Jonathan Goldstein
Contributors List
Jonathan was a producer at our show for years, and went on to host his own show, Wiretap. His most popular story: The Greatest Phone Message in the World (203). Other greats: 198,191, 241. His stories rewriting the Bible: 233, 305, 321.
191: I Know What You Did This Summer
Stories for the stultifying, torpor-inducing, hottest heat of summer.
197: Before It Had A Name
There's the time when you know something is happening, but you're not sure exactly what. The illness before it's diagnosed. The era, before it's been given a title. And something changes when the name is given. Stories of that...
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?
203: Recordings for Someone
All the stories in this week's show center on personal recordings that one person made for just one other person.
205: Plan B
There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon...switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.
212: The Other Man
Stories about what happens when a new guy comes on the scene, and changes the way everyone who was already there relates to each other.
225: Home Movies
Home movies are often all the same—kids on the beach, people getting married, birthday parties—so why do we make and watch so many of them? Maybe it's because the story they show and the story they tell are different. In this show, we...
233: Starting from Scratch
Stories of people starting over, sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to.
234: Say Anything
Does talking about it really help? Stories where it does, and stories where it doesn't, including Michael Bernard Loggins, who tried to battle his fears by listing them. He ended up with a list 183 items long.
238: Lost in Translation
Stories of what can and cannot be translated. A short, non-athletic, bespectacled East Asian studies major who couldn't make his high school basketball team finds himself in the NBA as the personal translator for the first-ever Chinese pro...
239: Lost in America
Stories of people who are lost, histories that are lost, and things that are lost. This show was recorded onstage in front of audiences on a five-city tour in May 2003. The cities: Boston, Washington DC, Portland Oregon, Denver and Chicago...
241: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes
Instead of the usual "each week we choose a theme, and bring you 3 or 4 stories on that theme" business, we throw all that away and bring you 20 stories—yes, 20—in 60 minutes.
245: Allure of the Mean Friend
What is it about them, our mean friends? They treat us badly, they don't call us back, they cancel plans at the last minute, and yet we come back for more. Popular bullies exist in business, politics, everywhere. How do they stay so...
251: Brother's Keeper
Biblical fables ripped from today's headlines. In his ongoing effort to write his own version of the Bible, Jonathan Goldstein retells the story of Cain and Abel. Finally we hear Cain's side of the story. Plus: neighbors in a small town...
257: What I Should've Said
People return to the scene of the crime where they should have spoken clearly, plainly, forcefully...to review what the hell went wrong, and in a few cases, to fix it. Jonathan Goldstein tries to stop time. Charles Monroe tries to figure...
264: Special Treatment
We love it when we get it, but is it ever really fair? A defense of special treatment, by people who receive it and people who give it.
278: Spies Like Us
Stories about amateur spies—regular people who spy on other regular people, and the consequences of their spying.
294: Image Makers
Stories of people and institutions who are worried about what the world thinks of them, and who take action...decisive action.
305: The This American Life Holiday Spectacular
A full-throttle, show-stopping, no-holds-barred Christmas Spectacular! Shedding the crusty old Christmas stories of yore, we bring you new holiday classics. With special musical guest Marah!
315: The Parrot and the Potbellied Pig
Original stories from David Sedaris, Jonathan Goldstein, and others, on two animals who don't even seem like they should know each other, much less appear on the same radio show.
321: Sink or Swim
Stories of people who are in over their heads and trying to stay afloat.
345: Ties That Bind
A young girl named Sarah receives a heart transplant from a boy her age, and her mother sets off to find out more about the kid who saved her daughter's life. But years later, Sarah's not sure she wants to know.
354: Mistakes Were Made
It's the late 1960s, and in the new technology of cryonics, a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death. But freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it...
388: Rest Stop
Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. In this show, we'll bring you stories of people who are just passing through, and people who are at the rest stop every day—working. One of them has worked there...
438: Father's Day 2011
Yes yes yes you've heard it all before, when it comes to stories of fathers and their children. There's the story of the kid who idolizes his dad, but then learns something and becomes disappointed. Or the opposite story, where the kid...
443: Amusement Park
We head to some of the happiest places on Earth: Amusement Parks! Jonathan Goldstein revisits one he worked at as a teen, Ira takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, where the staff so loves their jobs they make music...
