Sarah Vowell
Contributors List
Sarah's the author of several books and has a great, classic radio voice that sounds like no one else. Some of her most popular stories are in these episodes: 81, 104, 107, 118, 151.
31: When You Talk About Music
Stories of people whose lives are transformed by music.
45: Media Fringe
Four stories about people struggling at the fringes of our nation's media/music/infotainment industry.
54: Sinatra
Stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board.
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,...
58: Small Towns
Stories of small town life: the claustrophobia and freedom people feel in small towns, the yearning people feel in small towns. And three teenagers in one of the harshest urban environments explain how the public housing projects are like...
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.
67: Your Dream, My Nightmare
Could it be more obvious? Stories in which someone's dream is someone else's nightmare. All of us get into these situations with strangers, with the people we love most, with our own parents, with our children.
70: Other People's Mail
When you read other people's mail, you can't help but try to fill in between the lines. You try to decipher the stories of the people who wrote the letters. We hear four stories of people who read other people's mail, and what happens to...
76: Mob
The mob as portrayed in movies, and as it is in real life. And its hold over us.
81: Guns
Americans who love their guns...and the Americans who love them.
86: How to Take Money from Strangers
Three stories of how to get money from strangers. In every story, the money is made by people who make the strangers feel good about themselves and about their nation.
90: Telephone
Stories of who we are on the phone, of things we learn on the phone, and of things that happen on the phone that don't happen anywhere else.
94: How To
What happens during a "how-to," and what our how-to's say about us. Most how-to's promise that you'll not only learn skills, you'll be transformed.
97: Death to Wacky
An assault on the idea of wackiness. And then, an appreciation of wackiness, and an analysis of wackiness in American culture. Thirteen ways to describe wackiness.
104: Music Lessons
What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM,...
107: Trail of Tears
For the July 4th holiday weekend, writer Sarah Vowell and her twin sister re-trace the "Trail of Tears" — the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land by President Andrew Jackson.
114: Last Words
Stories of people's last words before death. Their one last shot at figuring things out, summing things up. One last moment of asserting the fact of our existence, at the moment of our annihilation.
118: What You Lookin' At?
Stories about seeing and being seen. Taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City in December 1998, this was a co-production with WNYC New York, featuring live music by the pop band They Might Be Giants and the This American...
125: Apocalypse
Stories of the end of the world. More people believe it's more imminent than you probably realize.
128: Four Corners
There's a tourist monument called Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet. In this episode, we try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners, in four different states...
129: Advice
A program taped before live audiences in Seattle (thanks to public radio station KUOW) and at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. A taxonomy of different kinds of advice—and stories that illustrate why advice is so rarely taken.
141: Invisible Worlds
Stories of people who are trying to make invisible worlds visible, and what happens when you make them visible.
148: The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Suit
A special Christmas edition of our show, with stories about Santa Claus—the many many different versions of Santa Claus. It was in America, in New York, that people started believing in the modern idea of Santa—a guy who comes down the...
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...
167: Memo to the People of the Future
Stories of people who are engaged in something that's both difficult and probably futile: Trying to control how they'll be seen by generations to come.
174: Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Milestones
Birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones of all sorts...and how they mean something whether we want them to or not. A live show taped for our fifth anniversary, back in 2000, when we went on the road to Boston, New York, Chicago, and L.A....
191: I Know What You Did This Summer
Stories for the stultifying, torpor-inducing, hottest heat of summer.
226: Reruns
Stories of people stuck in their own personal reruns—moments or episodes that they revisit over and over again.
235: The Balloon Goes Up
Stories from the beginnings of the war in Iraq, and how it compares with wars in our country's past.
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...
247: What Is This Thing?
What is this thing? This thing called love, that is. For answers, we explore the romance novel industry, a $1.5 billion empire run almost entirely by and for women. Plus, relearning the rules of romance from the other side of the gender...
256: Living Without
Stories of people living without. Nubar Alexanian explains what fish can do for him that his own ears cannot. Sarah Vowell explains the cheerful journalism of deprivation. And other stories.
291: Reunited (And It Feels So Good)
Stories about getting back together with your spouse, your country, your...Brahman bull. And how it never goes the way you think it's going to.
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!
328: What I Learned from Television
Stories recorded during our 2007 live tour. Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Dan Savage, and other favorite contributors went on the road with us to New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles; and performed brand-new...
329: Nice Work If You Can Get It
Stories of sudden fame, quick riches, and the downside of the dream job.
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...
