, hard-to-get-to places, where all rules are off, nefarious things happen because no one's looking, and there's no one to appeal to.
276: Swing Set
A journey through the minds of undecided voters. For months—through the Swift Boat ads, the convention speeches, the debates—we tracked a few of these voters to find out why they just can't make up their minds. Plus, a story of someone...
280: In Country
What life is like for American soldiers in Iraq.
310: Habeas Schmabeas
Winner of a 2006 Peabody Award. We've also broadcast an updated version of this episode, "Habeas Schmabeas 2007."Listen to a special, uncut version.Download a transcript.
323: The Super
In 1980's New York City, rent is rising: it seems out of control, and residents struggle to keep up. So Jack Hitt helps organize tenants, and threatens a rent strike. This does not go over so well with his building super, who, as it turns...
331: Habeas Schmabeas 2007
An updated version of our episode "Habeas Schmabeas," which won a 2006 Peabody Award.Listen to a special, uncut version.Download a transcript.
332: The Ten Commandments
Stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus.
343: Poultry Slam 2007
For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.
353: The Audacity of Government
Stories of the Bush Administration, its unique style of asserting presidential authority, and its quest to redefine the limits of presidential power.
456: Reap What You Sow
Alabama's new immigration law aims to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will "self-deport." And in a way it's working. Immigrants are fleeing Alabama...but not just the undocumented ones. This and other stories of...
