Sarah Koenig
Contributors List
Before becoming a staff producer at This American Life, Sarah was a political reporter at the Baltimore Sun and before that, at The Concord Monitor, covering the 2000 Presidential race.
151: Primary
Today's program is made all of stories from the New Hampshire primary. Voters want to find a candidate who inspires them. Candidates want to inspire. So where's the system failing? Why do most of us feel like the system doesn't produce...
162: Moving
Stories of people who did not want to move but circumstance forced their hands, and so they tried to move without really moving.
194: Before and After
Stories in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.
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.
213: Devil on My Shoulder
Stories of people who are trying to convince you that the Devil is there, whispering in your ear...and stories of people who try to deny he's there, against some very heavy evidence.
237: Regime Change
Sure, John Kerry got in trouble for using the phrase, but we have no fear. Because we know that regime change, like charity, begins at home. This week: Stories of regime change in everyday life—people switching jobs, people switching...
260: The Facts Don't Matter
There's what happened, and there's the story that gets told about what happened. Sometimes the two things don't match up very well. This week, two case examples—ripped, as they say, from today's headlines—of the story that's told becoming...
263: Desperate Measures
Stories of people stuck in unfixable situations who try desperate measures. Sometimes these are inventive, sometimes they're ingenious, sometimes they even work.
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...
279: Auto Show
Stories about people who love their cars, for better or for worse.
299: Back from the Dead
Stories about people and places that have come back to life after everything seemed lost.
314: It's Never Over
A grown man tries to get to the bottom of why his schoolmates threw him in a lake 20 years earlier. And a woman buys a house on the cheap, with the understanding that the seller will soon vacate. Ten years later, she's still waiting.
330: My Reputation
Stories of people trying to recover from damage to their reputations—sometimes caused by others, sometimes self-inflicted.
332: The Ten Commandments
Stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus.
337: Man vs. History
Stories about people taking history into their own hands. We hear from two men in two different wars. One is trying to make a difference in the current war in Iraq. The other is with the CIA at the very end of the Cold War.
346: Home Alone
A 79-year-old woman, Mary Ann, dies in Los Angeles. She's lived alone for decades. No one knows her—or her next of kin. There's a body to be buried, a house full of stuff to get rid of.
347: Matchmakers
Sabir, a young man in Afghanistan, thought he'd found true love but he couldn't afford a wedding. So two foreign aid workers, friends of his, decide to come to his rescue. They soon find out making a lasting love match isn't as simple as...
367: Ground Game
This American Life goes to Pennsylvania, a battleground within a battleground, to figure out why, and how, John McCain and Barack Obama both think they can win there. And we get to know the ordinary people who've become the candidates'...
369: Poultry Slam 2008
A man in Pakistan wants to break his friend out of prison. He buys him an amulet that supposedly has the power to protect anyone from harm. But just to be on the safe side, he decides to test the amulet by trying it out first. On a chicken.
372: The Inauguration Show
On the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, we sent reporters out all over the country to talk to people about how they're feeling about this new president. Do they believe things will change? Do they think there'll be changes in their own...
374: Somewhere Out There
Of all the 6 and a half billion people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match? Stories from people who know they've beat the odds, and the lengths they've gone to do it.
383: Origin Story
This week we bring you little-known and surprising stories of how all sorts of institutions—from a controversial legal precedent to a Hollywood teen dance flick—began.
391: More Is Less
An hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the patients and one at the insurance industry.
392: Someone Else's Money
This week, we bring you a deeper look inside the health insurance industry. The dark side of prescription drug coupons. A story about Pet Health Insurance, which is in its infancy, and how it is changing human behaviors—for example, if you...
396: #1 Party School
This year, The Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. It's a rotating crown—last year it was University of Florida, before that it was West Virginia University. So we wondered: what's it like to be at the country...
400: Stories Pitched by Our Parents
For our 400th show, we try something harder than anything we've ever tried in the previous 399. We take the random ideas that members of our own families have told us at weddings and family gatherings would be "perfect for the show"...and...
413: Georgia Rambler
In the 1970s a reporter named Charles Salter wrote a column for the Atlanta Journal called "Georgia Rambler." He'd get into his car, head out to some small town, and ask around until he found a story. This week, nine of us go to Georgia to...
419: Petty Tyrant
In Schenectady, NY, a school maintenance man named Steve Raucci works his way up the ranks for 30 years, until finally he's in charge of the maintenance department. That's when he starts messing with his employees. Teasing them at meetings...
421: Last Man Standing
Is it stubbornness? Tenacity? Survival of the fittest? This week, stories about people who feel compelled to keep going, especially when everyone else has given up.
440: Game Changer
A professor in Pennsylvania makes a calculation, to discover that his state is sitting atop a massive reserve of natural gas—enough to revolutionize how America gets its energy. But another professor in Pennsylvania does a different...
451: Back to Penn State
In the wake of the recent news, listeners have contacted us and tweeted about the show we did two years ago at Penn State, #1 Party School. We listen again to some of those stories, with new interviews recorded this past week, as Penn...
